San Antonio – Following the scandals and “no-confidence” votes on two city council members, Mayor Ron Nirenberg reshuffled City Council assignments Monday, stripping one member’s assignments and restoring another to a more active role on council.
“Considering recent events, the rosters of the committees have been changed in order to continue the business of the City,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg wrote in a Nov. 14 memo emailed to council members shortly after their “no-confidence” vote on Councilman Clayton Perry (D10) Monday.
Perry was not listed among the new council committee assignments, though Mario Bravo (D1) was assigned to three council committees and appointed to an outside board.
Both men were publicly rebuked by their fellow council members with “no-confidence” votes in the past week. Bravo, whose vote on Nov. 10 was the result of an investigation into his angry confrontation with fellow council member Ana Sandoval (D7) ahead of the budget vote, was also censured — another form of public chastisement.
And while the “no-confidence” resolution on Perry originally also asked him to resign, council members ended up removing the language before the final vote on Monday.
Perry, who has been under increasing scrutiny over his self-confessed role in a hit-and-run crash that may end up including a DWI charge, had announced shortly before the vote that he did not plan to resign and has since taken a leave of absence.
The mayor’s office confirmed the committee reshuffling had been drafted before Perry announced he planned to take an absence, indicating the mayor had planned to strip him of the assignments if he had stayed.
Although the city council is preparing to appoint a temporary replacement for Perry, there were no council assignments or appointments for the District 10 position noted in Nirenberg’s memo. The mayor’s office says it will reevaluate assignments after the vacancy is filled.
Councilman Mario Bravo (D1) was assigned to the Audit and Accountability, Economic and Workforce Development, and Public Safety Committees and appointed to the Alamo Area Council of Governments. Sandoval does not serve on any of those committees.
Bravo had previously sat on four committees: Municipal Utilities; Transportation and Mobility; Community Health, Environment and Culture; and Planning and Community Development. He was also on the policy board of the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Sandoval had been on all but one of those, as well, and Mayor Ron Nirenberg temporarily suspended Bravo from all of them in September as “a preliminary step until an investigation on the events in question is completed.”
The city council was briefed on the results of that independent investigation ahead of its vote.
“I haven’t missed a day of work and I’m excited to join these new committees and bring more of my policy ideas forward to reduce crime and increase government transparency,” Bravo wrote in an emailed statement. “I previously served on AACOG’s Air Improvement Resources Advisory Committee prior to being elected to city council and I look forward to working with AACOG again.”
Numerous other council members were reshuffled as well, though Nirenberg said the charges of each of the nine council committees remain the same.
***NEW***@Ron_Nirenberg has reshuffled committees after the issues with @MarioBravo and @district10perry . Bravo is BACK on committees, but NOT on any of his original ones or w/ @AnaSandovalSATX . W/O a D10 rep, there are a lot of changes. I made this side-by-side comp to help pic.twitter.com/VOj6agP04v
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