SAN ANTONIO – Councilmembers Marina Alderete Gavito, Marc Whyte, and Teri Castillo are pushing back against a memo Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones recently sent to council members explaining any Council Consideration Requests, or CCRs, would now have to be sent as drafts to City Manager Erik Walsh and City Attorney Andy Segovia.
“Yeah, what I feel that her proposed recommendations are doing are, and maybe unintentionally, giving non-elected city staff power over council, council members, CCRs, our Council Consideration Request,” said Alderete Gavito.
Currently, all council members have to do is notify the City Manager’s Office. Alderete Gavito says, although she has high respect for the city manager, local political strategist Collin Strother says the position has historically sided with the mayor for years.
“You know, we have a good working relationship. I do think there are going to be times that we’re going to push back,” said Alderete Gavito.
The new memo also asks for council members’ staff to meet with the mayor’s staff before starting a new policy process.
“And that does set a dangerous precedent, you know, where we’re having to work with a mayor’s chief of staff, again, non-elected position, who could potentially stop some of the ideas coming from council districts to never see the light of day,” said Alderete Gavito.
“The mayor has proposed changes that we believe would slow the process and would take the ability to put forward these policy solutions away from the council,” said Whyte.
The memo says this new procedure is to “achieve a more informed and efficient implementation of policy,” with the manager finding out what city actions or programs would be involved in a new policy and the attorney researching if it would be legal. Alderete Gavito says sometimes she had to fight them in the past, like when she passed a loose and dangerous dog policy.
“I just refused to take no for an answer, and me and my team dug in, and we found other ways to get that, to get this done, and to solve this issue, because to me, it was important for residents. You know, we’re having residents getting attacked and killed by dogs. I wasn’t willing to take no for an answer,” said Alderete Gavito.
At least one member of the city council is supporting this change. Phyllis Viagran says they are pleased to see the CCR process streamlined.
So, what’s next? Councilmembers Alderete Gavito, Whyte, and Castillo have asked Jones to schedule a special council meeting by August 15th to discuss and vote on the mayor’s proposed changes.
We called the mayor’s office to ask if she would do so, but our calls weren’t returned.