Ethics complaint filed against SA City Councilman Marc Whyte

SAN ANTONIO — Officials are looking into an ethics complaint filed against City Councilman Marc Whyte after he says he contacted Bexar County law enforcement about a teen girl he felt “was in danger” last month. 

Brian Chasnoff, assistant director of communications for San Antonio, confirmed the review was now underway after the complaint was filed Tuesday. He did not comment on specifics. 

Whyte, however, defended his actions in an Instagram post, saying that on the night of April 26 he was “information that a 13-year-old girl had been ‘hurt'” and contacted Sheriff Javier Salazar, “who was present at the same event I was attending.” According to Whyte, Salazar sent a deputy to check on the girl’s nearby home. 

“As a result of my actions that night, Martin Phipps has filed a complaint against me, claiming that I used my office to intervene in a private custody dispute between him and his ex-wife,” Whyte went on to say. 

According to a statement from Salazar, Whyte and City Councilman Manny Pelaez approached him with concerns about “some sort of disturbance that was happening a few doors down from the party.” The disturbance, the sheriff added, was at a home owned by Phipps. 

Salazar said he sent a deputy to check out the disturbance. When the deputy returned, he told Salazar that San Antonio police officers were “already on scene handling the situation.”

“He indicated to me that it was not much of a disturbance by the time he arrived,” the sheriff added. 

Whyte asserts that he didn’t violate the city’s ethics code. Chasnoff said that, per city procedure, an independent lawyer will be appointed to evaluate the complaint; if it’s deemed Whyte violated code, the complaint will be forwarded to the Ethics Review Board.

Whyte in his online post expressed confidence he didn’t do anything wrong. 

“To my knowledge, the actions I took did not violate the San Antonio Ethics Code,” he said. “My actions that evening were not those of a city official, but were those of a father of two girls – and of a concerned citizen. Any citizen of this City, whether elected or not, should always immediately notify law enforcement if the citizen believes a child is in danger.”

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