SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio City Councilmember Marc Whyte was suspended from his committee assignments on Thursday, the same day the San Antonio Police Department released video of his recent DWI arrest.
“I am suspending Councilmember Whyte from Council committee assignments until further notice or until more details of the incident are known,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who issued the suspension, said in a memo Thursday to city council members, City Manager Erik Walsh and City Attorney Andy Segovia.
The suspension is effective immediately. Whyte, who represents District 10, is currently assigned to the Audit, Economic & Workforce Development and Public Safety committees.
Nirenberg also wrote in the memo that a special city council meeting to consider a censure of Whyte would take place Sunday morning.
The exact language of the censure resolution wasn’t immediately available, but such actions don’t carry any consequence besides as a public condemnation.
“We want to send a message to ourselves, and to the rest of the community that we serve, that this behavior is not condoned. It’s not acceptable,” Nirenberg said.
The mayor’s action comes following the councilman’s Dec. 29 arrest on suspicion of DWI following a traffic stop just after 11 p.m.
Whyte’s predecessor in the District 10 seat, Clayton Perry, was given a similarly symbolic vote of “no confidence” by his council colleagues following news of his drunken hit-and-run in 2022. The council was originally going to vote on a non-binding resolution calling for his resignation, but it was changed from the dais.
Nirenberg also stripped Perry of his committee assignments.
Asked about the apparent similarity in punishments, Whyte said Thursday he didn’t believe he would be receiving a “no confidence” vote and that his removal from committees was a “temporary issue.”
“I’ll be back on those committees very shortly, I believe,” he said.
NEW VIDEO OF THE ARREST
SAPD’s video of the incident begins by showing dashcam footage on eastbound Loop 410 and then the officer speeding up and turning on his flashing lights, following Whyte’s Chevrolet Malibu. Whyte continues driving until he exits at Nacogdoches Road and turns into the parking lot of the Tetco Center building in the 300 block of NE Loop 410.
The officer approaches Whyte and tells him that was stopped for driving 80 mph in a 65-mph speed zone and was changing lanes twice without using his signal lights. Whyte apologizes and tells the officer he’s headed home.
When the officer asked Whyte where he was coming from, the councilman told him that he was at El Mirasol on NW Military Highway with a council member and two friends.
The officer asked Whyte if he had consumed any alcohol, and the councilman told him that he had a beer and some food.
Whyte was then asked to get out of his car so that the officer “could make sure that you’re good to drive.” It’s at this point that the officer conducted three sobriety tests.
The first test was a horizontal gaze eye exam. The officer then asked Whyte what time he had his beer. Whyte responded within a two-hour time frame prior to the traffic stop. It’s at this point that he admitted that he had a second beer at Thirsty Horse Saloon.
The next exam was the walk-and-turn test, which the councilman complied with after struggling a bit with the officer’s instructions.
Whyte was asked to do a one-leg-stand test, where the councilman was asked to lift one of his legs six inches off the ground. Whyte was then asked to recite a portion of the alphabet and to count numbers backward from 67 to 42, which he was able to do.
The officer then asked Whyte what he thought his sobriety level was, with 1 being very sober to 10 very intoxicated. The councilman responded, “Sir, I am sober.” The officer followed up by asking Whyte, “Do you feel like you’re sober?” Whyte responded, “Yes, sir,” and added that he lived two exits off the freeway. Asked a third time if he felt like he was sober, Whyte said, “1000% percent.”
The officer told Whyte that he smelled alcohol on his breath and that he was concerned about the councilman driving home, to which Whyte responded, “I’ll walk home if you want me to. I’m 100% OK. However you want to handle this is OK with me.”
After talking with a fellow officer at the scene about the situation, the arresting officer returned and conducted another horizontal gaze-eye exam on Whyte.
The officer asked Whyte again when was the last time he had something to eat. The councilman responded that it was within the last two hours and told the officer that he had been at El Mirasol, Myron’s Steakhouse and Thirsty Horse Saloon. Whyte then admitted to “having a drink at each place.”
Whyte told the officer that he had just returned from a trip to Australia that day and reiterated that he felt fine and wasn’t tired despite getting only about four or five hours of sleep on the 15-hour flight.
The officer then told Whyte that based on the sobriety tests and the amount of alcohol he drank, he was placing the councilman under arrest.
Though it was not shown on camera, police say Whyte refused to provide a breath or blood sample. They obtained a warrant to draw his blood instead.
The results of blood tests typically take 30 to 45 days.