San Antonio council members will consider action Thursday that would absolve Mayor Ivy Taylor from a perceived conflict that arose during her political campaign.
The mayor’s husband, Rodney Taylor, owns rental property. In some cases he’s received San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA) vouchers that help pay the rent for low income tenants.
Because the mayor appoints commissioners to the SAHA board, questions arose about her having a conflict of interest, beginning in July of 2014 when she was appointed mayor.
Taylor says she was unaware of the potential conflict until it came up during her mayoral campaign.
“This has been his business model he’s used for over 20 years, before I met him. I didn’t know it was going to be a conflict,” she said Wednesday during an interview with Texas Public Radio.
Taylor says the conflict was resolved last November when oversight for the housing vouchers was transferred from the San Antonio Housing Authority, where she has influence over operations, to the Housing Authority of Bexar County, where she doesn’t
Council members will now consider a waiver from the city’s ethics code that would prevent the consideration of future complaints about the vouchers.
“We’re asking the council for a waiver from clauses in our ethics code that may have applied to the period from when I became mayor up until now,” said Taylor.
While the mayor believes any conflict has been resolved, the San Antonio Express- News reported that City Council Members Rey Saldana and Ron Nirenberg say the public should still have the right to file complaints about the vouchers if that’s what they want to do.