SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Councilman Clayton Perry, once again, walked away from media questions on Thursday, but it’s still unclear if he’ll walk away from city council.
As he left a council meeting a little over a week to go before the Feb. 17 filing deadline, the embattled North Side councilman told KSAT he still hadn’t decided whether to run for a fourth and final term in the May 6 election. When asked when he’d have a decision, Perry said “I’m working on it.”
Perry did not respond when asked what was holding up his decision, but Perry’s political future has been uncertain since KSAT broke the news of his suspected involvement in a Nov. 6 hit-and-run crash, for which he now faces misdemeanor DWI and failure-to-stop and provide information charges.
Perry went on a two-month leave of absence soon after the crash, and after returning on Jan. 12, ducked reporters’ questions about the crash, which he has admitted to causing, and his future plans.
Several former District 10 council members say they have advised Perry not to run, though, and there are multiple potential challengers eying the seat. So far, only one of them has taken the leap to run.
Joel Solis, a retired engineer whom Perry appointed to the Building Standards Board in December 2021, completed his application for a place on the ballot on Tuesday - nearly three weeks after the filing period opened on Jan. 18.
“I was waiting really to see what Perry was going to do,” he said. “I really didn’t want to be running against him, but I thought time was not on my side anymore - that if I was going to have any opportunity to reach voters, to actually start doing some block walking and texting, that I needed to get going.”
Solis was one of the 18 people who originally applied to be Perry’s temporary replacement during the councilman’s leave of absence, but was not chosen for the short list.
Perry’s predecessor in the District 10 council seat and temporary replacement during his leave of absence, Mike Gallagher, said he and other former council members have been advising Perry not to run. Carlton Soules, Jimmy Hasslocher, and John Clamp all confirmed they had been part of that effort.
“I think it’s the distraction,” Gallagher said. “I really am very, very concerned about all those videos and recordings and photographs and so forth that would really distract him from being able to conduct his job as a councilman. And we want to protect him in that way.”
San Antonio police have said Perry drank 14 drinks over four hours on Nov. 6 before slamming his Jeep Wrangler Rubicon head-on into a Honda Civic while trying to turn from Jones Maltsberger Road onto Redland Road. Police say Perry fled the scene, and an SAPD officer found him lying in his back yard a little over an hour later, bleeding from the head and smelling of alcohol.
Body cam video of that encounter shows Perry slurring his words, trailing off as he speaks, and trying to use cards out of his wallet to open his back door as if they were key cards.
Gallagher said he’s backing business attorney Marc Whyte to replace Perry on council. Although Whyte is debating taking a shot at the office, he hasn’t yet committed to running.
Whyte considers Perry, who appointed him to the Zoning Commission in Sep. 2019, to be a friend. He said the councilman had talked with him about potentially taking over his role when Perry was considering a bid as a Bexar County commissioner.
Whyte said he “can’t say it hasn’t been in my mind” to run for city council, but he “didn’t think it would happen this quickly.”
“I think that current circumstances lend themselves to me considering it at this time,” Whyte said on Thursday, though he said whether Perry decided to run or not would not influence his decision.
Pauline Rubio and Joe Garcia, who made the shortlist to serve as Perry’s replacement during his leave of absence, may also end up on the ballot.
Garcia, who served as a city council member in Victoria in the 1990′s, said he planned to run whether Perry did or not. Rubio, who is an adjunct professor at Palo Alto College, said she was still considering it.
The deadline to file an application to get on the ballot is 5 p.m. on Feb. 17.