Official questions secrecy on review
Briefing tied to arrest is sought by Havrda
The San Antonio councilwoman who leads a committee on public safety said the city’s secrecy about a taxpayer-funded review of potential bias on the part of airport police “gnaws” at her — and she wants the city to brief the committee in public on the findings.
“My concern is the perception of a government that isn’t open to the people, the people that I represent,” Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda said. “It’s detrimental to all of us — it’s detrimental to me, to the people that I represent, and it’s detrimental to the city.”
The review was triggered by the arrest of Fire Chief Charles Hood’s teenage son at the airport last June on suspicion of carrying a fake ID and giving false information to police.
Hood, who is Black, complained that the arrest was unnec
essary and possibly the result of racial basis. An outside lawyer was hired to examine the circumstances of the arrest.
The lawyer was not required to file a written report of her findings. Her contract and related records were kept secret — including from Havrda and the public safety committee she leads.
The arrest, which occurred at the height of last year’s racial justice protests, opened a rift between Hood and Police Chief William Mcmanus, who believed it was done by the book. He opposed any review of the incident, sources said.
Nonetheless, at the behest of “a parent (who) raised a concern about potential racial bias,” the city hired Danielle Hargrove, a mediation specialist who charged $325 an hour, to probe “an incident at the airport,” city spokesman Jeff Coyle said.
Hood and Mcmanus have barely spoken since, sources said.
For six months, the city refused to release a copy of the arrest report after the San Antonio
Express-news requested it under the state open records law. The city never cited a specific reason, as required under the law, for keeping the record hidden from the public.
While the Express-news continued to press for the document, the arrest of Hood’s son was expunged, a legal process that erases any record of it.
The city now says it has no documents about the arrest. The newspaper independently obtained a copy of the arrest report.
The findings of the outside review remain unclear. The city attorney’s office spent $5,525 on Hargrove’s services but did not ask her to provide a written report. Instead, she reported the results verbally.
Hargrove did not return calls for comment. In a statement, City Attorney Andy Segovia said Hargrove “determined there was no discriminatory racial bias but that the situation could have been handled differently.”
Last week, Havrda asked the city for the review’s conclusions — to no avail.
“I did, and I haven’t had a response from the city,” she said. “I have not gotten an adequate response.”
Councilwomen Jada Andrewssullivan and Shirley Gonzales declined to comment, as did Councilmen
Roberto Treviño and John Courage. Councilman Clayton Perry and Councilwomen Rebecca Viagran, Ana Sandoval and
Adriana Rocha Garcia did not return calls.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg also declined to comment.