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San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks about moving the city\u2019s municipal elections during a town hall at the Central Library on Saturday. Credit: Michael Karlis<\/p>\nSan Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks about moving the city\u2019s municipal elections during a town hall at the Central Library on Saturday. Credit: Michael Karlis<\/p>\n
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said the timing of her push to move the city\u2019s municipal elections<\/a> to November, which some on council have called hasty, comes down to a lack of information from city staff. <\/p>\n \u200b\u201cI found out about it when I read that Dallas voted in November to move their elections,\u201d Jones told the Current during a Town Hall over the weekend at San Antonio\u2019s Central Library. \u201cWhen I read that, I dug a little further into why they did that and the benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n \u200bDuring the last legislative session in Austin, Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1494<\/a>, which gives cites until Dec. 31 to move their municipal elections to November during years when neither a presidential nor midterm contest is taking place.<\/p>\n \u200bGov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law June 20, two days <\/a>after Jones took office. However, Jones didn\u2019t start pushing council to act on the potential move until the last week of November. That gave her colleagues six weeks, not including the holiday break, to gather public input on the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that this council has always placed a priority on community engagement,\u201d District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte told the Current of the condensed timetable. \u201cMoving the time period when we elect our local elected officials is a pretty big deal. So, I think one of my concerns is that we haven\u2019t had enough time to discuss this with our constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n But Jones said she hasn\u2019t procrastinated on the matter. Rather, city staff never informed her about details of the state bill. <\/p>\n \u201c[Assistant City Manager] Jeff Coyle and that team, they do a [state] legislative wrap-up,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThis is not something in that email wrap-up, but this is pretty significant.\u201d <\/p>\n \u200bEvery legislative session, the City of San Antonio sends a delegation to Austin. That group compiles a report of notable bills that Alamo City elected officials, including the mayor, should know about.<\/p>\n \u200bDespite SB 1494 directly targeting local governments, however, the measure didn\u2019t appear in Coyle\u2019s legislative wrap-up.<\/p>\n \u200b\u201cWhen I raised it with Erik [Walsh], the exact response was that \u2018this wasn\u2019t a city priority,\u2019\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n In a statement to the Current, Walsh and Coyle said SB 1494 wasn\u2019t considered a priority bill because it didn\u2019t mandate any change, nor was it part of the city\u2019s legislative agenda for the session. <\/p>\n \u201cBecause it was not part of our State Legislative Program, City staff did not take a position position on SB 1494 or include it in our Council briefings,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n \u200bResearch conducted by experts, including Melissa Marschall, a Rice University political scientist specializing in local elections, and Zoltan Hajnal, a quantitative social scientist at the University of San Diego, shows that moving the elections during off-years could double turnout.<\/p>\n \u200bJones also maintains that moving the elections could save the City of San Antonio $1 million and provide greater access to potential voters, since more polling stations would be open during a single, unified election.<\/p>\n \u200bIt\u2019s worth noting that if a motion to shift the election timetable is approved by council, Jones and the rest of the sitting members would get an additional six months in office.<\/p>\n Jones\u2019 proposal has the support of roughly a dozen civic-engagement organizations, including Voto Latino, the Texas Organizing Project, the League of Women Voters San Antonio.<\/p>\n \u200bStill, some council members, including Whyte, aren\u2019t completely sold on the idea.<\/p>\n \u201cWe only got a couple of weeks\u2019 heads up on this, and we\u2019re coming up on the holiday season,\u201d Whyte said. \u201cWe\u2019ve already had our final D10 community meeting for the year. It\u2019s going to be tough to bring together a large group of residents to discuss it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u200bEven so, Whyte said his office is actively seeking input from constituents, despite the short timeframe.<\/p>\n For her part, Jones said she\u2019s skeptical of those concerns, pointing to what she perceives as some council members\u2019 lack of community engagement <\/a>on Project Marvel and public financing of a new downtown arena for the Spurs. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u200b\u201cSome of these folks that have said there\u2019s not enough time for community engagement on this topic voted on a term sheet to sign our community up for $489 million and did not have community engagement,\u201d Jones said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m going to be spared the lecture on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u200bBoth members of the public and council will be able to get their say on the matter during Council\u2019s Wednesday B Session starting at 2 p.m. Jones said she hopes to hold a council vote on the proposal on Dec. 18.<\/p>\n Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Apple News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>| Twitter<\/a>\u00a0| Or sign up for our\u00a0RSS Feed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tExperts argue the move encourages turnout while also saving taxpayer money.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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