After the demands of five San Antonio City Council members, City Manager Erik Walsh has added two contentious topics to city agendas this week that, to those who aren’t monitoring City Hall, may seem unrelated.
Council isn’t expected to vote during either meeting, but the resulting discussions could have lasting impacts on city operations and the career of the city attorney. There is also a potential repeat of the protracted battle to achieve the current contract with the politically influential firefighters union from 2014 to 2020.
On Wednesday, council will discuss the performance of City Attorney Andy Segovia in a closed session. On Thursday, they’ll publicly discuss contract negotiations with the firefighters union. These additional discussion items stem from Segovia’s denial of a request last week to schedule a confidential, closed-door meeting, known as an “executive session,” regarding the stalled negotiations.
“The irony is not lost on me that they’re offering us an executive session on the fact that they won’t give us an executive session,” said Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6), who requested the meetings alongside council members Marc Whyte (D10), Marina Alderete Gavito (D7), Teri Castillo (D5) and Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2).
“I’m glad we’re having the conversations [on Wednesday and Thursday]. That’s really, at the end of the day, all we were really asking for,” Cabello Havrda said Friday.
The group, representing nearly half of City Council, hosted a press conference on Thursday to call attention to their request to review Segovia’s performance.
It’s typical for personnel matters to be discussed in closed sessions, said Michael Bernard, who served as city attorney for eight years starting in 2005.
But per the city’s charter, council members aren’t allowed to “direct or request the city manager or any subordinate of the city manager to appoint to or remove from office or employment.” The idea is to keep politics out of the day-to-day management of the organization. Violating this rule is considered “official misconduct” and would authorize the council to hold a public hearing and subsequent vote for expulsion.
On the steps of City Hall, Cabello Havrda said Segovia should be replaced.
“For most employees, that would violate the city charter, which is very clear on [prohibiting council members from] interfering with the city manager’s control over employees,” Bernard said. “It’s a little squishier with the city attorney because he’s in a unique position as [council’s] lawyer.”
Council plays a role in hiring the city attorney and another section of the charter says the city manager can hire and fire the city attorney “with the advice of council.”
Cabello Havrda, who is considering a campaign to become mayor, said she did not violate the charter.
“We’re giving direction and advice to the city manager,” she said. “My advice is going to be for him to be let go.”
The only employee council can vote to remove is the city manager.
“There’s no plan for that,” Cabello Havrda said. “Right now, it’s to have this conversation.”
Segovia was hired by the city in 2016 after serving on General Motors’ legal staff for 26 years.
“I have known [Segovia] since he has been city attorney,” Bernard said. “He’s a very smart lawyer, a very good lawyer, and I’m confident that he’s acting in the best interest of the city.”
No longer confidential
Segovia said Thursday he denied the request for an executive session because he did not believe sensitive information about the negotiations would be kept confidential.
There have been accusations of leaks from executive sessions for years, Cabello Havrda told the San Antonio Report on Friday.
Thursday “was the day [Segovia] decided to enforce this rule” to halt executive sessions on certain topics because of leaks, she said. “Part of my issue with the city attorney right now is why do you get to pick when to enforce the rule? What’s the gauge? What’s the cap? So let’s have that discussion.”
Joe Jones, president of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association, said he hadn’t received any leaked information.
“That’s a pretty serious accusation,” Jones said Friday. “I’m not aware of having received anything that is considered confidential information. Negotiations [are] pretty transparent anyways.”
At least three council members who did not join the press conference last week — Councilman John Courage (D9), Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) and Councilwoman Phyliss Viagran (D3) — agreed that executive sessions have been leaking for years.
“I hardly say anything at executive session anymore,” Rocha Garcia said. “I just listen, and I ask questions and then I call [Segovia] if I have extra questions.”
Rocha Garcia is also considering a run for mayor. Courage has already launched his campaign.
All five council members at the press conference agreed Thursday that a public meeting would satisfy their request.
“I’m not going to nitpick their reasoning for public or private, I just want to have the discussion,” Havrda said.
It’s rare to have a formal, public council discussion regarding a public safety contract in this stage of negotiation, said Bernard, who bargained for previous contracts. Typically council is briefed in private until there is a final contract to discuss and vote on in public.
“I’m not sure that, in the time that I was city attorney, we ever discussed the contract in an open session,” Bernard said. “You can do that, but nobody should expect any lawyer to discuss in public any matter in negotiation that could compromise their position. … When the parties are this far apart, any public discussion is dangerous.”
Cabello Havrda wants the union and city to compromise in terms of wage proposals.
“There are some people on council that agree with me, some probably that don’t, but we have to have that discussion as a group to figure out what the council direction is,” she said. “We’re not trying to negotiate anything in public. We just want an update.”
A $363 million gap
The firefighters’ current contract expires Dec. 31, and negotiations between the city and the union started in February. Leaders from both sides said they were “optimistic” — at least cautiously optimistic — that they could avoid a contentious fight. They’ve met eight more times since and each meeting is livestreamed, recorded and available for viewing on the city’s website.
The city estimates that the union’s combined contract — with increases to benefits and wages — as proposed would cost $363 million more than the city’s $157 million proposal. The city is facing a deficit of at least $10.6 million in the 2025 budget, depending on the size of the contract, according to the city.
The city is projecting deficits for several years following as well, the city’s lead negotiator, Deputy City Manager María Villagómez, told the union May 3, the latest bargaining session.
“As we add more expense in the front end of the five years forecast in 2025, that would have a ripple effect and those deficits will be even higher,” Villagómez said. “The [union’s] proposal in terms of our financials is not affordable.”
But, as in previous bargaining talks, they can’t even agree on those figures or those the city presents showing that compensation and benefits that firefighters in San Antonio receive are competitive with those of other Texas cities when adjusted for cost of living.
“I don’t believe their numbers at all,” Jones said. “All of a sudden, they’re predicting a deficit in 2025.”
The last path to a contract involved lawsuits, court-ordered mediation, dramatic press conferences and a fierce proposition election initiated by the union that ultimately led to then-City Manager Sheryl Sculley’s retirement. Now, it seems members of the council are targeting a different city official perceived to be in the way of a contract.
“Right now firefighters and paramedics feel disrespected by city managers,” Jones said. “The overt support [from the five council members] is welcome to them.”
On May 3, the city proposed bringing in a mediator, a third party selected by both sides to help reach a nonbinding agreement. Union members will consider that option this week during an internal meeting, Jones said.
For now, there are no bargaining sessions scheduled.
Complicating matters further, voters in November might be asked to undo salary and tenure caps on the city manager position that nearly 60% of voters added to the city charter in 2018. That measure was initiated by the fire union and aimed at Sculley at the time. It’s unclear if issues at the bargaining table will inspire the union to again wade into a charter election.
“Some of the charter amendments that we’re looking at now are a result of firefighters’ advocacy last time around,” Cabello Havrda said. “Their advocacy [could] be very meaningful this time around as well.”
