By Molly Smith, Staff writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-09-23 13:13:15
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
2024年8月1日，在美国德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥市，一份圣安东尼奥市宪章的副本放置在一个彩色袋子上，当时市议会正在开会讨论拟议的对市宪章的修改。
德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校公共意见研究中心 (UTSA Center for Public Opinion Research) 的最新民调显示，大多数圣安东尼奥市的选民不希望取消对市经理的薪资和任期限制，也不想给市议会和市长加薪。
这些问题是11月5日投票的六项市宪章修正案中的两项。
“这两项提案目前都处于劣势，有可能在11月无法通过，”德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校民调中心主任布莱恩·热尔韦(Bryan Gervais)说。
这项在线民调在9月11日至16日期间对近700名圣安东尼奥市登记选民进行了调查。其误差幅度为正负3.7%。
根据2018年消防员工会推动的一项成功的宪章修正案，圣安东尼奥市的市经理任期不得超过八年，收入不得超过最低工资城市雇员的10倍。在德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校的民调中，近69%的受访者表示，他们将投票反对取消这些限制。
圣安东尼奥市的商界领袖一直是取消这些限制的最坚定支持者，他们认为，这些限制使得市议会下次聘用新市经理时更难吸引到最优秀的人才，也更难留住现有的优秀管理人员。
民调发现，略微超过半数的登记选民反对将市议员的年薪从45,722美元提高到61,725美元，并将市长的年薪从70,200美元提高到87,800美元的修正案。近51%的选民表示，他们不会投票支持这项修正案，而近24%的选民表示会投票支持，22%的选民表示不确定。
六项修正案中只有两项获得了多数选民的支持：一项是更新市宪章，删除过 outdated language，另一项是对该市的道德审查委员会进行 minor changes。这些变化包括定义“利益冲突”，以及赋予委员会权力，使其可以审议已经被其他实体听证过的道德投诉。这两项拟议的修正案分别获得了约63%和55%的支持率。
约43%的选民表示，他们将支持将市长和市议员的任期从两年延长到四年的修正案，而近14%的选民尚未做出决定。
近45%的选民支持修改宪章，允许市政雇员为竞选市议会或市长的候选人助选或捐款，而20%的选民尚未做出决定。
关于宪章修正案结果的一个重要 caveat：研究人员发现，大多数登记选民（超过十分之八）并不熟悉11月5日投票中的这些变化。
热尔韦说：“将会有很多人去投票，他们可能会投票给总统竞选和参议员竞选等等，他们也可能会对这些修正案进行投票，但他们在投票之前可能根本没有听说过这些修正案。”
商界领袖们已经成立了名为“RenewSA”的政治行动委员会，以争取选民对所有六项修正案的支持，尤其是关于市经理限制的C号提案。
该委员会制作的一份情况说明书写道：“C号提案将确保市议会能够为市经理提供具有竞争力的薪酬，并且没有任期限制，这样我们就不会 losing 最佳人选，而被奥斯汀、达拉斯或菲尼克斯等其他城市抢走。”
该委员会的主席是前住宅建筑商和慈善家戈登·哈特曼(Gordon Hartman)、STAAMP Allergy的首席执行官兼总裁埃丽卡·冈萨雷斯(Erika Gonzalez)博士，以及AT&T负责外部和立法事务的副总裁J.D.萨利纳斯(J.D. Salinas)。其财务主管是女商人、前德克萨斯州州务卿霍普·安德拉德(Hope Andrade)。
8月初，在一个由市长任命的委员会花了五个月时间研究了市宪章（该市的管理文件）中市长罗恩·尼伦伯格(Ron Nirenberg)要求他们审查并建议进行必要修改的部分之后，市议会宣布了宪章修正案选举。
与这项民调不同，政治竞选和政治行动委员会通常会调查那些预计会真正参加选举的 likely voters。
热尔韦说，公共意见研究中心的目的是对那些能够反映选民构成的人群进行抽样调查，其中包括新登记的选民、偶尔投票的选民和经常投票的选民。他说，样本中约有四分之三是经常投票的选民。
这是德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校公共意见研究中心自去年秋季成立以来进行的第三次民调。
热尔韦说：“我们 realmente focused on 衡量圣安东尼奥市和更广泛的贝克萨尔县居民的态度和关注点。”
选民对马刺新球馆并不热衷
研究人员还询问了登记选民对圣安东尼奥市2025年市长选举、贝克萨尔县与市政府共同出资为棒球小联盟球队圣安东尼奥教会队(San Antonio Missions)建造市中心棒球场的协议，以及该市为马刺队建造一个位于市中心的球馆的可能性。
约40%的受访者表示，他们支持建造棒球场的计划。根据向选民提出的问题，建造棒球场的“成本将通过开发球场周围的土地来抵消”。
约35%的受访者反对该计划，超过四分之一的受访者不确定或没有意见。
9月12日，在民调进行期间，市长和市议会以9票赞成、2票反对的结果批准了与教会队的 ownership group 达成的一项融资协议的条款，该协议将为教会队建造一个拥有4500个座位的体育场，该体育场将建在市中心西北部的圣佩德罗溪文化公园(San Pedro Creek Culture Park)附近。这座耗资1.6亿美元的体育场的大部分资金将来自政府债券，这些债券将主要由体育场附近的新开发项目（包括公寓、酒店、商店和餐馆)产生的市政和县 property tax revenue 来偿还。
民调发现，将马刺队迁至半球体育馆(Alamodome)和美洲广场(Hemisfair)附近的新球馆的计划的支持率略低，市政府官员对该计划一直守口如瓶，但已经为此努力了一年多。约36%的受访者支持搬迁，41%的受访者反对，近四分之一的受访者不确定或没有意见。
研究人员没有询问选民反对新建篮球馆的原因，但6月份的一项民调发现，费用、与建设相关的干扰和交通拥堵是主要因素。
该中心最新的民调还调查了592名表示可能会在2025年5月的市政选举中投票的登记选民对一些已宣布参加空缺市长席位竞选的候选人的支持率。
近43%的受访者表示，他们不熟悉这些候选人，23%的受访者表示，他们还没有决定支持哪位候选人。
第9区的市议员约翰·柯立芝(John Courage)的支持率最高，为9.2%。第8区的市议员曼尼·佩莱兹(Manny Peláez)、第4区的市议员阿德里安娜·罗查·加西亚(Adriana Rocha Garcia)、科技企业家贝托·阿尔塔米拉诺(Beto Altamirano)和第6区的市议员梅丽莎·卡贝奥·哈夫达(Melissa Cabello Havrda)的支持率均低于5%。卡贝奥·哈夫达尚未正式宣布参选，但预计将在未来几周内宣布。
民调没有询问选民对前德克萨斯州州务卿罗兰多·帕布洛斯(Rolando Pablos)的看法，帕布洛斯已于8月27日加入了这场拥挤的竞选。热尔韦说，3.5%表示会投票给其他候选人的人中可能包括帕布洛斯的支持者。未来的民调将把帕布洛斯的名字列入其中。
该中心将在选举日之前的10月下旬进行另一项民调，并将在5月的市政选举之前定期对选民进行调查。
点击查看原文：Poll: Little support for Spurs arena, undoing city manager's pay cap
Poll: Little support for Spurs arena, undoing city manager’s pay cap
A copy of the Charter of the City of San Antonio lays atop a colorful bag during a meeting of the City Council to discuss proposed changes to the city charter on Aug. 1, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas.
Most San Antonio voters don’t want to ditch salary and tenure caps on the city manager or give pay raises to the City Council and mayor, according to the new poll by the UTSA Center for Public Opinion Research.
Those are two of six city charter amendments on the Nov. 5 ballot.
“Both of those appear to be underwater at this time and in danger of not passing in November,” said Bryan Gervais, director of the University of Texas at San Antonio’s polling center.
The online poll canvassed almost 700 registered San Antonio voters Sept. 11-16. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3.7%.
San Antonio’s city manager can serve no longer than eight years and earn no more than 10 times the lowest-paid city worker — the results of a winning charter amendment push by the firefighters’ union in 2018. Nearly 69% of respondents in the UTSA poll said they’d vote against removing the restrictions.
San Antonio business leaders have been the strongest backers of jettisoning the caps, arguing they make it harder to attract the strongest candidates the next time City Council hires a new city manager — and harder to retain high-performing managers already here.
The poll found that a slim majority of registered voters oppose the amendment that would raise council members’ salaries from $45,722 to $61,725, and the mayor’s from $70,200 to $87,800. Almost 51% of voters said they would not vote for this amendment, while almost 24% said they would and 22% said they were unsure.
Only two of the amendments had majority voter support: one that would update the city charter to remove outdated language and another that would make minor changes to the city’s Ethics Review Board. Those changes include defining what qualifies as a “conflict of interest” and giving the board the power to consider ethics complaints that have already been heard by another entity. The proposed amendments had about 63% and 55% support, respectively.
About 43% of voters said they would support the amendment that would extend the mayor and council member’s terms from two to four years, while nearly 14% were undecided.
Close to 45% supported changing the charter to allow city employees to campaign for or donate to candidates running for City Council or mayor, while 20% were undecided.
Big caveat to the charter amendment results: Most registered voters — more than eight out of every 10 — aren’t familiar with the changes on the Nov. 5 ballot, the researchers found.
“We’re going to have lots of people who end up going to the polls, probably voting for the presidential race and the senate race, etcetera, who probably will be casting ballots on these amendments — but they might not have heard anything about them before they go to vote for them,” Gervais said.
Business leaders have formed the political action committee RenewSA to rally voter support for all six amendments, particularly Proposition C, which deals with the city manager caps.
“Proposition C will ensure City Council can offer competitive pay for the city manager with no arbitrary term limit so we don’t lose the best prospects to other cities like Austin, Dallas or Phoenix,” reads an information sheet the PAC produced.
The PAC is chaired by former home builder and philanthropist Gordon Hartman; Dr. Erika Gonzalez, CEO and president STAAMP Allergy; and J.D. Salinas, the vice president for external and legislative affairs for AT&T. Its treasurer is businesswoman and former Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade.
The City Council called the charter amendment election in early August after a mayor-appointed commission spent five months studying sections of the charter, the city’s governing document, that Mayor Ron Nirenberg tasked them to review and recommend necessary changes.
Unlike this poll, political campaigns and political action committees typical survey likely voters who are expected to actually turn out for an election.
Gervais said the Center for Public Opinion Research aims to sample people who reflect what the electorate will look like, which includes newly registered voters, sporadic voters and regular voters. About three-quarters of the sample included habitual voters, he said.
This is the third poll that the UTSA Center for Public Opinion Research conducted since it formed last fall.
“We’re really focused on measuring the attitudes and the concerns of residents of San Antonio and Bexar County, more broadly,” Gervais said.
Voters not thrilled with Spurs arena
Researchers also asked registered voters about San Antonio’s 2025 mayoral election, the Bexar County-city deal to build a downtown ballpark for the Missions Double-A baseball team, and the possibility of the city building a center-city arena for the Spurs.
About 40% of respondents said they were in favor of the plan to build a baseball stadium, the cost of which “would be offset by the development of land surrounding the stadium,” according to the question posed to voters.
About 35% of respondents opposed the plan, with more than a quarter either unsure or lacking an opinion.
The mayor and City Council voted 9-2 on Sept. 12, in the midst of the polling, to approve the terms of a financing deal with the Missions’ ownership group for a 4,500-seat stadium that will be built near San Pedro Creek Culture Park in the northwest corner of downtown. The bulk of the stadium’s $160 million cost will be paid by government bonds that will mostly be repaid by city and county property tax revenue generated by new development — including apartments, a hotel and shops and restaurants — near the stadium.
The poll found slightly less support for moving the Spurs to a new arena near Hemisfair and the Alamodome — a plan city officials have been tight-lipped about, but have been working on for more than a year. About 36% of respondents supported the move, 41% were opposed, and almost a quarter were unsure or lacked an opinion.
Researchers did not ask voters about their reasons for opposing a new basketball arena, but a June poll found that the expense, construction-related disruptions and traffic congestion were major factors.
The center’s latest poll also gauged voter support for some of the candidates who have announced their campaigns for the open mayor’s seat among 592 registered voters who said they were likely to vote in the May 2025 municipal election.
Nearly 43% of respondents said they weren’t familiar with the candidates, and 23% said they haven’t decided which candidate they’ll support.
District 9 Councilman John Courage had the most support, at 9.2%. District 8 Councilman Manny Peláez, District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia, tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano and District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda all polled at below 5%. Cabello Havrda has yet to announce, but is expected to do so in the coming weeks.
The poll did not ask voters about former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, who entered the crowded race on Aug. 27. Pablos’ support could be captured by the 3.5% of people who said they would vote for someone else, Gervais said. Future polls will include Pablos’ name.
The center will conduct another poll in late October ahead of Election Day and will regular survey voters ahead of May’s municipal election.
By Molly Smith, Staff writer, via San Antonio Express-News