Applications are open to fill District 10’s temporary vacancy on the San Antonio City Council, following Councilman Clayton Perry’s request for a sabbatical.
City Council voted Monday to allow the councilman to take a leave of absence after admitting to being involved in an alleged hit-and-run car crash earlier this month.
An application process outlined on the city’s website says applicants to fill the temporary vacancy must be at least 18 years of age and have lived in District 10 for a least six months, among other qualifications. Applicants cannot have been convicted of a felony unless probation has been completed, according to the city’s website.
The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. Nov. 28. The council plans to begin the selection process at its next regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 30.
In that meeting, City Council can select up to three candidates based on their applications. It can then interview them and make a final selection at its next meeting on Dec. 1. The chosen replacement would be sworn in that same day.
According to the city’s charter the placeholder can fill Perry’s seat until the next municipal election in May, or until the councilman decides to return to work.
“When he’s ready to come back he can just tell us he’s ready to come back and he comes back,” Segovia said. “So really, it’s up to him.”
Perry has repeatedly vowed to return to work, but said little about what kind of treatment he will seek or how long he will be gone.
Ahead of a special council meeting Monday at which council members were to vote on seeking Perry’s resignation, the councilman acknowledged causing the Nov. 6 crash, in which he has been charged with a misdemeanor for leaving the scene and is being investigated for DWI.
On Monday, he said he wanted to seek help, though he did not specify what kind of help or whether it involved treatment for alcohol abuse. Perry has declined to say whether he was drinking the night he allegedly crashed his Jeep Wrangler into another car and fled the scene of the accident.
Video footage from later that night shows him lying in his backyard, giving incoherent or evasive answers to questions from a police officer, then attempting to use a credit card to open his door.
“During this time, I will be taking the appropriate measures as determined by medical professionals to ensure that this will never happen again,” Perry said Monday. “I commit wholeheartedly to whatever course of action or rehabilitation they recommend.”
Council offices are nonpartisan, but District 10 is the only district to regularly send conservative representatives to the progressive City Council.
Some council members expressed a desire to seek feedback from the district’s residents when choosing a placeholder, though they’re not required to do so.
The last time the council selected a temporary member was in 2019, when District 2 Councilman William “Cruz” Shaw stepped down to take a judicial appointment. Council members chose Art Hall, a former District 8 councilman, to represent the Eastside district for about five months leading up to city elections.
Perry is serving his third term representing the Northeast San Antonio district and would be eligible to seek a fourth and final term in May 2023, when all council seats will be decided in city elections.
