A budget crunch has led the city to recommend more than 100 positions in a variety of departments, from the library to development services, be eliminated from the upcoming fiscal year budget.
During the council’s recent budget hearings ahead of approving the 2027 fiscal year budget, officials have proposed staffing cuts and restructuring across City Hall.
The proposed budget eliminates 101 positions — 47 that are vacant and 54 filled. City spokesman Brian Chasnoff said the city has enough vacant positions to place all of the 54 affected employees.
In all, the draft 2027 budget funds 13,746 city staff positions.
Among the proposed staffing cuts are 39 positions across the San Antonio Library system, 15 in the Health Department, eight in Human Services, and one key role in the Office of Historic Preservation (OHP).
Cuts and restructuring
The proposed budget recommends reducing the OHP staff by eight positions, down to 13 from 21 in 2026, for an estimated savings of almost $1 million in 2027.
The move has some community members raising concerns about how the city will meet its goals in promoting cultural and historic assets for potential gains in economic development.
Seven of the eight OHP positions are being moved with their functions to other departments, the spokesman said. For instance, the Vacant Buildings Program and its five positions are moving to Development Services.
The chief downtown officer position held by Shanon Shea Miller and a support position are going from OHP to an office known as Downtown Operations.
The one OHP role that could be eliminated entirely when the budget is finalized before the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1 is the cultural historian. The cultural historian position is assigned to OHP, which is responsible for administering the city’s programs related to historic preservation, cultural heritage, deconstruction and regulatory compliance.
The department is led by Interim Director Cory Edwards who was unavailable to comment.
The cultural historian works on projects related to the multicultural history of San Antonio and historic designations, according to a 2023 job posting.
The historian helps to identify sites of cultural and historic significance in the city and conducts fieldwork and research to support the designation of culturally significant sites. It’s a role that also manages community storytelling initiatives such as, “There’s a Story Here” in partnership with Texas Public Radio.
The annual salary for the full-time position is between $77,910.30 and $116,865.58.
The city staffer holding that job title is Gloria Colom Braña, who has a doctoral degree in folklore studies and has been in the position since Jan. 2024, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In that time, the city has identified and named at least two cultural heritage districts — Silk Road and Pride — bringing the total to five, which includes Jefferson Heights, Old U.S. Highway 90 and Hockley-Clay Cemetery.
Another is slated for consideration, for the St. Mary’s Strip.
A cultural heritage district is an area with a collection of tangible and intangible resources that contribute to the community’s sense of place and cultural identity.
OHP staff are charged with recommending the designation and the title is ultimately bestowed by the city’s Historic Design and Review Commission.
When the Silk Road Cultural Heritage District was established, Commissioner Roland Mazuca complimented the OHP staff for bringing the nomination forward.
He said the designation honored “the cultural contributions and … culinary contributions of our immigrant population that represents so many different aspects of our city and helps us be a more cosmopolitan city.”
In addition to eliminating the cultural historian position, OHP’s proposed budget calls for ending support for such cultural heritage districts along with the Local Markers Program, Legacy Business Program and Cultural Context Statements.
The cuts would save $113,670, according to the budget documents.
First Street
The Silk Road district, centered around Wurzbach Road on the Northwest Side, is the first San Antonio corridor to have been accepted into the state’s preservation and revitalization program First Street Initiative.
First Street is a precursor to the Texas State Historical Commission’s Main Street program, which is a pathway to federal and state funding, said Nadia Mavrakis, co-executive director of Culturingua.
“One of the criteria is that you have to have documented historic fabric in your corridor, and the best way to document that historic fabric is to work with the city’s cultural historian,” Mavrakis said.
“That documentation serves as the foundation for effective revitalization because the whole Main Street America approach is that you lean into the assets that your community already has, and you build upon those assets and you amplify those assets,” she added.
In recent briefings to the council, the city’s Economic Development Department officials have said they plan to “accelerate place-based real estate development projects” in regional centers and neighborhoods, by emphasizing San Antonio’s unique culture, amenities and heritage to prospective businesses.
Mavrakis sees that as a strong selling point.
“I think that cultural heritage is a big part of our identity,” she said, adding she grew up in the “flashy, pretentious” city of Dallas. San Antonio’s cultural heritage is what drew her to San Antonio. “We can use that as an asset in how we market our city.”
Iman Ismail is a community ambassador for the Silk Road District Coalition and said through an interpreter that she has seen the impact of OHP’s work in the community.
Ismail spent her childhood years visiting San Antonio and returned in 2011; she’s eager to help people in her community renew and strengthen connections with one another and the wider community.
A lot of work was done to obtain the designation, but that was just the beginning, Ismail said. They need a partner at the city to help advance their preservation and revitalization efforts, and for “better understanding and communication between each other,” she added.
Budget decisions
After months of grappling with a looming budget crisis and a $158 million shortfall, City Council is scheduled to finalize the 2027 fiscal year budget on Sept. 17.
In addition to floating tax increases, reductions in spending have been a key part of city staff’s proposed departmental budgets.
To identify areas to cut, city services were divided into three categories — mandated, priority and other, with the latter targeted for elimination.
Despite downsizing, OHP will continue its preservation work, Chasnoff said, including design review, landmark-designation efforts, regulatory compliance, deconstruction initiatives and trades education.
