<\/p>\n
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez\u00a0listens as Robert Puente, the President and CEO of San Antonio Water System, speaks during a special meeting at Municipal Plaza Building in San Antonio on Thursday, May 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
Ethics Review Board Member Jim Reidy speaks with the rest of the Panel at an Ethics Review Board Panel on July 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Blaine Young\/For the Express-News<\/p>\n
Outside Counsel Frank Garza speaks to the Panel at an Ethics Review Board Panel on July 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Blaine Young\/For the Express-News<\/p>\n
Juan Rider Mireles II speaks on his complaint about Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez to the Ethics Review Board Panel on July 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Blaine Young\/For the Express-News<\/p>\n
Councilman\u00a0Jalen McKee-Rodriguez violated San Antonio\u2019s ethics code when he publicly posted a constituent\u2019s personal email address to his personal Facebook account, a city board ruled Monday night.<\/p>\n
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A three-member panel of the city\u2019s Ethics Review Board said McKee-Rodriguez violated a section of the ethics code that prohibits city officials from intentionally or recklessly \u201cdisclosing confidential information gained by reason of that official\u2019s position.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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He also broke a section of the code that restricts city officials from unfairly advancing or impeding private interests. Board member Jim Reidy said the councilman used his \u201cofficial office and position to intimidate\u00a0and impede a constituents’ participation\u201d when he posted the email address, which Reidy said sparked harassment and threats against the resident.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McKee-Rodriguez was ordered to pay $500 for each violation, the maximum fine the board can levy. He was also issued two letters of reprimand, which is a finding that someone \u201cintentionally or knowingly violated the code of ethics.\u201d It is the harshest of the three letters the board can issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew what he was doing,\u201d vice chairman Philip Ryan Garza told reporters. \u201cHe was using his platform, and he knew the reactions he would get on social media.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fight<\/p>\n
San Antonio resident Trisha Thatcher-Garza called the councilman a \u201cmonkey\u201d on Facebook when she accused him of ignoring a message she once sent his office. McKee-Rodriguez called the remark racist and posted a screen shot of the response staff sent her in 2024. The image, which has since been deleted but was included in the ethics complaint, included Thatcher-Garza\u2019s email address.<\/p>\n
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Juan Rider Mireles II filed a complaint about the incident on June 1 after reading\u00a0news coverage of the online brawl<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mireles accused McKee-Rodriguez of several violations under the city\u2019s ethics code, City Council\u2019s code of conduct and the U.S. Constitution.\u00a0The ethics board has no jurisdiction over potential constitutional violations.<\/p>\n Thatcher-Garza and McKee-Rodriguez publicly made up in June<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI walked in Mr.\u00a0Rodriguez\u2019s office this morning not knowing what to expect,\u201d Thatcher-Garza wrote in a Facebook post on June 1. \u201cHe gave me the time I asked for without hesitation. I let him see me for me. He listened with sincerity and never judged my honesty.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI know I did not intend it racially but it caused a pain I know I needed to own and fix,\u201d she wrote, referring to her\u00a0monkey reference in the previous post.<\/p>\n The councilman posted a video the same day apologizing for escalating the argument. He said her comment \u201chit me pretty hard,\u201d but that didn\u2019t excuse his reaction.<\/p>\n McKee-Rodriguez also said he didn\u2019t condone the threats and hateful remarks some people directed at Thatcher-Garza after the argument played out on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking back, I don\u2019t believe it was a responsible use of my platform,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe her apology is sincere. I believe it was not her intent.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He also apologized in a written statement to the board after learning of the allegations against him. He said including her email address in the post was inadvertent\u00a0\u2014 and \u201cit was an error in judgement and should not have been publicly shared.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The councilman completed training on the Texas Public Information Act on June 3 \u201cto strengthen my understanding of disclosure standards and improve my practices for handling constituent-related information.\u201d The online training<\/a> was provided by the state.<\/p>\n In August, Thatcher-Garza took to Facebook<\/a> to condemn the complaint and say that she was not coerced into making amends with the councilman.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFYI: I don\u2019t even know the individual who filed said complaint and he definitely did not do it on my behalf or with my knowledge,\u201d she said in the post.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n McKee-Rodriguez wanted ethics board members to toss the allegations because they exceeded the 90-day deadline to rule. But they opted to extend their deadline, which the board\u2019s third-party attorney Frank Garza said is allowed under the city\u2019s ethics code.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that the Ethics Review Board is being used as a political tool by conservative political operatives,\u201d McKee-Rodriguez said in statement late Monday. \u201cI look forward to continuing to serve my constituents free from distraction for the rest of my term.\u201d<\/p>\n Mireles espouses conservative opinions on social media, including about gun rights. He declined an interview request at a previous ethics board meeting and did not attend last night’s session.\u00a0<\/p>\n Past violation<\/p>\n Monday wasn\u2019t McKee-Rodriguez\u2019s first ethics code violations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Ethics Review Board ruled last year that the councilman violated a section of the city\u2019s ethics code<\/a> prohibiting city officials from using their positions to unfairly impede the interests of private companies or other parties.<\/p>\n He had tried in 2024 to\u00a0stop a developer<\/a> from building a semi-truck dealership near a neighborhood in his district.<\/p>\n Converse-based Doggett Freightliner was seeking zoning and land-use changes for a 35-acre property, frustrating residents on the city\u2019s increasingly industrial East Side. McKee-Rodriguez said the neighborhood preferred retail options.<\/p>\n Ahead of a council meeting, McKee-Rodriguez told Doggett Freightliner lobbyist Ken Brown he would delay discussion of the trucking company\u2019s request. Instead, he pushed for a vote to change the property\u2019s zoning to allow for shops and retail development.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The board concluded McKee-Rodriguez didn’t knowingly violate the ethics code, so it issued him a letter of admonition \u2014 the penalty when the board believes an ethics violation was minor or when an official unintentionally ran afoul of the rules. The councilman also had to undergo one-on-one ethics training with the board’s city liaison.<\/p>\n McKee-Rodriguez mended fences with the company before the ruling, and City Council voted to allow\u00a0Doggett Freightliner to build a dealership, with several concessions to nearby residents.<\/p>\n Former Mayor Ron Nirenberg<\/a> and council members Marc Whyte and Sukh Kaur<\/a> have also been reprimanded for various infractions in the past year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez\u00a0listens as Robert Puente, the President and CEO of San Antonio Water System, speaks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-451313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451313","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=451313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}