Five members of the San Antonio City Council submitted a memo on Thursday calling for a special city council meeting on May 15 or at the earliest possible alternative date to discuss whether City Attorney Andy Segovia remains fit to keep his job.
Members expressed their concerns in the memo about what they said is Segovia’s lack of transparency on a number of issues, including the ongoing contract negotiations with the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association.
“Despite the City Council’s clear and repeated requests on key issues, it has become evident that the City Attorney has consistently failed to follow through,” the memo stated. “Additionally, there have been significant inconsistencies and a demonstrated lack of transparency in his legal opinions which have caused delays and unpredictability which affect the Council’s ability to make timely and well-informed plans and decisions.”
District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, District 5 Councilmember Teri Castillo, District 6 Councilmember Melissa Cabello Havrda, District 7 Councilmember Marina Alderete Gavito, and District 10 Councilmember Marc Whyte signed the memo.
The city manager, not the city council, has the power to appoint and fire the city attorney. However, the city charter says the city manager should consider the advice of the council regarding the city attorney position.
The memo also stated that their “confidence has been compromised” and that it has become necessary to consider a “change in leadership” at the City Attorney’s Office.
Whyte said the issue with the fire union is one of the biggest reasons he added his name to the memo.
“[Firefighters] are brave folks who put their lives on the line for the City of San Antonio, and I did not feel like city staff was giving us the space to have these discussions about what we want to do in terms of the fire contract,” Whyte said. “Andy, I don’t feel like, has shown a commitment to transparency, and in fact, I think there’s time where he assists the mayor and city manager in not allowing council to have the full scope of the information on whatever the issue is.”
Several members of the city council expressed their frustration with the conversation about the fire union negotiations that took place during a Wednesday city council meeting, where they asked to hold a closed-doors session to discuss the negotiations in more detail but were denied.
“[Segovia’s] own legal advice to us was that these discussions should be in executive session,” Cabello Havrda said during the press conference. “But then he refused our request.”
She said she and her four colleagues yesterday signed a memo formally calling for that private executive session, which, she said, Segovia again denied.
“The refusal to call an executive committee meeting tipped the scale,” she said.
In a statement, Segovia explained his reasoning for refusing to give an executive meeting to council.
“As City Attorney, I have an ethical duty to maintain the confidentiality of our executive sessions,” his statement said. “Based on information that was relayed to me, I have no confidence that what is said there with respect to the collective bargaining agreement — the City’s second largest contract — will remain confidential.”
When asked who relayed the information that led Segovia to believe the conversations wouldn’t remain confidential, the City Attorney’s Office said, “those conversations were private.”
Cabello Havrda acknowledged that she and her colleagues had been told Segovia was concerned about leaks, but that he had a duty to hold these kinds of briefings for the full council when they requested them.
Cabello Havrda was the only one of the five councilmembers who said even if Segovia changes course, he should be removed. The other four members said they would be willing to back down if Segovia responded adequately.
“I’m looking for a replacement,” Cabello Havrda said. “I think it’s time for a change. I’ve been on council five years — it’s time. And I’ll tell you, we’re airing a little bit of dirty laundry here, but it’s gotten to that point. We’ve tried to work internally several times, me over my last three terms.”
Members also brought up two other examples of what they said were instances where Segovia’s legal opinions were inconsistent and negatively impacted council’s function, including flip-flopping on whether the city could spay and neuter roaming animals it picks up and how the city’s cite-and-release policy functioned.
McKee-Rodriguez said the issue with Segovia wasn’t personal but that it needed to be addressed.
“We rely on sound legal opinion and guidance from our city attorney and his team,” he said. “And we have to trust that the information that we receive is true and whole. What prompted this memo is a consensus amongst many of us that there is a lack of trust in the City Attorney to provide us guidance and feedback that isn’t tainted and that we are being given inaccurate, untimely, or otherwise incomplete information.”
In a statement, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the news was a surprise, and he defended Segovia.
“We won’t solve budget issues on the City Hall steps or by attacking City officials,” he said. “Andy Segovia has exhibited nothing but professionalism, candor, and judiciousness in his time as our City Attorney. He has my support.”
Nirenberg’s statement added that the council should hold a public rather than private meeting to discuss the fire union negotiations. Multiple council members who called for the meeting to potentially dismiss Segovia said they would prefer a public meeting over a private one, but that Segovia had told them that couldn’t be done.
District 8 Councilmember Manny Pelaez forcefully denounced his colleagues for potentially calling for Segovia’s removal.
“It makes me really sad that we have five pinnacle leaders here at city council who have taken it upon themselves to drag a public employee through the mud without giving him the opportunity to speak for himself,” Pelaez said. “I think it’s really particularly cruel to do this to a person.”
Pelaez accused the council members of political “grandstanding,” and specifically called out Cabello Havrda — who has not yet announced her candidacy for mayor next year but is widely expected to — for playing politics. Pelaez has already formally announced his own campaign for mayor.
“You have to be a pretty dim bulb to not see this for what it is, which is positioning yourself, or an attempt to score political points in a mayoral race,” he said. “By abusing your privilege as a city councilperson, using your power and dragging a good person’s name through the mud, it’s pretty gross.”
Cabello Havrda said in a statement she wasn’t surprised by Pelaez’s comments.
“It’s typical of Councilman Pelaez to revert to personal attacks when he has nothing substantive to say,” she said. “The matter at hand is a lack of confidence in the City Attorney, and the steps we need to take to fix the problem. I would ask, why is Manny [Pelaez] concerned with petty politics when our city needs better legal direction?”
The city council appointed Segovia to the City Attorney’s Office in 2016. Before that, he was a member of the General Motors Legal staff for 26 years.
It was not clear if or when the special meeting to discuss his fitness for the role will be held.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly explained the process for removing the city attorney. According to the city charter, the city manager has the power to appoint and remove city personnel including the city attorney.
