Bexar County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to remove the longtime chair of the county’s small business advisory board, Chris Forbrich, after colleagues testified that he referred to one of the commissioners as a “crusading c—.”
Forbrich, who has run unsuccessfully for a seat on the San Antonio City Council in the past, owns an IT company and served as Commissioner Tommy Calvert’s (Pct. 4) appointee to the Bexar County SMWBE (Small, Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise) Program Advisory Board.
His comments about Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores (Pct. 1) were reported to Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai by another member of the board, Edward Pape, and verified by Small Business and Entrepreneurship Director Renee Watson. Both witnesses submitted notarized testimonies to Sakai.
According to Pape’s written testimony, Forbrich made the comments in front of several board members on July 10 while they were gathered for a subcommittee meeting at the Frost Bank Center.
He had just been reappointed to the board the previous day without the support of Clay-Flores, who wanted to reduce the board’s size and voted against his confirmation.
Speaking to Clay-Flores’ appointee, Marinella Murillo, Forbrich allegedly brought up that vote ahead of the following day’s committee meeting, saying “Did you hear what your crusading c— of a commissioner tried to do to me last night?”
On Tuesday, Calvert made the motion to rescind Forbrich’s appointment, and commissioners, including Clay-Flores, unanimously voted to do so.
Forbrich, who attended the meeting, said he was exercising his First Amendment right to free speech, and would consider suing Bexar County over the decision.
In an interview after the meeting, Sakai said the word choice was “offensive,” and that Forbrich’s appointment “is not subject to any protection of law.”
“There is no justification for the use of that word,” Sakai said.
Clay-Flores said Tuesday that she didn’t know about the comments until an item to address the issue appeared on the Commissioners Court agenda.
She thanked Sakai for taking it seriously, and for making it clear that the county wouldn’t tolerate “sexism or verbal abuse.”
“This county, for decades has been simply the good old boys network, until now,” Clay-Flores said. “As the only woman on the court, I have publicly said before that I have experienced sexism and racism in this very seat from people who have come and spoke at that very mic, and I did not feel that my male colleagues defended me or said anything about it.”
