Sharing the road with a drunk city council memberHey, given how many times it’s happened recently, you gotta admit it’s a real concern. Credit: Screenshot / COSA website

During a Wednesday debate on proposed changes to San Antonio’s charter, three City Council members argued that the low pay for their positions all but ensures only the rich can hold office here.

The comments came as council weighed possible amendments to the city charter that would abolish the pay cap for city managers, increase council members’ terms of service and raise the pay for the city’s elected officials.

Currently, council members earn a meager $45,722 a year — less than the U.S. median annual salary. Mayor Ron Nirenberg only brings home $61,725 for leading the nation’s seventh largest city.

Both District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran and District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said they have taken part-time jobs just to stay afloat while serving in office.

“Other young people, my peers at my age, are having families or they’re adopting a lot of pets, and I don’t see an immediate path for starting a family while I am on the council,” said McKee-Rodriguez, who recently returned to teaching math part-time at San Antonio ISD. “That’s a sacrifice we would be asking many members of our community to weigh against the opportunity to serve the community in this capacity.”

District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito agreed, saying that her predecessor, Ana Sandoval, was forced to step down from the council last year because she couldn’t afford to provide for her family on such a menial wage.

“The model of underpaying elected officials is an intentional practice to prevent residents from the working class to consider seeking this office,” Alderete Gavito said. “Low salaries close the door for the entire population of average, hard-working San Antonians to seek this office. If one does not have access to prior wealth, family wealth or high-paying side jobs, they cannot afford to work in city council.”

The San Antonio Charter Review Commission, in its presentation to the group, recommended increasing council’s annual salaries to $80,000 and bumping the mayor’s pay to $95,000 yearly. Even so, most of the eight council members who voiced support for the raises agreed that the commission’s proposed increase was too lavish.

Instead, most, including Nirenberg, said the increase should be correlated to San Antonio’s Area Median Income [AMI].

“If we improve the standing of this community, thereby raising the AMI, then that will be how City Council gets a pay raise,” Nirenberg said. “It would effectively become a permanent inventive for us and for future city councils to improve the economic trajectory of our communities.”

Only three council members — District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia, District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte and District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez, a mayoral candidate — didn’t comment on the subject of council pay raises.

It’s worth noting that both Whyte and Pealez are attorneys, and Rocha Garcia is a full-time marketing professor at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Although Pelaez didn’t bring up the topic during Wednesday’s meeting, he’s been among the most vocal opponents of any type of pay raise.

“Giving us pay raises will not materially improve San Antonians’ lives,” Pelaez wrote in a March op-ed in the Express-News. “There is absolutely no relationship between our salaries ans the quality of the city services you receive.”

City Council will vote on all the recommendations one by one in August after their summer break. The approved recommendations would then be put to voters in November.

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This article appears in May 1-14, 2024.

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,...