District 1 contest a study in contrasts
Treviño embraces controversy as he seeks final term, faces 5 challengers
The polarizing issues of homelessness, police reform and redevelopment of the Alamo are among those animating the City Council race in District 1, where Councilman Roberto Treviño is seeking re-election to a final term and attempting to fend off five challengers.
Most of Treviño’s opponents in the downtown district have never held an elected office. Only Lauro Bustamante, 70, has won a previous race; the attorney was elected to the board of the Edwards Aquifer Authority in 2006 but has since left the post.
Mario Bravo, 45, has garnered more support than any other challenger. An activist and project manager for the Environmental
Defense Fund, Bravo said he’s driven by a desire for more “meaningful public participation” in government. He lost a race for county commissioner in 2018.
Raymond Zavala, 69, is a retired contractor who said he has run unsuccessfully for a seat on council every two years since 2001.
Matthew Guana, a 23-year-old environmental consultant, said he was inspired to run for office after a disappointing experience with the city’s Adopt-a-spot program.
Cyndi Dóminguez, 45, is a financial professional and resident of the Dellview neighborhood. Treviño stirred up opposition — and moved Dóminguez to run — by welcoming anyone experiencing homelessness to seek help at his field office in the neighborhood, resulting in a steady presence there.
The councilman’s approach to homelessness also spurred the challenge by Zavala, who argues that those who congregate under bridges and highways are trespassing.
“We are under siege by the homeless,” Zavala said. “I’m very compassionate, but when you break the law, all bets are off. You’re breaking the law. And if you allow people to break the law once, you open the floodgates.”
In February, Treviño and a handful of angry Dellview residents clashed verbally outside the councilman’s field office. The residents complain that Treviño’s approach has made their neighborhood less safe.
“Frankly, he doesn’t care about our concerns,” said Ernest Salinas, president of the Dellview Neigh
borhood Association. “He’s trying to shame us as criminalizing the homeless, and that couldn’t be any further from the truth. We want to help the homeless. All we’re saying is that facility, his District 1 office, is not the facility to do that.”
Bravo echoed this criticism.
“I agree with (Treviño), homelessness is not a crime,” he said. “But I think we can be much more effective with more coordination, more buy-in at the city. … I don’t think it’s an appropriate place for a homeless service center or a shelter in a residential area.”
Treviño, 50, has stood his ground. “Someone who comes to the field office and asks for help, we’re going to give them help because I think that, again, that is what our role is as a city,” Treviño said, stressing that his field office is not a homeless encampment.
On a recent afternoon, about seven people lay on the ground outside the councilman’s field office, their belongings scattered around them. A 51-year-old woman who gave her name as “Miss Moody” called it a “safe place.” She said she refused to go to Haven for Hope, the city’s largest homeless shelter, because it was “haunted.”
At Haven, those experiencing homelessness can receive access to housing, employment and federal benefit application services, among other resources.
Treviño has complained of “barriers” at Haven, where those using drugs and alcohol are not permitted on the campus. But anyone can access the same resources at the shelter’s Prospects Courtyard, said David Huete, Haven’s senior director of transformational services.
A block from Treviño’s field office, Shannon St. Cyr’s front yard was festooned with anti-treviño signs — and one supporting Bravo. The reason, the Dellview resident said, was his policy toward the homeless. Around 4:20 a.m. the previous Saturday, a security camera mounted on her front door recorded a man apparently trying to force his way inside. St. Cyr, 51, posted the video to social media.
“They constantly break into our cars,” she said. “It’s just a nuisance. I can’t let my granddaughter play in the back yard alone.”
Treviño said he does not condone criminal activity. He called the outreach at his field office “a success story that’s yet to be told.”
The councilman has also taken a strong stance on another divisive issue: a ballot measure that would strip from San Antonio police officers the right to bargain for wages and benefits. Treviño is the only council incumbent who supports the measure, which is being sought by the organization Fix SAPD to stop the police union from influencing how officers accused of misconduct
Most council members, including Mayor Ron Nirenberg, are neutral on the measure; the only other incumbent to stake out a position is District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez, who opposes it. Bravo said he’s neutral on the proposition, a position that puzzled Ananda Tomas, deputy director at Fix SAPD.
“The one that confuses me the most is Mario Bravo, to be honest, because he was there at the beginning,” Tomas said. “He was there at the beginning in getting this off the ground.”
At a recent meeting with the San Antonio Expressnews Editorial Board, Bravo acknowledged he met last summer with Fix are disciplined.
SAPD’S leadership to help them “strategize on how do you get more police accountability.” But he defended his decision to remain neutral now as one of “political calculation.”
“It’s one thing to be an activist. It’s another thing to be an elected official,” Bravo said. “I will have to sit at the table with police officers once I’m in office and be able to work with them.”
He added that he supports many aspects of police reform, such as eliminating a rule that prohibits Police Chief William Mcmanus from disciplining an officer 180 days after an incident has occurred.
“There’s some radical language out there and there’s some misleading branding of what the two sides stand for,” Bravo said. “I’ve never been for defund the police. I’ve been for a more holistic approach.”
Treviño said he has come to a better understanding of problems inherent in the city’s contract with the police union and regrets voting for it.
“We keep traumatizing our community with some of the policies that we have in place,” the councilman said. “This is something that I’ve had top of mind for years.”
Treviño, an architect, was at the center of another contentious issue last month when Nirenberg removed him from two committees involved in the $450 million Alamo Plaza redevelopment project, including a committee that the councilman chaired.
His removal came at the end of a long struggle over the future of the Cenotaph, a memorial to the Alamo defenders.
Treviño had supported moving the 56-foot-tall marble monument in order to tell a more inclusive story about the Alamo’s indigenous roots and history as a Spanish mission. But many Texans, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, fought to keep the Cenotaph in place, and the Texas Historical Commission voted 12-2 last year to deny the city’s request to move it. In the wake of Treviño’s removal from the committees, Bravo has framed the councilman’s relationship with the mayor as broken.
Treviño countered that he and Nirenberg simply both feel strongly about policy.
“We have a working relationship, and that’s what’s critical,” the councilman said. “I believe that I’m not a rubber stamp.” had