SAN ANTONIO – How much to pay San Antonio City Council members, whether to add more council districts, and independent redistricting could all end up on San Antonio voters’ ballots next year.
But it will depend first on what a 15-member citizen commission decides over the next six months.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg tasked the reconstituted Charter Review Commission to consider whether to make eight specific changes to the city charter, as well as any broader “modernization” of the charter. The commission’s recommendations on the possible amendments are due to the city council by Jun. 14, 2024.
Voters would have to approve any changes, likely in the November 2024 election.
The commission meets for the first time Monday night at the San Antonio Central Library.
“I don’t diminish the fact that we have a challenge in front of us, but I think we have the right people with the right thoughts around it, that we’ll get ourselves organized and get kicked off today and hit the ground running really in ‘24,” David Zammiello, one of the commission’s two co-chairs, told KSAT ahead of the meeting.
Zammiello, a retired USAA executive and former head of Project Quest, called the six-month time frame “doable” to consider the following:
- Whether to add to the 10 current city council districts
- Whether council member pay should more closely reflect the cost of living in San Antonio
- Whether council and mayoral term limits should change from four, two-year terms to two, four-year terms
- Whether an independent citizen committee should handle the decennial redistricting process
- Whether to undo the 2018 limits on the city manager position (eight years in the job and salary capped at 10 times the lowest-paid city employee)
- Whether the city should appoint an independent ethics auditor
- Whether the Ethics Review Board should be autonomous and have the power to compel testimony
- A broader look at whether the city charter’s language needs to be updated to reflect “current processes, acknowledgments, and roles”
Some of the ideas have been “circulated” and talked about before, so the list of issues isn’t surprising, Zammiello said.
“I think that the idea is that these are the opportunities, and the time is now to really take that fresh look and take a holistic look -- for lack of a better term -- a holistic look, end to end, on these different core responsibilities and say, ‘What is the best thinking that we can put around that? How do we really want to position the city for the future?’ And what the community has to say in that voice is really important,” Zammiello said.
Read more about the different issues up for consideration and the committee members HERE.