Courtesy Photo / Fix SAPD
Opponents of the petition drive to put Proposition B on the ballot in 2021 hold signs at a polling site where volunteers collected signatures.
Prop B, rejected by voters on a narrow 2% margin, would have stripped the powerful union of its collective bargaining power. The union spent freely to combat the grassroots effort, which arose from a petition drive from the accountability group Fix SAPD.
In its June 21 ruling, the Texas Ethics Commission said San Antonio Police Officers Association Treasurer Jason Sanchez filed 2021 campaign expenditure reports under his own name instead of that of the union. As a result, it appeared that Sanchez himself had spent more than $615,000 for advertising and other miscellaneous political expenditures while campaigning against the proposition, according the document.
Sanchez's accounting practices violated Section 254.261 of the Texas Election Code, which states that a person must disclose the entity of the source of the campaign expenditures, the Texas Ethics Commission ruled.
SAPOA officials were unavailable for comment Friday on the ruling.
However, police accountability group Act 4 SA said the state's decision to fine SAPOA shows that the union wants to shield its expenditures from public scrutiny.
"This goes to prove that our police union not only floods elections with money to drown out our voice and vote but also violates election laws to do it," Act 4 SA Executive Director Ananda Tomas said in an emailed statement. "We hope that by bringing this to light, we can open up our community's eyes to how this political organization truly operates."
Sanchez defended his actions to the Texas Ethics Commission, saying SAPOA's name wouldn't fit on the campaign finance form provided by Bexar County, the state's ruling notes. He also said he used his own name and personal email address on the form because the instructions on the paperwork didn't mention that the entity he was filing the paperwork on behalf of had to be included.
The Texas Ethics Commission said it took Sanchez's defense into account. "However, the respondent’s error made SAPOA’s political expenditures difficult for the public to find and thereby
frustrated effective disclosure of a substantial amount of activity," it ruled.
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