San Antonio – San Antonio voters will be asked whether to raise council members’ pay by tens of thousands of dollars and to double the length of their current terms.
San Antonio City Council members voted Thursday to put six separate charter amendments onto the Nov. 5 ballot. Though the council voted unanimously to order the election, the two amendments on council pay and term length were only included after 8-3 votes.
Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6), Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8), and Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) voted against raising council member pay from $45,722 to $70,200 and the mayor’s salary from $61,725 to $87,800. Future raises, under the proposal, would be tied to local income limits set by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development.
Pelaez, Whyte, and Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7) voted against going from two-year terms to four-year terms.
Though other council members indicated they were against reversing the voter-approved caps on the city manager’s pay and tenure, they did not try to separate it from the other proposal in the same manner as pay and term lengths.
Supporters of higher council pay have framed it as a way to make elected office more accessible to regular San Antonio residents.
Council members often maintain at least a part-time job in addition to their council duties, and former District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval cited the pay as one reason she left office early in 2023.
“If we keep the salary lower, we might just become a council with only members who are attorneys,” said Alderete Gavito (D7).
The three council members who voted against raising council pay are, coincidentally, all attorneys.
Pelaez, who is running for mayor, argued council positions are already “the closest thing to royalty in San Antonio that you can get.”
“We all get great parking spaces, folks. We get to pay - park wherever the hell we want to. All of us get invited to every Spurs game and all of, you know, high ticket concerts,” he said.
Doubling the length of council member terms also proved somewhat prickly. Supporters say it’s a way to ensure better continuity of constituent relationships and follow-through on council members’ priorities, but others say shorter terms allow voters to get rid of non-performing council members.
“We need to be accountable to the voters every two years. What we do is too important,” Whyte said.
Most of the six proposals came out of Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s original charge in November to the charter review commission, but the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) also successfully pushed to get a measure allowing city employees to participate in city campaigns onto the ballot.
Youth advocates, though, were unsuccessful in adding a measure to commit a portion of the city’s revenue growth each year toward services for children and young people.
Cabello Havrda opened discussion of the charter amendments Thursday by saying the process hadn’t allowed regular San Antonians’ ideas to be “truly considered.”
Nirenberg told reporters “by and large, all of these amendments are sound, and they will move the city forward in very important ways.”
ETHICS REVIEW BOARD
- Proposition A would add a definition for “conflicts of interest,” require adequate funding for the board, and authorize the board to accept or decline complaints that have been resolved elsewhere.
LANGUAGE UPDATES
- Proposition B updates outdated and superseded language, but is not meant to make any substantive change.
CITY MANAGER PAY & TERM
- Proposition C would remove both caps and allow the city council to set the terms of the city manager’s contract.
- Fifty-nine percent of San Antonio voters in Nov. 2018 approved capping the city manager’s pay at 10 times the lowest-paid city employee’s. They also voted to limit the city manager to serving eight years in the position.
- Under the current caps, City Manager Erik Walsh has a $374,000 salary and must leave the role by March 2027.
POLITICAL ACTIVITY FOR CITY EMPLOYEES
- Proposition D would allow city employees to participate in local political activity while protecting against retribution.
- A general prohibition on participating in local political activity would remain for the City Leadership Team.
- Civilian city employees are not currently allowed to participate in local council or mayoral campaigns, though members of the fire and police unions can.
COUNCIL PAY RAISE
- Proposition E would raise council and mayor salaries to $70,200 and $87,800 starting with council members elected in May 2025.
- Future raises would be based on the HUD Income Limits (80% and 100% for a family of four) for the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Area.
- The council member and mayor salaries were set in $45,722 and $61,725 in 2015, based on the area median income at the time, but did not include a mechanism to adjust for inflation.
COUNCIL TERM LENTHS
- Proposition F would create four-year terms, beginning with the May 2025 election. Council members would still be limited to eight years in office.
- Five current council members, including some who plan to run for mayor, could be forced out mid-term in the future to avoid going past the eight-year term limit. Their terms would be filled by the winners of special elections
- Council members currently serve two-year terms and are limited to eight years in office. The 10 council members and mayor are all elected concurrently.