San Antonio Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) was sanctioned by the city’s Ethics Review Board on Monday for improper use of official photos on his campaign material during his 2025 reelection race.
Whyte easily defeated four opponents with nearly 60% of the vote in that race.
But one of those challengers, Eric Litaker, filed a series of complaints on April 21 alleging that Whyte had violated the city’s ethics policy by posting photographs taken in the City Council briefing room and City Hall chambers, as well as photos campaigning with San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, to the councilman’s campaign Facebook page.
One post even alleged Whyte had been endorsed by the San Antonio Police Department and San Antonio Fire Department. He received endorsements from their unions, not the city departments.
After an independent attorney was hired to help review the matter, the Ethics Review Board determined Whyte had indeed “used public property and resources for private and political purposes.” It issued him five $500 fines, for a total of $2,500. He will also receive a letter of reprimand and mandatory ethics training.
The attorney said in a letter to Litaker that the complaint against McManus would not be forwarded to the Ethics Review Board for consideration because it wasn’t clear that McManus had intended for the photos to be used for Whyte’s campaign purposes.
City Manager Erik Walsh wrote the council in January reminding members about the policies surrounding use of city resources during elections.
On Tuesday, Whyte disputed the idea he’d done anything wrong — or anything different from what other council members also did during the campaign season.
“All the pictures on my Facebook page involved city personnel or logos also available to the public, which the code clearly states is not a violation,” Whyte told the San Antonio Report. “A ruling like this means that all council members are in violation of the code because every council member has the same or similar pictures on their personal pages.”
It’s the second time Whyte has been sanctioned by the board in less than a year.
He faced a complaint in August of 2024 alleging he’d abused his official power by directing police to the home of attorney Martin Phipps during a Fiesta party. After creating a timeline of the night’s events, the Ethics Review Board agreed and issued Whyte a letter of reprimand and mandatory ethics training.
“The city must find a way to stop the [Ethics Review Board] from being used as a political weapon,” Whyte said. “We are seeing this far too often in instances like this.”
A wave of ethics complaints
Monday’s meeting of the Ethics Review Board came as a wave of ethics complaints were filed during the 2025 municipal election, but most of the accusations were dismissed without a board hearing.
The city hired attorney Nadeen Abou-Hossa to review complaints made against Whyte, Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1), and Councilwoman-elect Ivalis Meza Gonzalez — all of which were filed by political opponents.
A fourth ethics complaint, against then-mayoral hopeful Beto Altamirano, appeared to be filed by a supporter of Mayor-elect Gina Ortiz Jones.
The complaint against Meza-Gonzalez was dismissed back in April, during the heat of the campaign, while the board waited until after the election to review the rest.
On Monday Kaur was issued a letter of reprimand and mandatory ethics training, while the complaint against Altamirano was dismissed.
Kaur sanctioned for misuse of official resources
This year bar owner Julisa Medrano-Guerra, one of nine candidates who ran against Kaur in District 1, filed a wide-ranging ethics complaint accusing the councilwoman of hiding assets and misusing city resources.
Most of the allegations were dismissed, but a portion of it, accusing her chief of staff Ryan Salts of conflating campaign work and official council business at a Lavaca Neighborhood Association meeting, was forwarded to the Ethics Review Board.
On Monday the board sanctioned Kaur with mandatory ethics training.
Afterwards the councilwoman said she believed her staff had acted appropriately based on the guidance she’d previously received from the city, but she respected the board’s decision and planned to conduct the additional training.
“Moving forward, I am committed to working closely with city staff to clarify expectations and strengthen training to ensure full compliance with all ethical standards,” Kaur said.
She was reelected with 65% of the vote in a runoff against a different challenger, Patty Gibbons.
Afterwards Kaur lamented the particularly ugly race, in which the Medrano-Guerra campaign hired a private investigator to follow her to a bar. Medrano-Guerra is married to Phipps, who won the first major ethics dispute in recent memory against Whyte in 2024.
Kaur’s 12-year-old sealed DWI arrest also became public during the race.
“They threw everything at me this election cycle,” Kaur told supporters at an election night party.
Complaints against Altamirano dismissed
Altamirano, a tech entrepreneur, was one of the biggest fundraisers in the 27-candidate mayoral race, and has hinted about plans to run for office again in the future.
He faced an ethics complaint alleging he’d accepted in-kind campaign contributions that exceed the legal limit — including donated campaign office space from an LLC owned by former Mayor Henry Cisneros — but it was reviewed by the Ethics Review Board and dismissed on Monday.
After finishing third in the mayoral race with 12% of the vote, Altamirano told supporters: “I’m not going anywhere. I’m 35 years old, time is on my side.”
This post has been updated with additional information about the sanctions issued and about Police Chief William McManus.
