Election 2024: San Antonio City Charter

While the race for U.S. president will get the most attention this election season, San Antonio ballots will also contain a series of amendments that could affect the local political landscape for years to come.

Voters will consider six proposals, Propositions A through F, on everything from the salaries and tenure of the city manager and City Council to city employees’ political activity.

Voters may vote “for” or “against” each proposition individually.

The San Antonio charter — basically the city’s constitution, which was first adopted in 1951 — can only be changed once every two years. Click here to download a copy of what the charter will say if these propositions are approved by voters in November.

Proposition A

The city’s charter does not currently require that the semi-autonomous Ethics Review Board, as outlined in Section 8, receive any funding. While it mentions that the board can hire an outside (non-city) attorney to represent it in cases where conflicts of interest exist, those “conflicts of interest” are not defined in that context or more broadly. If approved, Prop A would add a definition of “conflicts of interest” and mandate that council allocate “sufficient funds” to the board.

Prop A would also allow the board to consider complaints already resolved or otherwise adjudicated by another agency or entity — through the court system or City Council censure process.

This measure would not remove term limits for Ethics Review members, as previously recommended. Instead, board members would still serve up to three, two-year terms.

Amendment text: “Shall Article XIII of the City Charter be amended to add a definition of conflicts of interest; require sufficient funding to the Ethics Review Board so it may perform all its assigned duties, and authorize the Ethics Review Board to accept or decline complaints that have been resolved by an entity other than the Ethics Review Board?”

Proposition B

This is fairly routine maintenance that occurs every so often to make sure the charter doesn’t conflict with state law or use outdated language. For example, replacing the word “hereinafter” with “later.”

Amendment text: “Shall the following sections of the City Charter be amended to revise or eliminate provisions which have been superseded by state law and to update archaic language to current usage: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13,15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 51, 52, 53, 53a, 54, 55, 56, 58, 67, 68, Article V.A., 69, 70, 71, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, Article VIII, 112, 117, 119, 121, 122, 123, 123A, 124, 125, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, and 136?”

Proposition C

In 2018, the local firefighters’ union pushed for — and nearly 60% of voters supported — a charter amendment that capped the city manager’s pay to 10 times that of the lowest-paid city employee and tenure to eight years. This stemmed from a longstanding labor contract conflict between the previous city manager and the previous president of the fire union, both of whom served uniquely long terms themselves.

Voting for Prop C would remove salary and tenure caps for current and future city managers, leaving both — and other terms of employment — up to City Council.

Amendment text: “Shall the Charter of the City of San Antonio be amended to grant to City Council the authority to set the full terms of the City Manager’s employment including tenure and compensation?”

Proposition D

For more than 70 years, city employees have been prohibited from engaging in political activity regarding local elections, meaning they can’t campaign for, work for or donate to City Council or mayoral campaigns.

If approved, Prop D would not override a state law that bars city employees from engaging in that political activity on city time or using city resources.

Amendment text: “Shall the Charter of the City of San Antonio be amended to allow City employees to participate in local political activity consistent with State and Federal law while protecting employees against political retribution and maintaining a general prohibition on participation in local political activity for the city leadership team?”

Proposition E

Before 2015, members of the San Antonio City Council and the mayor were paid $20 per meeting, respectively — though the mayor was also paid a $3,000 stipend. Then voters increased that to $45,722 and $61,725. Prop E would automatically tie that pay to the area median income (AMI) of the San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan area, which fluctuates every year for a four-member household. Council members and the mayor may choose to decline all or part of their salaries.

Amendment text: “Shall the Charter of the City of San Antonio be amended to set and limit the compensation for City Council members and the Mayor at $70,200 and $87,800 annually with annual future adjustments to correlate to the United States Housing and Urban Development 4-member household median income for San Antonio, and authorize a Council member or the Mayor to decline any or all of the established compensation?”

Proposition F

Rather than electing council members and the mayor every two years, Prop F would move those elections to every four years. Those elections would continue to be held in May of odd-numbered years. The maximum term limit would remain at eight years including current council members.

This would give council members and the mayor more breathing room between campaigns and provide more continuity in representation, but it would mean citizens and challengers would have to wait longer to vote or run.

This could trigger a special election if a sitting council member reaches that limit mid-term. That would apply to council women Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) and Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6) if they were reelected in 2025, but Rocha Garcia is instead running for mayor and Cabello Havrda is considering a mayoral campaign, too. After the 2025 municipal election, all other seats would be up in 2029.

Amendment text: “Shall the Charter of the City of San Antonio be amended to extend the terms of all elected members of City Council, including the Mayor, from two (2) years to four (4) years and changing the term limits from four (4) full terms to two (2) full terms while keeping the terms concurrent?”

With fewer firefighters at the polls and less money, fire union faces well-funded pro-Prop C camp

Here’s what you need to know about Prop C in San Antonio

Why county commissioners get paid $100k+ more than council

Fire union opposes Prop C, which if passed would undo the caps it fought for in 2018

Some opponents of Prop C want to talk about pay equity in San Antonio

Who cares about city charter amendments? This group wants to spend $1M to get you to.

Here’s what San Antonio City Council is asking voters to approve in November

San Antonio City Council melts down over what constitutes fair pay

Charter review ignores input, leaving city employee political freedoms unaddressed

A panel of power players are crafting mayor’s proposed City Charter changes. Will voters go along?