SAWS appointment returns to committee
The City Council, split again on a decision over who should represent the South Side on the San Antonio Water System board, punted the issue back to its Governance Committee.
It initially appeared this week that the council would weigh the merits of appointing Robert Potts, former general manager of the Edward Aquifer Authority, against possible selection of South Side businessman Fernando Reyes.
But the motion on the floor during Thursday’s virtual meeting was to approve Potts, the committee’s original nominee for the South sector on the SAWS board.
That motion failed on a 5-5 vote after Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran said she had misgivings about the process, and felt the full council should have been given more input. She brought up Reyes, saying he would be a better representative of residents on the South Side, including her
Southeast Side district.
“I had reservations two week ago and they remain,” Viagran said. “I’m not settled in my spirit on this.”
On Aug. 6, the council appointed Jelynne Burley, president and CEO of the Center for Health Care Services, as the new chairwoman and North sector representative on the sevenmember board. It also appointed former District 3 Councilwoman Leticia Ozuna as the new Southeast quadrant representative.
Burley and Ozuna will be seated at the next regular SAWS board meeting on Sept. 1.
Councilman Many Peláez had said at the Aug. 6 meeting that he favored appointing Reyes, rather than Potts, for the South sector.
The council delayed action on the third appointee, the successor to SAWS Trustee Pat Jasso, who was seated in 2013 and near completion of the eight-year term limit for SAWS board service under city ordinance. Peláez did not participate in Thursday’s meeting.
Viagran said she was disappointed that nothing had occurred in the past two weeks to bring clarity among the full council about the choice between Potts and Reyes.
Having earlier passed a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis, she said the council was obligated to make appointments to boards and commissions that promote racial equity.
But council members who serve on the committee, including Councilman John Courage and Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia, said they were confident in Potts’ knowledge, ability and his approaches to serving the South Side.
They said the nomination process had been fair and thorough. Rocha Garcia, whose district covers much of the city’s Southwest Side, said Potts agreed to give her quarterly updates on progress at SAWS.
Voting for Potts were Courage, Rocha Garcia, Treviño, Ana Sandoval and Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Voting against were Viagran, Jada Andrews-sullivan, Shirley Gonzales, Melissa Cabello Havrda and Clayton Perry.
Potts, now president and CEO of the Dixon Water Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable practices in agriculture, served as EAA general manager from 2004 to 2007. He had told the committee he has a strong depth of knowledge, having witnessed the legal water wars of the 1990s, and wants to use “better dialogue” with other water utilities in the region to restore trust in SAWS.
Reyes, owner and chairman of Reyes Automotive, had told the committee he lives in the Dominion, but is moving to the downtown area. He grew up on the South Side and has focused most of his business there in the past 30 years.