This article has been updated.

Catherine “Cat” Hernandez, who was born and raised in San Antonio, has a vested interest in securing safe, accessible transportation for the community.

Her 24-year-old sister, Angelica Moreno, died in a single-vehicle, speed-related crash in 2010. The toxicology report showed Moreno had been drinking.

“I was so angry. I stayed in that anger phase for a while. … I was starting to not be able to share good memories of her,” Hernandez said. But ultimately, she wanted her children to remember their aunt as a whole: the good and the difficult.

“I got to the acceptance phase,” she said. “I knew at that point … we’ve got to use her story to help people.”

Now, as Hernandez leads the city’s Transportation Department, she hopes others can learn from her sister’s death.

Interviews with Hernandez and her parents were used in a public service announcement video produced by the city as part of National Impaired Driving Prevention Month in 2022 to highlight the dangers of driving while intoxicated.

When loved ones die, “they take a piece of us,” she said. “We can no longer see them. We can no longer touch them. We can no longer talk to them. And that [void is] really what’s left behind. … I hope that somebody hears that story and makes that decision: If you’re going to drive, don’t drink.”

The relatively recently formed department has had two leaders since 2020. Tomika Monterville left the position last year to work for the Federal Railroad Administration. Hernandez, who holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration, was appointed interim director of the Transportation Department in May 2023 — about 23 years after her start in city government, in San Antonio’s Planning Department and other offices.

Her sister’s death, her own medical diagnosis and a need for more time with her children were catalysts in the decision to “slow down” her ambitious career goals, but Hernandez, 51, is far from finished.

“I want to be a city manager one day,” she said outright, but she’s in no rush. “When it happens, it happens.”

Hernandez sat down with the San Antonio Report last month to discuss how she views public service and the role she’ll play in shaping San Antonio’s transportation networks as the city grows.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity:

San Antonio Report: Given your education and personal experience, were you always destined to work in city government?

Cat Hernandez: I actually wanted to be a lawyer — a criminal prosecutor. I did an internship with a domestic violence attorney with the county when I was in college; it was the same semester that I also took my LSAT. The tests are very hard and I’ll be honest, I did not do well.

My adviser at St. Mary’s University School of Law, Professor Henry Flores, had always said: “You’re not going to be a lawyer … you’re going to be a public servant.” That’s what he told me my freshman year.

“I’m not saying you can’t be a lawyer,” he told me. “I’m just saying you should be a public servant. That’s what I see you as.”

There were a lot of cases that involved violence against children and there was this one case that really hit me, where we were making a plea deal with an abuser who would get out in only a few years. And I was like: I can’t do that.

Flores was right. So I pivoted.

I started working with the City of Leon Valley right after graduate school. I was a community development coordinator, so that’s where I started to cut my teeth in zoning and planning. But in a small city, you’re doing everything: planning, economic development, animal control, code enforcement … and I loved every minute of it.

In 2000, I got hired by the City of San Antonio as one of the first planners to provide case management for zoning change applicants. Being a planner was my foot in the door at the big city and I was promoted to assist the administration and operations of the planning department.

I got to be exposed to all of the things in that planning field that I wanted to be exposed to, while helping to run the administration and operations. I did that for about eight years. Then the city manager’s office called.

SAR: That would have been former San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley’s office then?

CH: Yes, they needed someone to manage City Council agendas and I had experience with the new, digital process.

I moved over to the manager’s office as a special projects manager. That was my opportunity to finally see the city from the 30,000-foot level.

Then I had an opportunity to become Sheryl’s interim executive assistant. I worked very closely with her for nine months and it was eye-opening — a great opportunity to learn from the master. She could make connections for people from a pothole on the street to a future fire station and know that budget number.

When city employees are out in the community, we are often perceived as a representative of the city as a whole. People don’t care what department you’re in —you’re with the city. It happens all the time — at a family function or a friend’s party people will ask me about how to get the city to fix a pothole or something.

I’ll say: Let me text somebody. You network, you make relationships across all the different departments and make those connections for our residents to the department that ultimately is going to help to manage or handle their problem.

SAR: Why leave the city manager’s office?

CH: I really enjoyed working for Sheryl and learning from her. But I also knew that I needed to slow down because, at that point, I had three kids and Sheryl was not an eight-to-five worker.

I would get home at like 8:30 p.m. — barely time to put the baby to bed. I didn’t have a lot of mommy time.

I knew that I still wanted to be a city manager, but I didn’t want to be a manager tomorrow. So I took a position in what former Assistant City Manager Penny Postoak Ferguson [jokingly] called the “necessary evil” of city management: the Budget Office.

That’s where you learn about all of the different funding buckets, how it’s dispersed, how it’s utilized and how to manage it. After a few years there, I went to Development Services to manage zoning.

I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2013 and had to make changes to my eating and lack of fitness. I pushed hard to eat right, lose weight and be healthy so I could live longer for my family. I’ve been living with diabetes since. Maintaining my health fills my cup — after family, friends and work. 

It’s a struggle, but it’s rewarding in the long run. It keeps my energy up to do the things I need to do! 

SAR: So you backed away from the bigger-picture views to the nerdy, legalese world of zoning and code?

CH: Remember, I wanted to be a lawyer one day — but what I had learned over the years is the importance of being able to relate complicated language and concepts to people, especially our community members, because they don’t all speak the same acronyms or the geek-speak that we do.

It’s about communicating. I call it my love language.

At the end of the day, you just want to educate people. So they’re educated about something and they’re able to make informed decisions. That’s really what zoning was about. Because zoning is very passionate — and I wanted them to be armed with the right information.

Last year, Assistant City Manager Rod Sanchez asked me: “Are you learning anything at zoning?”

I was like: “Well no, not really.”

Yes, there’s always something new in the code or new projects … it was rewarding still, and I loved it. We would establish those relationships with the neighborhoods and show them we’re on your team, just like anybody else. We live in the city too, we live with the same things that you live with. At the end of the day, I want you to love your neighborhood. I want you to stay in your neighborhood. And how can I help you do that? That was always my mentality.

Still, I was ready for a new challenge.

SAR: Does that mentality apply to the Transportation Department, too?

CH: Absolutely. I’m glad I’ve been able to translate or transfer what I’ve learned in zoning to transportation.

It’s about communicating, communicating, communicating and over-communicating — especially timelines.

While Public Works carries out maintenance and bond projects, our focus is more on strategic planning; implementing all the things that were identified in the Multimodal Transportation Plan, Complete Streets Policy, major thoroughfare plan, the Vision Zero strategy aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities, etc.

It’s about planning for the future. Before you get to the construction, you’re working with the neighborhood, working with the stakeholders, and working with the community to create a concept that they want to see.

SAR: So the Transportation Department is forward-looking to how future budget and bond dollars should be spent?

CH: Yes. Big-picture policy and forward-thinking things come through us and then we coordinate with outside agencies, including Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, VIA Metropolitan Transit, San Antonio Mobility Coalition as well as state and federal transportation agencies.

The department also relies on community engagement, especially as it is updating both the Bike Network Plan and Complete Street policies.

At a recent town hall regarding the latter, one attendee asked how the city — and advocates — can fight against the mentality that bike lanes are just for the privileged.

I would find something that they could relate to — just like in zoning cases. Everyone wants their children, parents and grandparents to get where they are going safely, right? I’m sure that if they were in a protected bike lane, you’re not going to have as many heart attacks worrying about your best friend’s 13-year-old son, right?

I’m not there to convince them 100%, but if I can help them think that it’s not just about the Lance Armstrongs of the world, it’s everybody else who wants to utilize it, too, maybe they will see that protected bike lanes are important. It’s all about safety and not everyone is lucky enough to have a car.

SAR: So it sounds like updating the Vision Zero, Bike Network Plan and Complete Street policies are going to be big priorities for you in 2024. What else is on the horizon?

CH: Yes and I would add the transit-oriented development initiative related to VIA’s Advanced Rapid Transit (ART) — that is, if we receive direction from the City Council to pursue.

Out of that would come different things that we need to align with our transit investment: The Strategic Housing Implementation Plan, economic development initiatives, workforce development, etc. Where mass transit is going to succeed is in areas that have density to where people are going to utilize ART and not feel they need a single occupancy vehicle.

That comes with code modifications to look at what that density looks like, what parking requirements — or lack of parking requirements — look like.

That transit-oriented development initiative still has to go through the legislative process.

While the Bike Network Plan will take two years to complete, the city doesn’t have to wait that long to start making improvements. As soon as we get low-hanging fruit identified, we’re going to start implementation.

The plan likely won’t result in bike lanes on every street, but it’s creating the network from streets to the trails and everywhere else.

The other big thing we have this year is the federal Safe Streets for All grant to support Vision Zero. We received $4.4 million to help pay for eight mid-block crosswalks on a 12-mile stretch of Zarzamora Street.