The City of San Antonio is finally filling a key leadership role overseeing roads and infrastructure — by recruiting the leader in charge of similar projects over at Bexar County.
Art Reinhardt came to the county from the private sector in January 2024, and will take over as San Antonio’s Public Works Director at a pivotal time.
The city approved a massive $1.2 billion bond in 2022 and has faced consistent backlash from residents and business owners over projects that have been taking longer than expected.
This year it even conducted an audit of the department’s procedures and made structural changes to its staffing during the last budget cycle, aimed at shoring up public confidence in the department before embarking on much bigger endeavors, like the roughly $4 billion downtown sports and entertainment district known as Project Marvel.
Reinhardt previously spent seven years working for the city as an assistant division director and interim deputy director at the Public Works Department. He went on to become the local business lead for the San Antonio office of a national engineering firm, WSP.
His hiring at the county nearly two years ago was cheered by the local business community, which said his experience in the private sector was a welcome change.
Reinhardt told the San Antonio Report on Tuesday that he didn’t expect to leave the county so quickly, but was motivated by the opportunity to serve in a bigger way.
“This position opened up months ago … I didn’t pursue it immediately, just out of respect for the [commissioners] court, the judge and the team,” he said. “But we ended up speaking in the city, and [were sold on] the opportunity to serve [and] all of the exciting things happening there.”
San Antonio’s longtime Public Works Director Razi Hosseini announced plans to retire in September, after prolonged construction leading up to the Final Four tournament caused the city to spend $800,000 on temporary sidewalks that it planned to later remove.
Some local bars and restaurant owners even formed a PAC to focus on public works, saying that mismanaged city construction projects were keeping customers from being able to reach their businesses.
The city hired a recruiting firm to find a replacement, but eventually appointed an interim director after the search strung on.
Reinhardt said he finishes work at the county on Jan. 2 and starts at the city on Jan. 5.
The county expects to name an interim director while it once again searches for a Public Works Director / County Engineer.
Reinhardt said Tuesday that he’s confident the city has put the department on the right track to be successful moving forward.
“The city’s done some structural changes to different departments there,” he said, referring to the new Capitol Delivery Department created earlier this year.
“I spent the better part of a decade there with the department that became public works, I know a lot of the folks there, know a lot of the council members, so I’m looking forward to getting back into that, just continuing on to a bigger opportunity, touching more people.”