After Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones released a memo that suggested killing SA Ready to Work to solve a budget shortfall, COPS/Metro began working with city and business leaders to defend the largest workforce development program ever attempted by a major U.S. city.
COPS/Metro proposed the program in 2020, when COVID devastated San Antonio’s tourism and hospitality industries and lines at local food banks were abysmal. After they secured SA Ready to Work on the ballot, COPS/Metro leaders drove a get out the vote campaign and celebrated when voters approved the measure by 77%.
SA Ready to Work has moved over 5,800 people from poverty into living wage careers using the same financial and wraparound support model as Project Quest, COPS/Metro's nationally recognized labor market intermediary program. Ready to Work graduates are projected to generate an estimated $11.8 billion economic impact for San Antonio while filling critical, in-demand jobs.
Mayor Jones proposed placing the program's termination on the November ballot and re-allocating its monies to the general fund.
Quoted in the San Antonio Express-News, COPS/Metro leader Fr. Jimmy Drennan spoke in defense of the city’s historic investment at a budget press conference with council members and local leaders:
The city manager working with our City Council and our mayor, they can close this gap, and not a single penny is needed to be removed from Ready to Work.”
Days later, Mayor Jones dropped her proposal. She is now attempting to move $2.4 million from the program’s budget to next year’s general fund – a move that COPS/Metro leaders will continue to fight.
[Photo Credit: Amber Esparza, San Antonio Report (on left); Blaine Young, San Antonio Express-News (on right)]
Mayor Jones Proposes Killing Ready to Work to Close Budget Deficit, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]
In Defense of San Antonio's Ready to Work and the Promise to Invest in People, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]
San Antonio Leaders Slam Mayor's Push for Spurs arena, Ready to Work Votes, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]
A Year Into the Job, Mayor Jones Risks Holding the Bag on Largest Tax Increase in Decades, San Antonio Report [pdf]
Mayor Jones Scraps Push to Hold Election on Ready to Work Dollars, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]