SAN ANTONIO – A power struggle is continuing at City Hall as four council members challenged San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ push to overhaul the process for advancing policy proposals.
On Friday, council members Teri Castillo (D5), Marina Alderete Gavito (D7), Misty Spears (D9) and Marc Whyte (D10) submitted a Four Signature Memorandum requesting a special meeting to amend the current Council Consideration Requests (CCR) ordinance.
Recommended Videos
Jones has been pushing for council members to resubmit any CCRs filed before she and the other new council members were sworn in on June 18.
She wants the Governance Committee, of which she is the chairwoman, to review any previous CCRs that have yet to be voted on.
Council members have resisted that idea, as well as the notion that the mayor could demand that change on her own.
Castillo, Alderete Gavito, Spears and Whyte suggest amending the CCR ordinance to ensure that the status of a CCR remains unchanged despite the introduction of new council members or a new mayor.
“The process timelines may be reasonably adjusted to accommodate the formation of new Committees and the appointment of Council Committee members,” a draft of the ordinance states.
They also propose that the CCR process not be altered without a City Council vote.
“The CCR process exists to ensure that Councilmembers may elevate issues of importance to their districts and to the city as a whole,” the council members said in a joint statement. “These CCR’s represent months of community engagement, policy research, and committee review. Work does not pause or restart with a change in administration, as there is no precedent for doing so.”
“Furthermore, San Antonio is a strong City Manager form of government. The CCR process is not subject to unilateral control by the Mayor; rather, any amendments to the process must be voted upon by the full Council.”
In a memo sent by the mayor on Tuesday, Jones stated her intention to require previously filed CCRs to be resubmitted if they haven’t been voted on.
“For CCRs that include signatures from former Council members, the sponsor is asked to replace those with current Council members and to confirm in writing the other Council members continue to support the CCR as written,” the memo states. “This way-ahead best affords the newly elected Council members the opportunity to review and provide feedback on ideas that would directly impact their constituents.”
The power struggle was on display Thursday when the council took up a vote on animal abandonment fines.
City Council ultimately approved the new set of fines 10-1. However, before the meeting, Jones tried to delay the proposal twice.
The mayor originally had the vote withdrawn from the Sept. 4 council agenda because it stemmed from a policy proposal submitted by Gavito before Jones and the other new council members had taken office.
At Thursday’s meeting, Jones suggested delaying the vote at least another three weeks. In part, she cited concerns raised by animal advocates about a lack of clarity about who else might get caught up in the ordinance.
Jones was the lone vote against it.
CCRs are one of the primary ways council members can push to create new policy. They also rely heavily on city staff to flesh out the details of a proposal and how it will work.
After a council member files a CCR, it must be presented to the Governance Committee within 60 days or the second scheduled meeting after it’s filed — whichever comes first.
The committee then refers a CCR to the full council or another committee, refers it to the city manager’s office to be considered in the budget process, or rejects it.
It often takes several months and multiple committee meetings before they come up for a vote by the full council.
For the CCRs submitted this year, 13 are still pending and 15 have been referred out of the Governance Committee.
More recent City Hall coverage on KSAT: