DeBerry, campaign official disagree on VIA

Trish DeBerry and Hope Andrade are old friends and fellow Republicans.

So it made perfect sense last year when DeBerry, a candidate for Precinct 3 county commissioner, enlisted Andrade to serve as her campaign treasurer.

But DeBerry and Andrade are at odds over a ballot item whose impact will resound in San Antonio for years to come. DeBerry opposes the reallocation of an existing¹/8-cent sales tax for public transit, beginning Jan. 1, 2026. Andrade supports it.

Of course, it’s common for even the closest political allies to have some areas of disagreement. The public-transit proposition, however, isn’t just another issue for Andrade. As the board chairwoman for VIA Metropolitan Transit, Andrade’s central mission right now is locking in this future revenue source for the chronically underfunded agency she represents.

DeBerry isn’t sold on the idea.

During a September KSAT forum, the veteran public-relations consultant said the residents of her North Side precinct “do not have a culture of riding the bus.”

DeBerry added that it is “incumbent upon VIA’s campaign” to demonstrate “what ratification of that 1/8-cent is going to mean to the residents in Precinct 3 who do not ride the bus.”

Given that the political resistance to a sales-tax boost for VIA probably is strongest on the North Side, support from the GOP nominee in the reliably Republican Precinct 3 would have been a valuable asset to Andrade’s cause.

Nonetheless, Andrade has no hard feelings about DeBerry’s opposition to the proposition.

“Trish and I have had a longterm friendship for many, many years,” Andrade said. “She’s running for office and I think she’d make a very effective county commissioner. Friends don’t always agree on things, but I have high respect for her.

“I shared (with her) how important public transit is for San Antonio. And she’s been a supporter in the past, but I think that for her, she still has questions, and I respect that.”

The practical effect of the VIA initiative is that it would eventually (after the four-year run of Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s workforce-development plan, if voters approve it) bump up the transit agency’s sales-tax funding from 5/8 to³/4 of a cent.

Even then, our public transit system still will lack the resources found in Houston, Dallas and Austin, each of which provide their transit agencies with a full cent in sales-tax revenue. But the estimated $40 million a year from this proposed revenue bump will get VIA closer to where it needs to be.

While the funding wouldn’t kick in for five years, passage of the proposition would enhance VIA’s ability to leverage federal dollars and enable it to do some long-term budgetary planning.

DeBerry has reserved her support for only one of San Antonio’s three ballot propositions: the reauthorization of the Pre-K 4 SA program. DeBerry’s firm, the DeBerry Group, has received more than $147,000 in consulting fees from the Pre-K 4 SA campaign.

Over the course of her bid for county commissioner, DeBerry has aligned herself with another old friend, former Councilman (and 2019 mayoral candidate) Greg Brockhouse.

Brockhouse has been an adamant critic of the VIA proposition, using his webcast, “The BrockCast,” to trash VIA for wasteful spending.

“The roaches scurry when you turn the light on in a dark room,” Brockhouse said.

Among the items that Brock-house cited in his attack was an invoice for $6,491, for an Andrade tribute video in June 2019, when she was leaving her position as VIA board chairwoman.

“She left and came back two months later,” Brockhouse said. “She didn’t even stay gone. They couldn’t find somebody to replace her.”

Brockhouse completely mis-characterized the circumstances behind Andrade’s return to the VIA board. In fact, she came back eight (not two) months later — at the urging of Nirenberg and County Judge Nelson Wolff.

Andrade returned, not because “they couldn’t find somebody to replace her,” but because the person who replaced her, former Councilman Rey Saldaña, took a job as the CEO of Communities in Schools. Andrade’s return was a short-term move to help VIA navigate through this election cycle.

Like DeBerry, Brockhouse opposes the public-transit and workforce-development propositions, but has no problem with Pre-K 4 SA.

DeBerry twice has appeared with him on “The BrockCast.”

Brockhouse endorsed DeBerry’s primary runoff campaign, and DeBerry announced the endorsement with a June 10 video in which Brockhouse gushed: “I love how she thinks, operates and works hard for our community.”

Four days later, DeBerry released a campaign video that featured her block-walking the precinct with Brockhouse. Her latest campaign ad includes footage of her standing side-by-side with the former councilman.

Brockhouse is an unabashed admirer of DeBerry. He just doesn’t have anything nice to say about her campaign treasurer. ggarcia@express-news.net