City Council members reviewed a completed investigation into the mayor’s conduct and met behind closed doors to discuss on Monday.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio City Council will move forward with a Friday vote to potentially censure Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones.
City staff posted the agenda for a special meeting Monday evening. Earlier in the day, council members met for a lengthy conversation — most of it unfolding in executive session behind closed doors — surrounding the results of an independent investigation into Jones that began when Councilwoman Sukh Kaur filed a Code of Conduct complaint against Jones on Feb. 9.
The review follows a series of concerns raised by several council members, including a Feb. 5 incident involving District 1 Councilwoman Kaur. Officials confirmed that Kaur filed a City Council Code of Conduct complaint tied to that interaction, after which five members of San Antonio City Council submitted a memo calling for a meeting to discuss the results of the ensuing probe.
Neither Kaur nor Jones attended Monday’s meeting.
According to a memo filed for Friday’s meeting, Kaur claimed Jones “used profanity, abusive language and intimidating behavior during an encounter in a City Council break room.” The city attorney’s office organized an outside independent investigation in response.
District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran previously told KENS 5 the disagreement between Jones and Kaur stemmed from an agenda item involving the future of Bonham Exchange, a historic downtown nightclub. Council members were discussing whether the venue should be allowed to remain open after missing a deadline to install required fire sprinklers.
District 2 Councilman McKee-Rodriguez confirmed to KENS 5 after the meeting that the resolution for potential censure will be filed and eventually put to a vote.
“It’s obviously very unfortunate. None of us wants to be here right now, discussing each other’s behavior, policing our colleagues,” he said. “We’d much rather be focusing on the issues of our city and working together towards that. I stand with my colleagues who sometimes have been on the receiving end of less-than desirable behavior.”
Talking to KENS 5 before Friday’s special meeting was placed on the calendar, the councilman said the city’s external investigation had wrapped up. He declined to detail its findings, but expressed support for colleagues who he said have been on the “receiving end of less than desirable behavior.”
KENS 5 also spoke with Councilman Marc Whyte of District 10, who called the independent investigation’s findings “serious,” pointing to one “serious incident… that should never have occurred.”
“For us to operate better as a body and do the work of these people, we need a change in behavior from the mayor’s office,” Whyte said. “I think it’s going to be a collective voice that’s going to say, ‘Some of the behavior we’ve seen in the past cannot continue.'”
A censure would serve as a formal reprimand, but would not remove the mayor from office. Mayor Walter McAllister was the last San Antonio mayor to face a censure vote, in July 1970; that vote eventually failed.