Long-simmering disagreements between the San Antonio City Council and new Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones have officially boiled over, with a censure vote scheduled for Friday morning.
The council members met in executive session for roughly two and a half hours Monday to discuss their options for reprimanding a mayor whose interpersonal style has been the subject of much consternation since she was sworn in eight months ago.
Jones didn’t consult them about plans to change their policy-making procedures when she first arrived, made them give up their cell phones during executive session meetings and repeatedly asked them to remain seated until meetings have been formally adjourned.
None of those are punishable offenses.
But this month the disagreements took on a new level of seriousness, when the mayor used profane language and raised her voice during a policy disagreement that drove Councilmember Sukh Kaur (D1) to tears.
Kaur filed a complaint after the Feb. 5 incident, spurring an investigation and a letter of condemnation from the other five women on the council.
As of Monday, City Spokesman Brian Chasnoff said the formal investigation had been completed.
The council decided that it would vote Friday on a formal rebuke — a move that’s largely symbolic and could include a vote of no confidence or letter of reprimand.
Council gave themselves such options when they created a new code of conduct to address behavioral issues within their ranks in 2024.
“This is an opportunity to reaffirm our shared commitment to professionalism and respect at City Hall, which are fundamental to serving our community,” Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7) said in a statement after Monday’s closed-door meeting on the matter.
Council can only remove a member from office if they were convicted of crime involving “moral turpitude,” according to the City Charter, but formally addressing disagreements has become more pressing since the City Council just moved to longer, four-year terms.
In a move that’s become common for the mayor, while they were huddling in executive session Monday, Jones was across the street, giving her version of the story to the media.
She told Texas Public Radio’s David Martin Davies that she confronted and cursed at Kaur in the name of finding an urgent policy solution for a local nightclub they both wanted to keep open, but faced public safety concerns over a lack of fire sprinklers.
Jones said it wasn’t clear that colleagues were going to support the solution she’d worked out for the owners of the Bonham Exchange, so she confronted her colleague off the dais, but doesn’t believe she crossed a line.
“I go back, I reiterate my concerns to Councilwoman Kaur, and was my voice elevated? Yes. Did I drop an F-bomb? Yes, did I? Did I point to locations? Yes, I admit to doing all of those things,” Jones said. “I in no way — in no way — personally berated her. I did not use derogatory language. I did not do those things.”
Jones started to say that she had apologized to Kaur, but stopped herself mid-sentence and pivoted to her now-standard response for such accusations.
“For me, this is never personal. It’s always about progress, and in this instance, it was about public safety,” she said.
Open records requests for a copy of Kaur’s complaint, details about scope of work requested from the outside investigator and other details have not been turned over by the city.