Before a packed house at the Henry B. González Convention Center’s Stars at Night Ballroom Tuesday, Mayor Ron Nirenberg appeared to be reunited with some old allies: San Antonio’s business community.
Nirenberg’s relationship with business leaders hit a low during his 2019 reelection race, causing the mayor to make inroads with unions and socially progressive groups like the Texas Organizing Party for a hard-fought runoff against Greg Brockhouse.
Now headed into a final reelection race where he doesn’t face the same kind of political threat, Nirenberg is joining forces with business leaders on some of their top priorities, including opposing progressive-led police reforms known as Proposition A.
“I think in any relationship, it takes constant work,” San Antonio Chamber of Commerce interim president Dave Petersen said of Nirenberg’s evolving relationship with the business community.
“There’s been some great things lately… the airport expansion is a huge positive, the VIA Rapid Transit routes North-South and now East-West,” Petersen said. “Those are fantastic steps forward.”
Speaking to business leaders at the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce’s annual State of the City luncheon Tuesday, Nirenberg highlighted recent accomplishments from large employers like Boeing and Toyota, and touted his signature job training program that aims to fuel their talent pipeline.
“Since I became mayor, Victory Capital, Pabst Brewing Company, Nissei American and DeLorean have relocated their headquarters in San Antonio,” Nirenberg said.
Of the city’s small businesses, Nirenberg said his decision to come out against Proposition A last week was an acknowledgement of the financial losses they endured during the pandemic.
“When we needed to take strong public health measures to counter a global pandemic, much of this fell on our small business community,” said Nirenberg, who fought the state to implement the city’s COVID-19 precautions.
“Reflecting on the hardships our small businesses and working families have endured convinced me that it was important to oppose Proposition A,” he concluded.
The mayor’s recent coziness with the business community has infuriated some former supporters who say he’s taken them for granted.
“Our disappointment cannot be understated,” Alex Birnel, advocacy director and co-founder of MOVE Texas said of Nirenberg’s opposition to Proposition A. “The mayor should face pushback when actively working against the interests of the most vulnerable San Antonians.”
Nirenberg faces eight challengers in the May municipal election, though none have raised enough money to mount a serious campaign against him.
So far his best-funded opponent is Christopher Schuchardt, a 33-year-old businessman with no prior political experience who poured $150,000 of his own money into a last-minute campaign based on addressing crime and safety.
Nirenberg’s most recent campaign finance report, covering Jan. 1 through March 27, showed roughly $320,000 in his campaign account for the final stretch. The report includes pages and pages of maximum-level contributions from the city’s business leaders.
Many of those same business leaders adamantly oppose to Proposition A and are raising money to defeat it. They’ve seized on the charter amendment’s proposed changes to the existing cite and release program, which they say would send the wrong message to criminals.
“While the city attorney and others have said it’s not enforceable… there’s a message to the community about who we are and what kind of businesses we want to attract,” Petersen said. “We need to let businesses know that this is a community that follows the law [and] allows our police to operate in accordance with the laws.”
“It’s been passed very clearly that the business community wanted to know his position and wanted him to be opposed,” Petersen said of Nirenberg, who announced his opposition in a TV interview with KSAT last Tuesday.
Petersen called Nirenberg’s brief reference to the measure in his State of the City speech a “big disappointment.”
“Every business organization that I know of in San Antonio is united in opposition to Prop A,” said Petersen. “We really need elected officials and others to voice their opinions so that their constituents can understand the challenges that they will present.”
In addition to the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, which is under new leadership, Tuesday’s luncheon was co-hosted by the Alamo Asian Chamber of Commerce, the Alamo City Black Chamber and the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Petersen said the event oversold and last-minute tables had to be added to the Stars at Night Ballroom, the largest ballroom in Texas.
Over the course of roughly 25 minutes Nirenberg ticked off a list of priorities and accomplishments the business leaders share, including the renovations underway at the San Antonio International Airport, federal pandemic relief distributed to small businesses and increased investments in law enforcement.
Nirenberg also talked up his Ready to Work program, which despite falling short of its initial enrollment goals, has garnered praise and funding from the Biden Administration.
“Workforce development is not easy work,” said Nirenberg. “Launching the Ready to Work program has been a complex task, but I am encouraged by the demand for training.”
“By helping our residents get on the pathway for higher-paying careers, we are creating a pipeline of trained workers that will benefit local employers,” Nirenberg said.
