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Community representatives who serve on a city task force to come up with recommendations to change the city code regulating certain metal and automotive recycling companies said the city’s Development Services Department is facilitating the process in a way that gives an unfair advantage to industry representatives.
That feeling of unfairness came to a head at the task force’s most recent meeting on Jan. 24, when two community members walked out of the meeting after they were told they would be voting on a code change recommendation despite the community side having fewer members present than the industry side.
“I asked, ‘can we table this meeting until the next meeting, and we can have more representatives on the community task force side?” said Debra Ponce, the District 4 community representative. “I was told no. I asked them, 'can we not vote?' ... And I was told no for that as well.”
Ponce and another task force member walked out of the meeting once it was clear that a vote would be held on what to do with the contentious definition of “hazardous materials” in the code, despite there being three community members and seven industry members present.
February meetings were later canceled, and the task force was expected to resume next month.
The Metal Recycling Entities and Used Auto Parts Recyclers Code Update Task Force was launched last year as a result of District 5 Councilmember Teri Castillo’s Council Consideration Request (CCR) to change the code to tighten regulation on the metal and automotive recycling industries.
The CCR stemmed from complaints from community members on San Antonio’s Southwest Side who live near dozens of these companies and who have complained of fires and pollution in recent years. That includes a major fire at Monterrey Metal in 2023 caused by a lithium-ion battery. That fire was not the result of any code violation.
The task force intended to have half of its 16 members come from the community and the other half from industry. That group would then debate over how the code needs to be changed — or kept the same — from the most recent code update in 2012 and then present their final recommendations to the city council for approval or rejection.
The presentation to council was supposed to happen this month, but it has been delayed along with the task force meetings over the complaints and the task force’s slow progress.
Cheyenne Rendon, a District 5 representative on the task force, said her first meeting as a member was on Jan. 24 — the meeting that led to the pause — but she has observed every meeting since the task force began last fall.
She said the biggest issue that has stood out to her about the process has been DSD’s inconsistency.
“Every meeting has been operated completely different — definitions of consensus versus majority voting have always changed,” Rendon said.
Tohmaz told task force members in the group’s first meeting that the goal of the task force would be to reach decisions by consensus and then by a majority vote if necessary. He also said if the industry and community sides had very different numbers of representatives in attendance, he would not allow a vote.
At the Jan. 24 meeting, Tohmaz said the issue they were discussing had already been delayed several weeks and could not be pushed back any longer, necessitating a vote despite the imbalance in representatives present.
Ponce said she and other community members have also felt that DSD staff have “talked down to” them and have allowed industry representatives to add language to the code recommendations but prevented community members from doing the same.
In a statement, Development Services Director Michael Shannon explained why they’re taking a pause.
“The pause is to identify ways to ensure that a fully balanced task force can attend meetings, allowing all participants to contribute meaningful input on these important potential code updates,” he said. “We are planning for the meetings to resume in March, with DSD staff facilitating the discussions in the professional manner they have maintained thus far.”
Ponce said Shannon scheduled a meeting with her and several other community members who wrote a letter outlining their concerns for Monday afternoon to hear them out.
Castillo’s Communications Director Amador Salazar said the city needs to ensure residents are heard. “There’s a potential for that vital voice to be lost within the process.”
Salazar said he did not view the attendance issue as a loss of faith in the process.
