San Antonio City Council meets behind closed doors to discuss city attorney’s job performance

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio City Council members are expected to speak with reporters sometime Wednesday afternoon after meeting with officials over concerns regarding the city attorney’s job performance. 

The closed-door meeting came after five council members – Melissa Cabello Havrda, Marina Alderete-Gavito, Teri Castillo, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and Marc Whyte – said last week that Andy Segovia has given the council inconsistent legal advice and blocked initial requests to meet and discuss ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the fire union. They suggested, some more explicitly than others, that they wanted to see Segovia out. 

Only City Manager Erik Walsh has the ability to fire the city attorney. 

It all started back in February, when negotiations began between the city and fire union on a collective bargaining agreement. Two months in, they still have not made a deal. 

During that time, council members have been briefed individually by Segovia and Walsh on the negotiations.

However, McKee-Rodriguez says he has not received a briefing. Whyte also said he had not had one of his own prior to a press conference last week on the city attorney.

That’s when council members revealed they pushed for an executive session about it, saying their request was denied by Segovia.

“I’m disappointed we were not taken into executive session despite multiple requests from City Council members,” Castillo said last Thursday. “We can’t make data-driven decision on this negotiation if we’re not given full data.”

Whyte called it a “sad, sad day for the City of San Antonio” before claiming Segovia has “worked with city staff and the mayor on too many occasions to block transparency” over the last year, since he’s been in office. 

“This has been going on for some time, but it reached a breaking point this week,” he added. 

Nirenberg, meanwhile, called the memo demanding a meeting “a surprise to everyone.” He threw his support behind Segovia, as did Walsh. 

When KENS 5 followed up with the city attorney, he mentioned concerns of a leak of information. He didn’t clarify further. 

According to the agenda for Wednesday’s City Council meeting, which began at 2 p.m., leaders were set to meet in executive session to discuss personal matters regarding the city attorney. 

Then, on Thursday, the stage will be set for a public briefing regarding the fire union and ongoing negotiations. 

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