Jones and four other City Council members were officially sworn in Wednesday morning, with an Inauguration Ceremony to follow at 6 p.m.
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio, for the first time in eight years, has a new mayor.
Gina Ortiz Jones, who defeated Rolando Pablos in this month’s runoff election for the city’s highest position, was officially sworn in around noon on Wednesday. She becomes the third woman to hold the mayoral seat in San Antonio’s history, and the first openly LGBTQ+ mayor.
Joining her were four City Council members who also won their runoff contests.
Those who won their elections in May and June will be the first in the city’s history to serve a four-year term. All 11 members of City Council, now led by Mayor Jones, will be inaugurated in a ceremony starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Districts 4, 6, 8 and 9 will have new representatives as Edward Mungia, Ric Galvan, Ivalis Meza Gonzalez and Misty Spears join council.
Jones takes over at a pivotal point in the city’s history. San Antonio leaders are continuing talks about Project Marvel – the city’s dream of a multibillion-dollar downtown sports and entertainment district – as the region continues to grow at a rapid pace and issues like homelessness and lack of affordable housing persist. She will also be expected to get up to speed quickly before annual budget discussions begin later this summer.
Asked Wednesday what her first official action as mayor would be, Jones said she wanted to ensure the city’s investigation into the factors that exacerbated last week’s deadly flooding was all-encompassing.
“So making sure we are all aware of making sure that is appropriate in scope, not only for the engineering and infrastructure-laden items as a result of that, but also making sure our processes and policies as it relates to extreme weather events were sufficient,” she said.
This is a developing story.