SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio mayoral candidate Mike Villarreal accused Mayor Ivy Taylor of using a council aide to work on her campaign while the worker was on city time, a violation of the city's ethics code. But documents obtained by KSAT 12 appear to show the mayor did not violate any laws.
Council aides are contractual employees, but in mid-April Villarreal said, "Their salaries are paid for by city tax dollars. These folks are working on her campaign, but not getting paid by her campaign. This is very concerning."
The aide in question is Steven Hussain. According to city payroll records, he was making nearly $4,000 per month from November to mid-March. His salary was then cut to approximately $2,700.
In a statement to KSAT 12, the mayor's office explained why Hussain's salary was reduced.
"The contract employee may not engage in political activity on city time, using city resources or property. For this reason, the Mayor and Steven Hussain agreed to reduce his salary, to accommodate the time he would be spending on the political campaign of the Mayor and not on behalf of her as the officeholder and his employers as the contract aide," the statement said.
The Villarreal campaign responded with skepticism since Hussain's name does not show up on Taylor's most recent campaign finance report. It released the following statement to KSAT 12:
"Ivy Taylor reduced this staffer's pay at City Hall, but her last campaign finance report showed the mayor's campaign hadn't paid him a dime. So he's a city-paid employee who's taken a pay cut to work on her campaign. The real issue here is an officeholder asking a staffer to split his time between working for the taxpayers and working for her campaign. Who's going to say no when your boss -- in this case the mayor -- asks you to do that? It puts staffers in a difficult position. It's a bad practice. But I hope for the staffer's sake that the campaign at least makes up the difference in his pay."
The Taylor campaign said Hussain started getting paid by the campaign on April 1, which is why he is not listed on the most recent report. The last expenditure item in the report has a transaction date of May 30. The campaign said Hussain would appear in the next filing, which is due eight days before the election.