Mayor Ron Nirenberg is urging residents to vote against a proposed City Charter amendment aimed at police reform.
The charter amendment, known as Prop A or the Justice Charter, seeks to decriminalize marijuana and abortion, further restrict police officers’ use of no-knock warrants, ban chokeholds, expand the city’s cite-and-release policy for some low-level, nonviolent crimes and establish a justice director position within the city’s administration.
The policing reform group ACT 4 SA, which was created by leaders of a failed 2021 police accountability proposal known as Prop B, collected more than 40,000 signatures to get the proposed charter amendent included on the ballot for the May municipal election, in which Nirenberg is seeking a fourth term as mayor.
“I am encouraging voters to do their research before they go vote and then join me in voting against Prop A,” Nirenberg said on KSAT-TV Tuesday night.
Echoing the complaints of the business community, which is raising money to defeat Prop A, Nirenberg said charter amendment would unfairly punish small businesses by prohibiting police from making arrests for crimes like theft under $750.
“There is a lot in there, but what troubles me is the lack of consequences for theft up to $750 and property damage up to $2,500. That’s not pocket change,” Nirenberg said. “Prop A unfortunately ignores the victims, from small business, to nonprofits, to really any working family who wakes up to a smashed window.”
Ananda Tomas, founder and executive director of ACT 4 SA, the group that led the effort to get Prop A on the ballot, said she was surprised that Nirenberg was opposed the measure, given his support of abortion rights, the current cite-and-release initiative and policing reform in general.
“I think folks are forgetting the bigger picture of everything else that’s on here,” she said. “It’s not just a ballot initiative on cite and release.”
She recalled when the mayor stood in front of protesters during the local marches in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police and asked them to “hold me accountable.”
Tomas called Prop A an extension of that movement for accountability.
Speaking on KSAT, Nirenberg contended that Prop A tries to “solve problems at the wrong level of government.”
“If we want to end mass incarceration, which is a mutual goal, then we need to work at the state and federal level,” he said. “We can’t legalize marijuana at the city [level] … but voters need to know that our [district attorney] and our courts have made great strides in reducing penalties and punitive measures for what, in most cases, really shouldn’t be a crime.”
Prop A has become a hot issue for municipal election candidates. So far Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) is the only incumbent member of the council to support it.
Councilmen John Courage (D9) and Manny Pelaez (D8) have both come out against Prop A, as have all of the candidates running to represent District 7. Councilman Mario Bravo (D1), who faces a crowded field of challengers, declined to take a position on it at a forum last weekend.
Nirenberg does not face a high-profile challenger this May.
He courted support from progressives for his 2019 runoff with Greg Brockhouse, but progressive leaders say he’s long disappointed them on police reform.
“My focus is going to be on ensuring that we continue to keep this community safe, putting officers on the streets, and working with neighborhoods so every family feels safe and secure in their neighborhood,” Nirenberg told the San Antonio Report when he filed for reelection in January.
