Voters approved of all six ballot propositions updating the City Charter, including one that San Antonio’s fire union was campaigning against.
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio voters made their voices heard on Election Day, approving all six proposed updates to the city charter that will boost the pay of council members and the mayor; remove term and salary caps for the city manager position; and allow city employees to participate in political activities.
The remain ballot propositions will update the ethics complaints investigation process, remove outdated language and adjust city council members’ term limits from four two-year terms to two four-year terms.
With Bexar County reporting the early vote returns as well as figures from 243 of 302 voting centers, each of those six ballot propositions remain in position to pass. The tightest race is still Proposition F, concerning term limits for council members and the mayor.
The ballot questions were the result of a monthslong effort by the Charter Review Commission, which looked into the possible charter updates before presenting them to City Council in August.
Proposition E is set to raise the salary for council members from $45,000 to $70,200 year while the mayor’s pay will increase from $58,000 to $87,800. It will go into effect for the council members elected next May.
Not all sitting council members were in favor of the Prop E, which passed 8-3 at an August City Council meeting. District 8 representative Manny Pelaez called it “tone-deaf” to consider the change while many in the city continue to struggle financially.
District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte and District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda also voted nay on Prop E.
Twin UTSA polls from recent months suggested that the way the ballot measure was worded – specifically framing it so it would appear their salaries would be “limited” to their new dollar amounts instead of current salaries being raised – would play a role in voters potentially passing them. In October, 51.5% respondents to the UTSA Center for Public Opinion Research poll said they were in favor, compared to just 27.3% in September, when UTSA researchers provided their own wording in the poll.
Proposition C, meanwhile, has received heavy pushback from the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association, which played an instrumental role in capping the term and pay for the city managers position in 2018. This year, the union spend $200,000 campaigning against Prop C, which has passed nonetheless.
By comparison, the union spent more than half a million dollars pushing for the caps in 2018.
See the latest updates on the remaining ballot propositions below.
Proposition A: Enhancing the city’s ethics process
Prop A would strengthen and enhance the city’s process of dealing with ethics. The measure would add a definition of “conflicts of interest” which is not currently defined. It would also more funding to the Ethics Review Board and would allow the board to review complaints already addressed by other agencies.
Proposition B: Modernizing language
This proposition would update the charter’s language and replace outdated terms. The ballot measure does not specify which language would be replaced, but cites sections that contain archaic language. There’s a lot of them.
Proposition D: City employee political activity
City employees are currently restricted on political activity, but this measure would remove some of those limits. It would allow city employees to participate in politics as long as it was not during work hours or using city resources. The city leadership team, including senior city leaders, would still be subject to higher restrictions on political activity.
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