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Members of the San Antonio City Council are bucking Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones once again.
Four members of the council signed a memo on Friday calling for a vote by September 18 to enshrine certain rules regarding council members’ primary policymaking tool, the council consideration request (CCR), in response to an attempt by Jones to prevent an animal abandonment ordinance from receiving a vote last week.
Jones has said all CCRs proposed before the current council was sworn in should be considered expired and gave this as the rationale for her removal of the animal abandonment ordinance from last week’s agenda.
“The current CCR process as outlined in the current CCR ordinance does not address the expiration of CCR’s,” the council members said in their memo. “Accordingly, and despite the language used by the Mayor regarding 'expired CCR’s', all CCR’s should continue through the committee process regardless of whether a new Council has been elected.”
The memo calls for a vote to make clear in the CCR ordinance language that it can only be amended by a full council vote, and that CCRs do not expire even after an election.
Jones has in the past cited other legislative bodies like the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress which must refile bills every session, even if they were filed previously, as examples she is following.
The council members’ memo said there was no such “precedent” in San Antonio and emphasized that the mayor lacks the authority to make unilateral changes to the council’s policymaking process.
Friday’s memo, signed by District 5 Councilmember Teri Castillo, District 7 Councilmember Marina Alderete Gavito, District 9 Councilmember Misty Spears, and District 10 Councilmember Marc Whyte, is now the third time the procedural tool has been used against Jones and is a signal of the ongoing turmoil in City Hall between the council and the mayor largely surrounding its legislative process.
Jones has also been in the minority in efforts to slow the city’s negotiations with the San Antonio Spurs over a new downtown arena. She lost a vote 7-4 to stop a terms sheet from being signed last month.
The four members also raised concerns that the mayor’s attempt to kill a vote on the animal abandonment ordinance went back on earlier commitments to stick with the current CCR process.
“These sudden reversals contradict the earlier guidance and raise concerns about a lack of good faith in the process,” they said. “San Antonio families deserve action, not obstruction.”
Castillo, Alderete Gavito, and Whyte signed the previous two memos, which went after Jones’ attempted changes to the CCR process they deemed overbearing and out of step with the ordinance. Jones backed down and said the council could consider changes to the process in 2026 after it was clear a majority of council was against her changes.
The trio used the three-signature memo a second time to put the animal abandonment ordinance on this week’s agenda. The ordinance passed 10-1, with only Jones voting against it.
Jones did not respond to TPR’s request for comment.
