Ethics code plans take shape
Whether voter approval is needed debated
A package of proposed changes to the city's Ethics Code is moving forward, but questions remain about whether one of the changes requires voter approval.
The idea behind the proposals brought by District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño and District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia is to give those investigating ethics complaints more independence from City Council members, the mayor and city staffers.
City Council and the mayor currently appoint members to the city's 11-member Ethics Review Board, which looks into allegations of violations of city campaign finance rules and lobbying regulations by elected officials, members of city boards and commissions and those seeking office.
“Not only are we choosing the referees, but we're also, in many cases, getting to veto their balls and strikes calls,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at Wednesday's City Council Governance Committee meeting. “That's not a system that makes any sense.”
Treviño and Garcia want a separate nine-member committee — made up of representatives picked by organizations including the League of Women Voters, San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the San Antonio Bar Association — to screen candidates to serve on the ethics board before council members and the mayor approve them.
But making that change could require an amendment to the city charter, City Attorney Andy Segovia said Wednesday.
The charter lays out City Council's authority to appoint members of the ethics board. State law says the charter can only be amended by voters in a charteramendment election. Once an election is held, the city can't hold another for two years.
Nirenberg had sought changes to how the Ethics Review Board should be composed, whether it should be an autonomous body and whether the city should hire an independent ethics czar, when he named a commission to review possible changes to the charter in 2018.
But those efforts were derailed when three charter amendments backed by the firefighters union were put on the ballot in November 2018. As a result, the earliest San Antonio voters could vote to make changes to the charter again is May 2021. Two of the charter amendments on the 2018 ballot were approved.
Whether the city would have to amend the charter depends on how much authority council wants to give this nine-member panel, Segovia said.
“There may be some gray area there where we can implement some of this without requiring a city charter change,” Segovia said.
Treviño argued that City Council members and the mayor would still retain the authority to choose Ethics Review Board members — so a charter amendment would be unnecessary.
The Governance Committee unanimously voted Wednesday to send the proposed rules package to the Ethics Review Board.
The proposal introduced last month also calls for the city to hire an independent ethics czar to probe complaints against elected officials and political candidates. That official would, in theory, be less beholden to council members and the city attorney.
The ethics czar would run a newly formed office to investigate potential violations of city campaign finance rules and lobbying regulations. fficials and city employees.
Right now, a compliance auditor picked by the ethics board and approved by the city auditor investigates ethics complaints, collects evidence and makes recommendations.