{"id":237229,"date":"2025-09-18T20:51:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T20:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/237229\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T20:51:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T20:51:30","slug":"san-antonio-mayor-loses-fight-over-how-local-laws-are-brought-up-for-public-debate-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/237229\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio mayor loses fight over how local laws are brought up for public debate \u2013 again."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"San Antonio mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks during a City Hall press conference last month. Credit: Michael Karlis<\/p>\n

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones suffered a bruising defeat Thursday as the 10 other members of City Council voted to keep the existing city rules governing how members of the body propose new ordinances for debate. <\/p>\n

A bipartisan coalition including District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito, D10 District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte and first-term District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears put the item forward for a vote. <\/p>\n

Last month, Jones advocated changing the old rules so no proposal documents, called Council Consideration Requests (CCRs), filed by council members prior to her time in office could come up for a vote. At the time, every member of council voted to reject the alteration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After that vote, the four-member coalition filed a memo demanding Thursday\u2019s full debate of the CCR rules. The discussion set the stage for Jones\u2019 second defeat on the matter.<\/p>\n

During Thursday\u2019s debate, Whyte said the rule change Jones sought would force council members to refile CCRs that aren\u2019t heard before the end of their term \u2014\u00a0a process that could take as long as a year and a half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine being in your last term in office,\u201d Whyte said. \u201cWhy would you even file a CCR that could take a year or a year and a half to be worked on, if the minute you\u2019re gone and termed out the CCR expires, and the process would have to start over again? I mean, you may as well not even do the work at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, first-term District 4 Councilman Edward Mungia disagreed and put forth an amendment that would have declared CCRs authored by a member no longer in office \u201cexpired.\u201d\u00a0 CCRs where four of the five signatories were no longer in office also would also be tossed under Mungia\u2019s suggested rule change. <\/p>\n

Although first-term District 6 Councilman Ric Galvan and District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur both said they\u2019re open to having a more in-depth discussion about how the CCR process could improve, they argued the language in Munguia\u2019s amendment could cause problems if not properly examined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a larger conversation about what the things that feel are important \u2026 but I think we can continue with the previous CCRs that were under the previous ordinance, and then we should have a conversation about how we want to propose anything new,\u201d Kaur said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"San\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tCity Council unanimously passed an amendment that requires its members to disclose if they sign binding confidentiality agreements. \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Critics\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tMayor Gina Ortiz Jones and City Council are headed for a showdown over an important process. \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"After\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tJones\u2019 decision to back down comes after a contentious City Council meeting where some members criticized her leadership approach.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

This article appears in Sep. 18-Oct. 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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