Longtime Public Works Director Razi Hosseini will retire in September, amid complaints about the city’s handling of major construction projects
So persistent are the public’s concerns that last year a group of local business owners formed a political action committee to start pushing for changes — even before the latest drama with construction projects surrounding the Final Four tournament.
“I’ll be working to develop a transition plan to ensure the city continues to deliver important city services and project oversight,” Walsh said in the announcement. “My thanks to Razi for his leadership, professionalism and dedicated service to our community.”
Hosseini has almost four decades of engineering experience, has worked for the city since 1991 and has overseen implementation of four of the largest bond programs approved by San Antonio voters, including expansion of Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, projects at the San Antonio International Airport and renovations at the Alamodome.
In 2021, the Bexar County Chapter of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers named Hosseini as Engineer of the Year.
Due to a large number of media requests, a spokesman for Public Works said the department is not to doing any interviews right now, even though the Report had originally scheduled a phone call interview with Hosseini.
Recently, Hosseini’s department has been criticized for being slow to complete certain construction projects, including construction on North St. Mary’s Street, which took a year longer than it was supposed to and concluded in 2023.
After temporarily repaving South Alamo Street for the 100,000 visitors expected to land in San Antonio for the NCAA Men’s Final Four tournament this week, the city will resume construction after the sports event concludes. Construction at South Alamo Street has been underway since 2022.
Public Works spokesman Nicholas Olivier said less than half of the corridor was paved because of the Final Four, adding that the rest of the temporary paving was done previously to accommodate the single lane of car traffic that’s been in place since March 2024.
In response to small business owners who have been affected by the pandemic and bond-related construction in the form of less business and revenue, the city’s Economic Development Department came up with a plan to disburse $1.4 million to affected businesses.
In recent years, the city has paid out almost $60 million in aid to bolster affected small businesses overall.
Instead of doling out more dollars, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the city’s efforts are “better spent thinking about how we can shrink the timeline of these construction projects.”
“I’ve had literally business owners crying during my office hours because of this,” said Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1), whose district includes South Alamo Street.
Last year, an audit into Public Works found that the department’s communications around major construction projects did not reach out to business owners affected by those projects.
As a result of the audit, the department created a corrective action plan that includes a digital dashboard with information on current bond construction projects, informational web pages for major projects and the ability for staff to add road closure information to the Waze navigation app.
The most recent bond program, passed in 2022, provides $1.2 billion for 182 infrastructure projects, which include improvements to streets, bridges, parks and recreation, drainage, cultural facilities and public safety facilities.
One of the most recent construction projects to be completed and opened to the public from that bond is the World Heritage Center , a “gateway to the San Antonio Missions and a gathering place for San Antonio residents and visitors.”
The center was opened this February, which lined up with the city’s timeline for the project.
Reporter Andrea Drusch contributed to this article.
