SAPD Chief William McManus speaks at a press conference. He's expected to retire later this year.
William McManus speaks to reporters during his time as SAPD chief. Credit: Michael Karlis

Well, that didn’t last long.

Retired San Antonio police chief Bill McManus has left an executive position with Silver Ventures, which owns and operates the Pearl entertainment district, after less than a week on the job. In a Friday statement, McManus and company officials revealed they had mutually agreed to part ways.

McManus, who retired from SAPD in July, joined as Pearl’s full-time president of safety and security, but has since transitioned into a part-time gig as a security consultant, the announcement said.

“At the conclusion of his first week, William McManus and Silver Ventures leadership met to assess the role and the security needs of the organization and quickly recognized that his greatest asset to Pearl would be through a consulting role rather than a traditional full-time position,” company officials said.

Silver Ventures went on to say McManus and the company “mutually agreed on that path and are thrilled to be working together.”

His sudden exit from his full-time job at Pearl comes after McManus last week ranted on social media platform X against socialism, which he said would lead the United States to become a communist state.

In a series of tweets on Sept. 3, McManus quoted former Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev and compared universal healthcare to mind control.

“Socialism leads to communism,” McManus wrote. “Communism teaches there is no God. There are 8 levels of control that will lead us to a communist state.”

He also expressed frustration on X that the Express-News didn’t publish his op-ed endorsing Jesus “Jesse” Salame as SAPD’s new chief of police.

In its statement, Silver Ventures didn’t mention McManus’ tweets or whether they had anything to do with him vacating his full-time position at Pearl.

Even so, it’s not the first time McManus has abruptly vacated a full-time position outside of city police work.

In late 2014, McManus left his job at SAPD to become senior director of security at city-owned utility CPS Energy. However, he departed that position after nine months to rejoin the police department.

“It didn’t take me long to realize that my true place was here at the city,” McManus told reporters after he exited his role at CPS Energy. “I was actually getting comfortable there.”

However, McManus’ 2015 return as police chief wasn’t without controversy.

“No other employee from the city, no matter what level, can go and come back as they please,” then-LULAC Executive Director Henry Rodriguez told Spectrum News at the time. “It just doesn’t happen.”

The San Antonio Police Officers Association (SAPOA) union also said the whiplash from McManus’ back-and-forth between the force and CPS Energy was unhealthy for the department.

Even so, then-City Manager Sheryll Sculley defended her decision to hire McManus back.

“Someone said to me yesterday, ‘Well, he didn’t apply for the position,’” Sculley told the San Antonio Report at the time. “My response was, ‘He’s applied for the position for the past nine years and demonstrated his performance as chief of police.’”

McManus served as chief of the San Antonio Police Department for 20 years, leading the department through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 and high-profile officer-involved shootings.

Last week SAPD announced that Salame, who previously served as a department spokesman and chief of staff, would become the new chief. City Council is expected to confirm him to the position on Thursday.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...