Destabilizing City Government: The Manny Fritos Story
The publisher of the San Antonio Express-News, Mark Medici, tweeted yesterday that “issues of public safety shouldn’t be bartered in the back room, the topic should and needs to be public. To that end, I’d ask each of the five council members to be more transparent with what they would exchange?”
Medici linked an EN editorial titled “To put out this fire, San Antonio should hold fire union contract discussions in public”. This editorial misses the mark, as if the true cause of the turbulence right now at San Antonio City Council is a result of fire union contract negotiations.
It is not.
It’s the result of City Attorney Andy Segovia’s lack of transparency and allegations that District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez routinely leaks confidential information from executive sessions.
Though the EN attempts to draw a line that would lead many to believe that District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito has reason to leak information because her brother is a San Antonio firefighter, we believe they are dead wrong.
Their assertion that it’s “unclear” who is leaking information is laughable.
Other council members now acknowledge they have repeatedly told Segovia that Pelaez was leaking confidential information, even before Gavito was elected. Open records requests have shown that none other than the EN has benefited from some of them.
Though we are often critical of District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havdra, we applaud her and the other council members who stood up to shine a spotlight on these issues. It is especially disappointing that the EN would classify her calls for transparency as “strident.”
Since when is raising the alarm about probable ethic violations and criminal acts “reckless and hardly mayoral”?
The EN states it’s “Let’s be real here. Leaks are a part of City Hall. The primary concern isn’t that some is leaking.” Effectively, they believe it’s okay for an elected official to violate ethics codes, and most likely the Texas Penal Code.
Section 2-46 of the City of San Antonio Ethics Code clearly states that a “City official or employee shall not intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly disclose any confidential information gained by reason of that official’s or employee’s position concerning the property, operations, policies or affairs of the City.”
Unfortunately, this Code is worthless as it carries no substantial consequences for most ethics violations.
City Council could follow the lead of Dallas elected officials, who in 2023 enacted an ordinance that makes it a criminal offense for leaking confidential information.
They could also call for the Bexar County Public Integrity Unit (PIU) to investigate if the individual leaking confidential information or Segovia are in violation of Texas Penal Code Section 39.02 Abuse of Official Capacity and Section 39.06 Misuse of Official Information.
The contact information for the PIU is Sgt. John Perez. His email is jperez@bexar.org and his telephone number is 210-335-5124. If any council member believes that the Bexar County PIU will not take these allegations seriously, then contract the Texas Rangers Public Integrity Unit at 512-424-2160.
Given the current state of chaos at City Hall, we wonder if Councilman Pelaez, a former FBI informant, received training from the CIA on how to destabilize local government during his taxpayer-subsidized trip to Central America. Maybe one day he could leak something that’s worthy of shaking up City Hall.
That might merit further examination …