SAN ANTONIO – Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez did little to hide his frustration in a Tuesday morning Public Safety Committee.
Nearly 20 months after the East Side councilman submitted a request to consider the creation of a brand-new “Office of Crime and Recidivism Prevention,” a best town govt had informed him and the opposite committee participants that such an office used to be useless. Her presentation didn’t come with any research of how such an office would serve as, how a lot it would price, or whether or not different towns have an identical setups.
As she had already performed in a separate December 2022 assembly of the Governance Committee, Deputy City Manager Maria Villagomez mentioned Tuesday that ongoing town tasks already “address the priorities outlined in the (Council Consideration Request).” The
To McKee-Rodriguez, who has many times introduced up his concept for a brand new method to take on the town’s issues of crime, it used to be a “particularly vexing” reaction.
“I see very, very little work done in response to the CCR — just a list of piecemeal initiatives that do not equate to the proposal that I initiated,” he mentioned.
“And it’s taking the words that I say and trying to make a bunch of things feel like a response — and like a personalized, deliberate response — but to me, it feels like a middle finger in the form of ‘We don’t care to look into what your CCR would take, so here are all the reasons we shouldn’t do it.’”
McKee-Rodriguez persevered to mention he felt “disrespected” by way of the staff’s dealing with of his request and the way the CCR gadget in most cases works.
“When a council member files a CCR, regardless of whether or not I agree with it, it is not the staff’s role to disregard it and wait it out until the council member is no longer in office or to refuse to respond directly to its purpose,” he mentioned.
Villagomez mentioned town staff “take all CCRs with a lot of great respect, and we provide to the committees our professional recommendations on the issues at hand. That is how we are addressing this particular CCR.”
City council participants continuously use CCRs to begin a dialog on a selected factor, however it may be an extended street prior to they lead to a troublesome coverage or vote. Every CCR is going during the Governance Committee prior to it’s despatched on for different council committees to believe.
Although town staff analyze every request and provide their suggestions, the chairperson of every committee units the agenda.
McKee-Rodriguez submitted his CCR in January 2022. It went prior to the Governance Committee chaired by way of Mayor Ron Nirenberg in December 2022. Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6) mentioned that, as chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee, she “didn’t get to it fast enough.”
Whatever the timeline, Villagomez and First Assistant City Attorney Liz Provencio informed the committee participants that whilst the council’s position is to mention what they wish to see performed, it’s the purview of the town staff to determine how very best to perform it.
“So what I would ask for the committee is to tell us what are those outcomes that you want us to focus on?” she informed the committee.
McKee-Rodriguez, even though, asked his concept for a brand new town office be persevered on the subsequent to be had committee assembly.
After the assembly, he mentioned he does no longer be expecting town staff to give any choices. Instead, the councilman mentioned the council workplaces must do a little “behind the scenes work” and coordinate.
“I’ll have to do some research and make very clear what my ask is to my colleagues, and we’ll have to all be on the same page next meeting,” McKee-Rodriguez mentioned.
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