SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio City Council censured Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones during a special meeting on Friday in what appears to be a first since the city charter was adopted 75 years ago.
Jones was accused of being “verbally abusive” toward Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) during a Feb. 5 confrontation about the Bonham Exchange and fire sprinkler regulations. The censure resolution also referenced unspecified ”prior inappropriate interactions with councilmembers, city staff and constituents."
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The council voted 8-1. Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9) voted against it, saying she didn’t believe the conduct rose to the level of censure.
Kaur and Jones were not present for the vote, though Jones was listed as a recusal after appearing earlier in the meeting.
On its own, a censure vote is largely symbolic, publicly rebuking an elected official for their actions without actually removing any of their power.
But the resolution also calls for the mayor to take leadership training and step aside as chair of the Governance Committee for at least three months.
Despite her previous refusal to step aside from the committee, Jones said “in the interest of moving forward and focusing on the people’s work,” she would.
Jones invited the rest of the council members to take the training with her.
Had Jones not agreed to those stipulations, council members had indicated they might take additional steps.
Their resolution states that they may consider a vote of “no confidence,” though that would also be largely symbolic.
The mayor has acknowledged swearing and raising her voice in her encounter with Kaur, but the specifics of what happened haven’t been made public.
Kaur filed a complaint, and an independent investigation was conducted into the incident. However, council members discussed the investigation’s findings behind closed doors on Monday.
City Attorney Andy Segovia said Friday that the investigative report is considered an attorney-client privileged document, with the client being the City Council, acting on behalf of the City of San Antonio.
The report found Jones violated the city council code of conduct as well as city administrative directives on equal employment opportunity/anti-harassment and violence in the workplace.
Jones opened Friday’s meeting with a statement before recusing herself for the rest of the meeting.
“I became passionate that morning because I firmly believe public safety is our number one responsibility. I should not have raised my voice at my colleague, and I should not have used profanity. I apologize for doing so,” she said.
Before the vote, several speakers said they were against the censure.
“The people voted to give you four-year terms and a professional salary so that you could do the people’s business, not this,” said Bexar Democratic Party Chairwoman Michelle Lowe Solis.
Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) was among the most forceful in her comments supporting censure. Castillo said she had been “disheartened and disturbed” with Jones’ behavior over the last nine months, and she would not have endorsed her, “knowing what I know now.”
“I want to be clear, this is not, quote, ‘about hurting someone’s feelings,” she said, referring to Jones’ comments earlier this week. “And the gravity of this instance and censure seems to be lost on Mayor Jones. This is about conduct violating the code of conduct and administrative directives directly related to harassment and violence in the workplace. This is about a pattern of workplace violence and harassment. This behavior needed to be investigated.”
Background
With the help of Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) and Castillo, Kaur had forced a vote onto the Feb. 5 council agenda meant to give the Bonham Exchange, a historic gay bar in downtown San Antonio, more time to install a sprinkler system without cutting how many people it lets through, an issue that nearly closed the bar.
The bar was supposed to install sprinklers or reduce its occupancy to under 300 people by October 2023, following a 2018 change to the fire code.
The city signed agreements with other non-compliant bars and nightclubs to lower their occupancy while they came into compliance.
However, the club’s general manager and co-owner, Joan Duckworth, told KSAT they wouldn’t be able to keep the doors open with that number of people.
Without an agreement, the club faced being shut down at the end of January, but that was put on hold until after the council could vote on an extension.
But in a twist, Duckworth signed an agreement with the city before the vote could happen. The deal reduced operations to one floor and lowered its capacity from 686 to 299, then to 343, as a sprinkler system is installed.
One of her attorneys, Javier Guerra, told KSAT that the mayor had called Duckworth the night before the vote and “put a lot of pressure on Joan.”
On the day of the vote, Guerra said, they met with the mayor’s people and agreed to limit the capacity because the mayor promised to raise the money for the $550,000 sprinkler system.
The signed deal made the extension vote moot, and the council did not vote on it.
RECENT CENSURES
Council members do not have the power to remove another member from office, barring criminal convictions involving “moral turpitude,” though voters can petition for a recall election.
Still, four council members have faced censure or a vote of no confidence in the past four years with varying repercussions.
Then-District 1 Councilman Mario Bravo was censured and given a vote of no confidence in November 2022 after an angry confrontation with then-District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval, his former romantic partner.
Bravo lost his reelection bid to Kaur seven months later.
A few days later, then-District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry was handed his own vote of no confidence following a drunken hit-and-run crash. His council colleagues, however, scrapped a call for his resignation.
Perry ultimately pleaded “no contest” to misdemeanor charges for driving while intoxicated (DWI) and failure to stop and provide information. He did not seek a fourth and final term.
Current District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte urged his council colleagues to censure him in January 2024 following his DWI arrest, which they did.
He eventually pleaded “no contest” to a non-DWI charge, obstruction of a highway and was reelected to a second term in May 2025.
District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez was censured in September 2025 following her own DWI arrest.
Meza Gonzalez pleaded “no contest” to a non-DWI charge and obstruction of a highway on Jan. 27.
City staff reviewed records since the city charter and found a handful of other censure votes in the past six decades. Only one appeared to be aimed at a mayor, though.
Mayor Walter McAllister faced censure in 1970 for comments he made to an NBC journalist, including about Mexican-Americans’ motivation. McAllister claimed his interview had been “misrepresented and distorted,” and the motion ultimately failed.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.on
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