SAN ANTONIO — An ethics complaint has been filed against City Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, alleging that he lied to officials of a semi-truck dealership company about a rezoning application.
The complaint accuses the District 2 council representative of lying by misrepresenting a situation about Doggett Freightliners' attempt to rezone a property owned by the company in order to allow them to operate a business on the land.
Doggett Freightliner was working to rezone the 35-acre property near Interstate 10 East and Loop 1604. However, residents in the areas had been pushing back on the company's plans, citing traffic concerns and safety concerns. They want the growing area to have more retails and shops, and are worried it will instead become too industrial if the company's plans get the green light.
The ethics complaint, filed Tuesday, alleges McKee-Rodriguez told company representatives that a vote on their rezoning application would be postponed to the end of October. However, according to the complaint, McKee-Rodriguez switched his tune on Oct. 17, when he informed the company he instead planned to call for a vote and deny the request.
"That misrepresentation was false and intentionally made so that Doggett would detrimentally rely on the McKee-Rodriguez lie," the complaint reads.
The complaint says if the company had known about the plan to call the vote at City Council on Oct. 17, the company would not have submitted the application, saying "McKee-Rodriguez's call for a vote legally barred Doggett from withdrawing its zoning and land-use requests."
It also said McKee-Rodriguez's goal amounted to "denying Doggett the ability to withdraw its application which would lead to Doggett not being allowed to conduct its desired operations on their own land."
The complaint was filed by Oscar Zepeda, a San Antonio resident who is not connected to Doggett Freightliner. He says in his complaint that he was concerned with "unethical conduct of one of my representatives" and called for an investigation.
At the Oct. 17 meeting, City Council debated the rezoning application for more than an hour before ultimately tabling a decision until Nov. 21.
See the full complaint below:
Councilman McKee-Rodriguez in a statement said his team was "working with the neighborhood, applicant and city to get to the best end result possible, which has always been the goal."
"Regarding the ethics complaint, " he added, "I have trust in the process and am confident that this complaint will resolve itself quickly. My constituents continue to place their trust in me and my team, and that’s something we’ve earned and take pride in.”
Meanwhile, the City of San Antonio released the following statement regarding the ethics complaint:
"A review is underway into an Ethics Complaint filed on November 5, 2024, against Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez. The City, including elected officials and staff, will not comment on the complaint or the circumstances surrounding it while the Ethics Review Board process is underway.
"When an ethics complaint is filed against the Mayor, a Council member, or a candidate for City Council, the City will hire an independent lawyer to serve as independent Compliance auditor and counsel to the Ethics Review Board. This independent lawyer will review the complaint and evaluate whether it would constitute a violation of the Ethics Code within 5 business days of the filing of the complaint. If so, the complaint will be forwarded to the ERB within 10 business days of the filing.
"The respondent will be allowed to file a response to the complaint (10 business days after a complaint is forwarded to the ERB), and the complainant will then be allowed to file a rebuttal to the response. The respondent will then be allowed to respond to any new allegations.
"The ERB will work with the independent lawyer to review the facts and may hold a hearing. Any hearing of the ERB on this matter will be scheduled and posted 72 hours in advance."
