SAN ANTONIO – More than seven months after KSAT Investigates revealed the unprecedented, after-hours security detail provided to Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones at her residence, she has authored a memo accusing a city council staffer of refusing to comply with the investigation into how the information got out.
A memo signed by the mayor Wednesday states the chief of staff for District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito had access to security detail information for her home and has failed to comply with a San Antonio Police Department internal affairs probe of the leak.
Multiple sources last fall provided KSAT details of the mayor’s home protection plan. District 7 Chief of Staff James Branch was not one of those sources.
Branch did not respond to a phone call seeking comment Thursday.
Multiple media outlets have now reported on the mayor’s home security detail, which was put in place after a man posted a threat against Jones on social media last summer.
In her May 20 memo, the mayor states that 115 SAPD officers have been interviewed as part of the department’s investigation. One of those officers noted that a council aide had access to the security information.
The memo, which does not name Branch but references the District 7 Chief of Staff, states he did not comply with requests from internal affairs from October to March to take part in an in-person interview.
Branch instead provided a statement through his legal counsel, according to the memo.
The mayor wrote that administrative directives would have required the chief of staff to take part in the interview, if he was a city employee.
Council aides, instead, are considered Local Government Corporation (LGC) employees.
The mayor has asked that the city’s administrative directives immediately begin to apply to LGC employees.
Mayor Jones did not respond to an email seeking comment on the memo Thursday.
SAPD official on Thursday told KSAT they had no updates on the internal affairs investigation.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.