Three San Antonio City Council members are fighting back after newly elected Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones this week sought to consolidate power by making it harder for her colleagues to propose laws and ordinances, the Express-News reports.
If Jones gets her way, council members will now have to notify her chief of staff and coordinate with them before officially filing a Council Consideration Request (CCR), which is the first step in bringing a proposal to all members of the dais.
After notifying her chief of staff, council members would then need to obtain approval from City Attorney Andy Segovia and City Manager Erik Walsh. If both staffers approve of the CCR, then they can seek the signatures of five other council members to get the motion to a vote.
Before Jones’ proposed change, initiated this week, council members had to obtain approval from City Manager Erik Walsh and secure three signatures from their colleagues before bringing a proposal to the rest of council.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Segovia, who would yield significantly more power if Jones’s approval is implemented, said the mayor has the right to make the change without any input from the rest of council, the Express-News reports.
“The city attorney has been very clear that these are changes that are in accordance with the ordinance and in fact these are changes that do not require a vote,” Jones told the daily.
A bipartisan coalition of council members, including District 10’s Marc Whyte, a conservative, District 5 progressive Teri Castillo and District 7’s Marina Alderete Gavito, disagree. They’re now demanding that Jones hold a special council meeting by Aug. 15 to vote on her proposed changes, according to the Express-News
“What I read here is a barrier and more red tape to finding a resolution for our constituent requests,” Castillo told the daily.
Meanwhile, Whyte said that the sudden change with no input lacked “transparency” — a word Jones used frequently on the campaign trail.
“A mayor cannot modify a valid and existing city ordinance through a memorandum, or through the stroke of her pen,” Whyte told the newspaper.
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This article appears in Jul 10-23, 2025.