{"id":203963,"date":"2025-09-06T03:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T03:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/203963\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T03:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T03:29:09","slug":"mayor-jones-calls-special-meeting-to-censure-councilwoman-ivalis-meza-gonzalez-after-dwi-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/203963\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Jones calls special meeting to censure Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez after DWI arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 Citing \u201cnew information,\u201d San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones called a special meeting to consider censuring District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez after her arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated (DWI) in July.<\/p>\n

In a memo to council members on Friday, Jones said she was also suspending the freshman councilwoman from her committee assignments \u201cuntil further notice or until more details of the incident are known.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear what Jones meant by \u201cnew information,\u201d nor does a draft resolution of the censure posted online specify what it may be. <\/p>\n

KSAT has reached out to Laura Barbarena, Meza Gonzalez\u2019s spokesperson, for comment. Barbarena said she would check with the councilwoman but had not yet responded by the time this article was published.<\/p>\n

While Jones wrote she wanted to add an agenda item to discuss a possible censure on the council\u2019s regularly scheduled Sept. 11 council meeting, City Manager Erik Walsh had other ideas. <\/p>\n

\u201cBased on City Council discussion yesterday (Thursday, Sept. 4), I have the strong sense the Council is not ready to consider this item,\u201d Walsh wrote to Jones and council members in an email obtained by KSAT on Friday night, citing what appeared to be a closed-door, executive session. \u201cConsequently, I will not be adding the requested item to the September 11, 2025 City Council A session agenda.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the same email, Walsh recommended Jones ask the city clerk to add a separate, special meeting of the city council, which Jones did in a separate email to City Clerk Debbie Racca-Sittre shortly before 7 p.m. Friday. <\/p>\n

The special meeting will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, a few hours after the start of the council\u2019s regular meeting. <\/p>\n

Background<\/b><\/p>\n

San Antonio police pulled over Meza Gonzalez just after 11 p.m. on July 24 along Interstate 10 westbound near Hildebrand Avenue<\/a>. After a series of sobriety tests, she was later arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated (DWI). Meza Gonzalez bonded out of the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on July 25. <\/p>\n

Two weeks after her arrest, on Aug. 8, SAPD released body camera video of Meza Gonzalez\u2019s arrest. <\/p>\n

In the video, the first-term council member was seen driving slowly and drifted from one lane to another<\/a>. The footage also showed Meza Gonzalez telling a responding officer at least eight times that she did not have anything to drink that night. <\/p>\n

Meza Gonzalez won the June 7 runoff for the District 8 seat against Paula McGee with 57% of the vote. <\/p>\n

According to Bexar County court records, Meza Gonzalez is expected to be in court regarding her DWI case on Oct. 2. <\/p>\n

Other council members who faced possible censure <\/b><\/p>\n

Meza Gonzalez is not the first to face a public rebuke from the rest of the council.<\/p>\n

Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) was censured by his council colleagues shortly after his December 2024 arrest on suspicion of DWI.<\/p>\n

In November 2022, the city council gave his predecessor, Clayton Perry, a vote of \u201cno confidence\u201d after a drunken hit and run.<\/p>\n

Just a few days before that, they did the same for then-District 1 Councilman Mario Bravo, who had had an angry confrontation in council chambers with his former girlfriend and fellow council member, Ana Sandoval, the then-District 7 councilwoman.<\/p>\n

Censures and votes of no confidence are largely symbolic and do not affect a council member\u2019s ability to vote or take part in council discussion. The City Council does not have the power to remove another member \u2014 barring certain criminal convictions.<\/p>\n

However, former Mayor Ron Nirenberg also removed Whyte, Perry and Bravo from their committee assignments, which is where council members have more access to shaping policy. <\/p>\n

Meza Gonzalez had been appointed to the council\u2019s Audit, Economic Workforce and Development and Community Health committees. <\/p>\n

A draft of the censure can be read below. <\/p>\n

More related coverage of this story on KSAT: <\/b><\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Citing \u201cnew information,\u201d San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones called a special meeting to consider…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":203964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,13239,63229,7452,63230,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-203963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-district-8","11":"tag-gina-ortiz-jones","12":"tag-ivalis-meza-gonzalez","13":"tag-san-antonio","14":"tag-sanantonio","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115155237038909828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}