Expensive, last-minute campaigns both for and against San Antonio’s Proposition C have broken out in the final weeks of the Nov. 5 election.

City leaders are asking voters to undo 2018 changes to the City Charter that set limits on how much money the city manager can make and how long they can hold the position.

While Prop C is among five other propositions on the ballot, this idea has by far garnered the most attention. Even still, many voters know little about it.

“The majority of the voters that we talk to have no idea about any of the props. They’re totally clueless,” said Javier Patlan, legislative director for the San Antonio Professional Firefighters’ Association, who was campaigning against Prop C outside the voting center at Memorial Library on Monday.

The fire union helped put those caps in place in 2018 and is spending big money on polling, mailers and TV ads telling voters to reject Prop C in this election. A much smaller campaign, led by policing reform group ACT 4 SA’s Action Fund, also recently launched anti-Prop C ads on social media.

“The feedback we have gotten is… [voters] don’t want the city manager to be paid extraordinary amounts of money, and they think there should be term limits,” Patlan said of his conversations outside the polling location. “Once we inform about what’s going on and why it’s there … they’re in agreement with keeping the [policy] the way it is.”

RenewSA, a political action committee formed by influential local leaders planned to spend more than $1 million to convince voters to approve.

RenewSA spent nearly $423,000 between late September through Oct. 26, according to campaign finance reports, roughly two and a half times the nearly $167,000 that the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association’s PAC had spent in October.

The proposed ballot language makes no mention of voter-approved caps from 2018, asking voters simply: “Shall the Charter of the City of San Antonio be amended to grant to City Council the authority to set the full terms of the City Manager’s employment including tenure and compensation?”

That wording more closely matches the view of the prop’s supporters, who liken it to a board of directors having authority over hiring and firing their CEO.

“It’s about consistency to make sure that these long-term transformational projects … have somebody who is steering the ship,” said former Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran (D3), who helped form a different last-minute Prop C push for voters to approve it.

So, what’s the big deal, why do local firefighters and business leaders want voters to care about the city manager’s pay and tenure?

If you’re not sure how you’ll vote on Prop C, here’s a quick overview of key contextual points you should know:

What would change if Prop C is approved?

• Under the current city charter (basically a local constitution), the city manager’s tenure is capped at eight years and their base pay is capped at 10 times what the lowest-paid city employee gets paid.
  • Entry-level employees earn $37,440 annually ($18 per hour) so the city manager earns $374,400 — with additional allowances and benefits.
  • The previous city manager’s base pay was $475,000 in 2018. Sheryl Sculley was City Manager for 13 years.
• If approved, Prop C would remove both caps and let City Council decide how much the city manager is paid and how long they hold their position.
  • That’s how it was prior to 2018, when voters approved the caps in the first place.
• The Charter Review Commission, which helped craft the charter amendments, said they could not find a city in the U.S. with similar caps.
• Read more: Here’s what San Antonio City Council is asking voters to approve in November.

Who is the city manager? What do they do?

• The city manager, currently Erik Walsh, is basically the CEO of the City of San Antonio. They are responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the city organization — from trash pick up to airport expansions — and implementing policies set by City Council.
  • City Council has the power to remove the city manager with a majority vote — Prop C would not change that.
• The city has a nearly $4 billion annual budget, more than 40 departments and about 15,000 employees.

What do proponents say — and who are they?

• Prominent business and political leaders point to city manager base pay in other cities across the U.S. who are paid more than what the current caps allow: Austin’s city manager gets $470,000, Fort Worth’s gets $410,000 and Phoenix’s gets more than $400,000 with benefits.
• Supporters of Prop C argue that San Antonio needs to be able to pay its city manager more to attract solid candidates for the role and keep them more than eight years if City Council wants to.
  • Walsh has to leave the position in 2027 “even if he’s done a good job,” said Gordon Hartman, local philanthropist and entrepreneur who serves as a chair of the RenewSA PAC. “I have 300 employees among all my nonprofits. I keep all the good ones. I don’t want the bad.”
• Read more: Who cares about city charter amendments? This group wants to spend $1M to get you to. and Business Coalition endorses Prop C to remove salary and tenure caps on city manager.

What do opponents say — and who are they?

• The firefighters’ union argues that tying the lowest-paid worker’s salary to the city manager’s pay promotes pay equity — the city can increase the city manager’s pay by increasing the lowest-paid employee’s pay.
  • A smaller group comprised of former SA2020 staff have also come out in opposition of Prop C because of pay equity.
• The city should have a rotation of administrative leadership to promote fresh ideas and innovation — and deter the city manager from amassing power in City Hall over long tenures.
  •  “We think it’s unfortunate that this may impact [Walsh] and his career trajectory,” San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association President Joe Jones said. “At the end of the day, it’s not about a person, it’s about a principle.”
• In 2018, the local firefighters’ union pushed for — and nearly 60% of voters supported — these caps. That push stemmed from a longstanding labor contract conflict between Sculley and the previous president of the fire union.
• Read more: Fire union opposes Prop C, which if passed would undo the caps it fought for in 2018 and City Council approves three-year, $109 million fire union contract in record time.

Andrea Drusch contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Erika Gonzalez, a tri-chair of RenewSA, sits on the San Antonio Report’s board of directors.