{"id":295380,"date":"2026-05-16T01:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/295380\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T01:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:32:09","slug":"san-antonio-can-withhold-report-on-mayors-verbally-abusive-clash-with-councilwoman-ags-office-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/295380\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio can withhold report on mayor\u2019s \u2018verbally abusive\u2019 clash with councilwoman, AG\u2019s office rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 It remains unclear exactly what happened during a confrontation that led to Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones\u2019 historic censure earlier this year<\/a>, and now San Antonians may never know.<\/p>\n

The Texas Attorney General\u2019s office ruled the City of San Antonio does not have to release the results of an investigation into the confrontation between Jones and District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur.<\/p>\n

Assistant Attorney General James Coggeshall said Tuesday that the report was covered by attorney-client privilege and may be withheld.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city states the submitted information consists of a report authored by legal counsel for the city pertaining to an investigation that was conducted by that same legal counsel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city also states the report was provided to the city to facilitate the rendition of professional legal services and advice to the city. The city asserts the information at issue was intended to be and has remained confidential.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on these representations and our review, we find the city has demonstrated the applicability of the attorney-client privilege to the information at issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant Attorney General James Coggeshall, Open Records Division<\/p>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s Office review was triggered by the city, which tried to block the report from being released to KSAT <\/p>\n

The investigation occurred after a Feb. 5 encounter between the mayor and councilmember, where Jones acknowledged swearing and raising her voice in a discussion about fire sprinkler regulations and Bonham Exchange. Specifics of what happened in the city council break room have not been made public.<\/p>\n

Kaur filed a complaint<\/a> under the City Council\u2019s Code of Conduct<\/a> on Feb. 9, accusing Jones of profanity, abusive language, and intimidating behavior.<\/p>\n

That same day, five councilmembers requested a meeting to consider censuring Jones<\/a> following an investigation into the complaint.<\/p>\n

The city brought in an outside attorney to investigate, who determined Jones violated the code of conduct as well as administrative directives on Equal Employment Opportunity and Anti-harassment<\/a> as well as Violence in the Workplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The council voted 8-1 to censure Jones on Feb. 27, a few days after being briefed behind closed doors <\/a>on the outside attorney\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

The resolution accused Jones of being \u201cverbally abusive\u201d during the Feb. 5 incident and cited unspecified \u201cprior inappropriate interactions with councilmembers, city staff and constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Kaur nor Jones was present for the vote, though Jones made a short statement at the beginning of the meeting before recusing herself.<\/p>\n

Before voting in favor of censuring Jones, District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said, \u201cI do not clutch my pearls at profanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe independent investigation found repeated, directed, and aggressive language,\u201d he said. \u201cIt found intimidation. It found proximity, posture, and threats that crossed a line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to media after the vote and joined by most of her fellow council members, Kaur said the mayor had attempted to diminish the confrontation \u201cby saying it was a single F-bomb that was thrown.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very different to use the curse word as an adjective,\u201d Kaur said, \u201cversus to use it to continuously berate someone and intimidate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears, the lone vote against the censure, said she did not believe Jones\u2019 \u201cunprofessional\u201d conduct rose to the level of censure. She also said she had concerns about the investigative process.<\/p>\n

A censure vote is largely symbolic, on its own, publicly rebuking an elected official for their actions without actually removing any of their power.<\/p>\n

The resolution also called for the mayor to take leadership training, however, and step aside as chair of the Governance Committee until she had completed it or three months had passed, whichever was longer.<\/p>\n

The three months should be up later this month, and a city spokeswoman confirmed the mayor had completed the training.<\/p>\n

Read the ruling from the Attorney General\u2019s office below:<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 It remains unclear exactly what happened during a confrontation that led to Mayor Gina Ortiz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[61969,3084,2112,82,84,83,4876,2943],"class_list":["post-295380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bonham-exchange","tag-city-hall","tag-gina-ortiz-jones","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-sukh-kaur","tag-texas-attorney-generals-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}