San Antonio Business Leader, Former Councilman Honored with Library Dedication
January 12, 2006
SAN ANTONIO (Jan. 10, 2006)— North East Independent School District (NEISD) Superintendent Dr. Richard Middleton announced that the public library located at Ronald Reagan High School will be named in honor of Tim Bannwolf, a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP and former San Antonio District 9 City Councilman. The dedication ceremony for the Timothy Herman Bannwolf Library will take place on Sunday, Jan. 15, at 2 p.m. at Ronald Reagan High School, 19000 Ronald Reagan Drive.
Bannwolf, a longtime community and civic leader, served on city council from 1997 to 2001 and spearheaded the joint venture between the San Antonio Public Library and NEISD. A fiscal conservative, Bannwolf’s efforts in establishing the state’s first-ever joint library between a large metropolitan city and local school district saved taxpayers an estimated $3.5 million, the cost of building a separate stand-alone library. In addition, the city branch library, the first to be named after a San Antonio city councilmember, continues to save taxpayers significant money in annual operating costs.
Before serving on the city council, Bannwolf chaired the citizens’ committee that proposed the $147.4 million bond election in 1995 that provided construction funds for the new high school, as well as a number of other schools. Due to his continued efforts over the years to facilitate the improvement of NEISD and the public library system, the board of trustees unanimously voted to name the library in his honor.
“It is impossible to convey the depth to which Tim immersed himself in this endeavor to see it to fruition. He served on the task force that recommended the bond election, worked to get the bond election passed, and then to ensure those funds were put to the best possible use, he ran for city council to direct the spending,” said NEISD Superintendent Dr. Richard Middleton. “Tim conceived and then proposed the idea of the joint venture between the public library and school district. It is not an understatement to say that without Tim Bannwolf, this library would not be here to serve both the students of Reagan High School and the city of San Antonio as a whole. The program has been so successful, and such a model of efficiency, that plans are currently under way to replicate this joint venture model on other campuses within NEISD.”
The library opened in 1999 and served more than 40,000 patrons that year. As of 2005, annual public patron visits to the library have doubled, to more than 90,000. An additional 3,500 high school students are also served by the library each year.
Opened with 5,000 volumes, it has since grown in size to 30,000, and in the last three years Internet usage has doubled. Additionally, under Bannwolf’s leadership, $25 million of the 1995 bond package was specifically set aside for technical equipment and upgrades at various NEISD schools, allowing for the joint venture library to have a state of the art computer lab not available at other city branch libraries.
“The partnership at Reagan High School is an excellent example of what can be achieved when governmental entities collaborate. In a time of budget and program cuts, Tim Bannwolf proposed a solution that saved taxpayer dollars and made library services available to an area that had previously lacked these resources,” said Ramiro S. Salazar, San Antonio Public Library director. “This partnership serves as a model on how two government entities can work together to effect better service to the community.”
The joint venture process required approval from NEISD, the San Antonio City Council and the San Antonio Public Library.
“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized this way, and I am humbled by it,” said Bannwolf. “It is gratifying to me that so many people now have access to the premier educational resource that has resulted from this unique partnership.”
As a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani, Bannwolf’s practice focuses on the financial services industry, as well as various sports and entertainment law matters and labor and employment-related issues.
“As one of the most respected members of the San Antonio community, Tim has long been recognized for his business contributions,” said J. Tullos Wells, who is managing partner of the San Antonio office of Bracewell & Giuliani. “It is so appropriate that he now be honored for his true passions: education and literacy of the children of San Antonio. Commitment to community service is a tradition at Bracewell, and Tim has been one of our firm's greatest role models in this area.”
In the community, Bannwolf played a key role in launching the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI), which recently became part of the Governor’s Regional Technology Authority. He served as chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, and also served on the boards of The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, YMCA of San Antonio and the Hill Country, Lutheran High School Association of San Antonio, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, the San Antonio Education Partnership, the Mexican American Legal Coalition as well as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s Parent Leadership Program.