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The San Antonio City Council approved a censure of San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones on Friday during a special meeting.
The council voted 8-1 with District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears as the only dissenting vote. Jones had recused herself at the start of the meeting and District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, who had filed the complaint against Jones, was not present.
The complaint stems from a Feb. 5 incident where Jones has admitted to swearing at Kaur and raising her voice. Five city council members then issued a memo calling for a special meeting where a censure may take place, pending the results of the investigation.
Before recusing herself and before the vote took place, Jones issued a statement saying she would comply with the censure resolution which asked for her to step aside from a city council committee and undergo training.
"Specific to the resolution before you, in the interest of moving forward and focusing on the people's work, I agree to step aside from the Governance Committee for a period of three months, starting today. Additionally, I will participate in in-person leadership training next week as a servant leader. I learned a long time ago that no one is above additional training. We can all learn more and we can all be better," she said.
The City Council’s Governance Committee is a subcommittee made up of five members. It’s the first gathering of council members to hear new policy ideas from other council members before they advance to other committees or the full council for a vote.
With Jones stepping down from the committee, Mayor Pro Tem Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who is the District 2 councilmember, will serve as chair until his term as mayor pro tem ends in June. The council uses a rotating system where each member of council assumes the role of mayor pro tem at least once. Jones, however, will still lead the council, and her position as mayor is not interrupted.
Jones has maintained that the discussion between her and Kaur was about public safety. At issue was the Bonham Exchange Night Club not having a fire sprinkler system that met city requirements.
“As a member of the LGBTQ plus community, we have seen too many tragedies at LGBTQ plus establishments, and I could not, would not, would not unnecessarily place the lives of patrons, employees and potentially our firefighters in harm's way. I became passionate that morning, because I firmly believe public safety is our number one responsibility," Jones said.
Kaur had declined comments until Friday.
After the vote, surrounded by her council colleagues except for Spears, Kaur said this was not just about the Bonham and public safety, political differences, or hurt feelings.
“The mayor has tried to diminish this instance by saying it was a single F-bomb that was thrown. It is very different to use the curse word as an adjective versus to use it to continuously berate someone and intimidate them. This was also about having the courage to stand up for what's right, versus choosing the easier path of staying silent,” she said.
The nature of what happened behind the closed-door meeting on Feb. 5 is unknown. City attorneys said the full report would not be released to the public due to attorney-client privilege. The city had retained a third-party investigator to conduct the report.
However, during the meeting presentation, the investigation by Natalie C. Rougeux indicated “Jones was verbally abusive to Councilmember Kaur” and the mayor had violated the city council’s code of conduct, and two administrative directives on harassment and workplace violence.
During the meeting, members of the council had expressed their displeasure with Jones’ actions. District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo had endorsed Jones during the campaign last year but said she would not have done so if she knew of Jones’ actions.
“I have been disheartened and disturbed with her behavior over the last nine months. In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I would not have endorsed Mayor Jones,” she said.
She said there was a pattern of disrespect, workplace violence and harassment.
“This behavior needed to be investigated,” she said “Nine months of a pattern needs more than a written apology. It needs honest, humble reflection and training to guide the mayor on effective workplace interactions, de-escalation, civility and conflict resolution with her colleagues, community and staff,” Castillo said.
Jones has faced allegations of retaliation by not appointing council members to committee chairmanships after filing memos against policies she was trying to change.
Spears, the only no vote, said she disagreed with a censure vote based on the findings of the investigation.
“After examining the findings, it is clear the conduct was unprofessional, and I have genuine compassion for how my colleague felt in that moment, and that should not be minimized,” she said. "However, the level of unprofessionalism found does not rise to the level of a censure nor removal from the Governance Committee. The conduct was inappropriate, but it was not unlawful. It did not violate public safety, put public safety at risk, and it was not workplace violence.”
Mayor Pro Tem Jalen McKee-Rodriguez
Mayor Pro Tem Jalen McKee-Rodriguez called this moment incredibly embarrassing.
“It's a very sad moment for our city, and surely none of us want to be here right now. I have participated in the censure of people my parents' age and my grandparents' age, and that is not what I ran for office for,” he said.
Jones is the first mayor in the city’s modern history to receive a censure vote.
The last censure discussion on a mayor was against Mayor Walter W. McAllister in 1970. At the time, McAllister had allegedly made disparaging comments about Latinos on NBC, according to minutes from the meeting of July 9, 1970.
However, minutes show that he was not censured with two voting in favor, three against, and two abstentions.
There were two censure votes against council members in the 1960s. There was another against a council member in 1985 but there were no other censures until 2022.
More recently three council members had received censures — two for DWI and another for workplace harassment.
