This article has been updated.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg announced Tuesday the appointment of a commission tasked with debating some potentially major changes to San Antonio’s City Charter that could go before voters on the November 2024 ballot.
Nirenberg, who was reelected to a fourth and final term in May, sent a letter to city leaders notifying them the commission will look at four categories of changes: ethics procedures, compensation and tenure for elected officials and the city manager, expanding the number of council districts, and modernizing the charter’s language.
Among the most anticipated changes Nirenberg listed in his charge to the commission is to consider overturning the 2018 charter amendment that limits the pay and tenure of the city manager.
The city manager can currently serve a maximum of eight years, meaning the last year Erik Walsh could hold the role is in 2027. His compensation is capped to 10 times the amount of the lowest paid, full-time city employee, which he has already reached.
The committee will explore whether the City Council should have authority and discretion over hiring, managing and determining the city manager’s pay based on competitive market rates. (Walsh declined to say whether he would like to stay longer if those provisions were changed in a recent interview with the San Antonio Report.)
Changes to the number of city council districts also could have big implications. No potential number of additional council districts was mentioned in Nirenberg’s charge.
The city’s 10 districts were redrawn last year in accordance with state law following the 2020 census, and the process included discussion about whether the current districts were adequate given San Antonio’s explosive population growth.
The redistricting process took months, as the city sought feedback from the public for its appointed redistricting committee.
Nirenberg said in his letter that the commission should consider whether redistricting process should instead be conducted by “an independent, autonomous citizens
committee.”
In an interview Tuesday, Nirenberg pointed to Michigan’s independent redistricting commission as an example. “This doesn’t happen at the local level so much, but we should, in my view, model best practice,” he said.
How charter review works
Only the mayor can call a charter review commission, and the work typically takes months. Any proposed changes then must go to voters for approval.
Nirenberg asked the commission to complete its work in spring 2024 and submit its recommendations to the council by June 14.
Though he asked the commission to “focus its efforts exclusively” on his list of potential changes, a charter review commission can look at other issues if it chooses.
The last time the charter was amended was in 2021, allowing bond money to be spent on affordable housing.
State law allows city charters to be changed only once every two years, including changes brought by petition, as proponents of the so-called Justice Charter sought unsuccessfully to implement in the 2023 municipal election.
Changing the landscape
Nirenberg’s commission could have a big impact on San Antonio’s local government representation, through potentially fewer council elections, more districts, better-paid officials and a more formalized ethics process.
San Antonio changed its charter to adopt single-member council districts in 1977 after the Department of Justice determined the city had annexed surrounding territory without providing the residents adequate representation through its at-large council representatives. The move radically changed the demographic makeup of the council over the next several decades.
The last major change was in 2008, allowing council members to serve a maximum of four two-year terms and amending the 1991 charter change that limited them to two two-year terms.
In addition to more districts, Nirenberg is asking the committee to look at whether future mayors and council members should serve a maximum of two four-year terms.
The commission also will explore whether City Council terms should be staggered, instead of all members being up for reelection at the same time.
“When representatives are locked in perpetual political cycles, that presents a great challenge to prevent distraction from issues at hand,” Nirenberg said, and staggered terms also would ensure “there’s continuity and ability to carry out a vision.”
Council pay was last adjusted in 2015, setting the council member salaries at $45,722 per year (equal to the San Antonio Area Median Household Income at the time), and $61,725 per year for the mayor. Previously, members of the council were paid $20 per meeting attended, while the mayor was paid $3,000 per year.
Nirenberg wants to look at whether members should be “compensated on indexed terms that more accurately reflect the city’s cost of living and lower barriers to participation in city government.”
After two high-profile ethics issues that resulted in members of the council being censured last year, Nirenberg also is asking the commission to consider whether to give the city the ability to appoint an independent ethics auditor with a legal background.
He’s also calling for potential changes to strengthen the Ethics Review Board and give it more authority, such as “power to compel testimony.”
“Having an independent ethics authority charged with overseeing the conduct of our elected representatives is critical, and that requires them to have autonomy from the body that they oversee,” Nirenberg said.
Meet the 2023 Charter Review Commission
The 15-member commission will be chaired by Bonnie Prosser Elder and David Zammiello.
Elder chaired last year’s redistricting committee and serves as general counsel and senior vice president for VIA Metropolitan Transit. Zammiello previously ran a workforce training nonprofit and is the president of DAZA Consulting Services.
Other commissioners include people with a mix of expertise on topics Nirenberg has selected for consideration.
The list includes Bobby Perez, Spurs Sports & Entertainment chief legal officer and general counsel; Frost Bank President Pat Frost, who is set to retire at the end of the year; Shelley Potter, the former leader of San Antonio Independent School District’s teachers union; and demographer Rogelio Sáenz, dean of UTSA’s College of Public Policy.
Disclosure: Pat Frost is a member of the San Antonio Report’s board of directors.
