Mayor forms new committee to discover how community can better prepare for future crises

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg announced on Tuesday that he would be forming a new committee to discover how the city can better prepare for situations like last week’s winter storm in the future.

According to Nirenberg, the storm impacted residents and led to “questions and calls for accountability,” along with ongoing concerns for the city’s own resilience and preparedness.

“While many of the factors that triggered the devastating electrical and water outages in our community were not within our control, it is our duty to report to the community how our emergency response operations and public utilities got in this situation and what can be done to be better prepared for the future,” Nirenberg said in a letter to City Council members.

According to Nirenberg, the San Antonio community “deserves answers.”

The following is a list of all committee members, made up of community stakeholders and City Council members:

• Chair - Reed Williams, former City Council member District 8
• Dr. Adriana Rocha Garcia, City Council District 4
• Ana Sandoval, City Council District 7
• Manny Pelaez, City Council District 8
• Clayton Perry, City Council District 10
• Lisa Tatum, former assistant criminal district attorney and president of the Texas Bar Association
• General Edward A Rice. Jr. (RET.)

“For the committee to be successful, I am asking the city manager to provide support to this committee with the appropriate city staff, including the city attorney’s office and public utilities division, to coordinate with CPS Energy and SAWS staff to facilitate the inclusion of any experts and stakeholders, as needed by the committee,” Nirenberg said in the letter. “I look forward to the answers that this process will provide and the actions that will enable San Antonio to weather future crises.”

Related: City of San Antonio launches call center, website to aid in recovery from weather crisis