The city’s Ethics Review Board is taking up a complaint against former Mayor Ron Nirenberg on Monday, alleging he failed to properly report a “high-valued gift” and improperly used public resources as campaign material while serving in elected office.
The gift is an autographed NBA jersey Nirenberg received from Spurs player Victor Wembanyama in January, which retails online for about $1,500. City officials are generally supposed to report gifts over $100 on their financial disclosure form.
The public resources mentioned are primarily photos and videos taken inside city facilities that are not accessible to the public, used on a Facebook page owned by his campaign.
The 63-page complaint was filed by Kelly Walls, who is involved with the government accountability group InfuseSA, on June 20.
That’s just days after two council members, Marc Whyte (D10) and Sukh Kaur (D1), were issued reprimands for similar complaints, including use of photos with city staff or inside city facilities as part of their campaign material.
Whyte argued at the time that all of the city’s elected leaders do it — including Nirenberg — but the board was not swayed. It was Whyte’s second time being sanctioned.
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) was also hit with a violation this year, for his handling of a zoning issue.
The city hired attorney Nadeen Abou-Hossa, who has now handled a slew of recent ethics complaints against city officials and council candidates, to review the complaint against Nirenberg with members of the Ethics Review Board.
They ultimately decided to take it to the full panel for consideration.
It’s unclear whether Nirenberg has filed a formal response, as is allowed. He declined to comment on the issue Wednesday.
Nirenberg termed out this year after eight years as mayor and is now exploring a potential bid for higher office.
While he hasn’t said what it will be, a new Texans for Nirenberg PAC was filed this month. A film crew also followed him in his final months as mayor to gather footage for a future project.
Nirenberg said Wednesday that he was shutting down his city account since he’s no longer a city officeholder, and that the new PAC would “allow me to fundraise for a future campaign.”
