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A Bexar County judge denied a temporary restraining order to two groups suing the city over the removal of the rainbow crosswalk and installation of rainbow sidewalks.
Pride San Antonio and the Texas Conservative Liberty Forum (TCLF) sued the City of San Antonio earlier this week asking for the crosswalk removal and costs related to the rainbow sidewalk installation to go to a full city council vote.
Pride SA had wanted the city to fight a directive from the Texas Department of Transportation that ordered the removal of the crosswalk and TCLF was more focused on the approximate $170,000 sidewalk expenditure.
Judge Christine Hortick sided with the City of San Antonio after an hour of arguments from attorneys over the basis the city did not need council approval to allocate funds for the project.
Approximately $128,000 would go towards painting the new sidewalk and the remainder would go towards the removal of the rainbow crosswalk, necessary repairs at the intersection, and any work to make it compliant with Texas Department of Transportation regulations.
Initially, the city had a goal of starting the sidewalk striping in the next few days. However, City Manager Erik Walsh told council in a memo earlier this week it would be paused until he could brief them in an executive session.
Friday's decision ends a saga that saw rallies trying to save the crosswalk, disagreements between Pride San Antonio and the Mayor’s office and an unexpected association of plaintiffs.
The joint lawsuit between Pride and TCLF caused confusion among San Antonio’s LGBT community about why the pride parade organizer would join with a conservative group.
Attorney for the plaintiffs, Justin Nichols, said he regularly provided legal services to Pride San Antonio and the recently created TCLF. For this case, he represented both clients pro bono and paid the court filing fees himself.
During his opening arguments, he acknowledged to the court the pairing might seem unlikely.
“We are approaching you on an application for a temporary restraining order, brought by strange bedfellows. I want to make one thing clear, these two parties did not coordinate or come together in some joint strategy. I was approached separately and independently with two different issues, and I saw that they had a common goal,” Nicholas said.
In October, TxDOT required roadway markings in cities across the state that were deemed political or ideological needed to be removed to align with federal roadway standards set by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in July. If a city did not remove such markings, it risked losing upwards of $80 million in street and highway funding from TxDOT.
Attorneys for the city told the judge the city did not want to remove the crosswalk but its hands were tied based on the exemption request from TxDOT in November last year that was denied by the transit agency.
“(The city) tried to retain the crosswalk. And then when it couldn't, it tried to come up with an alternative that was within its authority, within the funds that it had,” attorney Bonnie Kirkland said.
Judge Hortick had asked city attorneys if there was a requirement for expenditures to be under a certain amount without needing city council approval.
Kirkland told the judge there is a provision in state law that requires certain expenditures over $100,000 require seeking council approval.
Judge Hortick accepted the reasoning that the condition didn’t apply to this request since council had approved a budget for projects and the public works department can have discretionary spending within a certain amount.
“For me, this boils down to whether there is a requirement by the city that requires additional approval, and based on what I have in front of me today, I don't see that there was an additional requirement that the city of San Antonio needed to comply with that,” Judge Hortick said.
After the ruling, Nichols said he would consult with his clients to determine if they wanted to appeal the decision.
The city plans to begin removing the crosswalk on Monday and it would take about five days to remove and restripe a crosswalk that is compliant with regulations from TxDOT. The timeline on the sidewalk is unclear.
