SAN ANTONIO — City Manager Erik Walsh said he plans to have a "follow-up conversation" with City Attorney Andy Segovia following a closed-doors meeting with council members who claimed Segovia was hindering transparency and blocking requested meetings.
Walsh also doubled down on his support for Segovia and the entire city attorney's office, following up last week's message of support by saying he has "complete confidence" in department leadership. Speaking in broad terms, he said the information gathered during the Wednesday executive session was "important for me to hear."
It remains to be seen if Walsh will take any potential action against Segovia after some City Council members called for his ousting last week; only the city manager has the ability to fire the city attorney. Wednesday's comments to reporters, including some made by Mayor Ron Nirenberg, indicated the priority was working to overcome current frustrations.
"I think it’s important to share that, from my perspective, my job is to continue working with the mayor and City Council to move forward and to handle the city’s business," Walsh said, while flanked by the same City Council members who demanded a meeting regarding Segovia's job performance.
Earlier, those five city leaders gathered outside City Hall to provide their own brief statement about the meeting. They called the meeting the "beginning of a process."
"We had a great discussion with the city manager about accountability and transparency," said Melissa Cabello Havrda, the councilwoman who represents District 6. "But there’s something I want to make very clear: Our goal has been, is now and always has been to make sure this government is working for the people of San Antonio. Our goal will continue. We’re looking for transparency, we’re looking for accountability, and we’re going to continue this process with the city manager and his office.”
Cabello Havrda didn't take questions as she and her colleagues returned to City Hall to continue with Wednesday's council meeting.
Walsh pointed to the duration of the executive session as proof that council members' concerns were given "due justice."
"I think it was a very good conversation," he said. "I think the takeaway is we should continue to make sure – and when I say we, I’m talking about the city staff – that we are in alignment with the entire City Council in order to do the city’s business."
Nirenberg emphasized the need to move past disagreements and continue with business.
"We’ve got big things we need to do for this city," he said. "We’ve got a lot of challenges in front of us and we have disagreements on policy. But it doesn’t mean we can’t work together to move our city forward, and I think that’s what you’re seeing today.”
How we got here
A coalition of City Council members that included Cabello Havrda, Marina Alderete-Gavito, Teri Castillo, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and Marc Whyte, said last week that Segovia had given the council inconsistent legal advice and blocked initial requests to meet and discuss ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the fire union.
They suggested, some more explicitly than others, that they wanted to see Segovia out.
It all started back in February, when negotiations began between the city and fire union on a collective bargaining agreement. Two months in, they still have not made a deal.
During that time, council members have been briefed individually by Segovia and Walsh on the negotiations.
However, McKee-Rodriguez said he hadn't received a briefing. Whyte said he hadn't received one of his own prior to last Thursday, when he and other council members demanded a meeting about the city attorney.
That’s when council members revealed they pushed for an executive session about the collective bargaining negotiations, saying their request was denied by Segovia.
"I'm disappointed we were not taken into executive session despite multiple requests from City Council members," Castillo said last Thursday. "We can’t make data-driven decision on this negotiation if we’re not given full data."
Whyte called it a "sad, sad day for the City of San Antonio" before claiming Segovia has "worked with city staff and the mayor on too many occasions to block transparency" over the last year, since he's been in office.
"This has been going on for some time, but it reached a breaking point this week," he added.
Nirenberg, meanwhile, called the memo demanding a meeting "a surprise to everyone." He threw his support behind Segovia, as did Walsh.
When KENS 5 followed up with the city attorney, he mentioned concerns of a leak of information. He didn't clarify further.
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