SAN ANTONIO – A political action committee led by big names from the San Antonio business community plans to spend more than $1 million in support of a slate of proposed changes to the city charter.
San Antonio voters are six weeks away from deciding the fate of six proposed charter amendments, including pay raises for the mayor and city council, four-year council terms, and the reversal of voter-approved caps on the city manager’s pay and tenure.
READ MORE: San Antonio City Council pay raise, longer terms added to Nov. 5 ballot
Renew SA announced earlier in September that it had launched a campaign on Sept. 10 to support all six amendments. It’s led by a group of tri-chairs: businessman and Morgan’s Wonderland founder Gordon Hartman, STAAMP Allergy President and CEO Dr. Erika Gonzalez, and AT&T executive J.D. Salinas.
Businesswoman and former Secretary of State Hope Andrade is the PAC’s treasurer.
Though campaign director Kelton Morgan would not say which amendment was the most important during a Tuesday interview, the PAC’s initial news release singled out Proposition C, which would allow the city council to set the employment terms for the city manager.
It’s a measure that would effectively undo a change approved by 59% of San Antonio voters in 2018, following a fire union-led campaign. That change capped the city manager’s salary at ten times the pay of the lowest-paid city employees and limited them to eight years in the city’s top administrative role.
The San Antonio business community and other supporters say removing those caps would ensure San Antonio can attract top talent and not lose out to other similarly-sized cities.
‘That’s what it costs’
The PAC has not yet filed any campaign finance reports with the city, but Morgan told KSAT that Renew SA had a budget of “a little over $1 million,” which is “what we think it’s going to take to be successful.”
Morgan said the group was soliciting contributions from business and community leaders, unions, and “a whole lot of other people. He said the PAC is on track to raise the full amount.
“It’s the number of people voting that warrants $1 million,” Morgan said. “I mean, that’s what it costs to reach the people that are turning out to vote in this election.”
Morgan said the PAC is getting in front of neighborhood and community groups, but the tight timeline until the Nov. 5 election means it will need to rely on mass media campaigning mainstays like direct mailers and advertising on digital, print, and broadcast platforms. However, those efforts are still “in the works.”
One of the challenges the campaign faces, Morgan said, is the length of the ballot. The city charter amendments will appear at the end of San Antonio ballots after dozens of federal, state, county, and judicial races.
“There’s a lot of education and an information component to this campaign,” Morgan said.
Polling disputes
The six amendments’ chances are up for debate. UTSA polling released Monday showed several of the amendments struggling to gain traction, especially the efforts to lift the caps on city manager salary and attach council member pay to the area median income.
It also found that many voters were not even aware of the proposed changes.
However, Morgan criticized how the poll was conducted, particularly in the use of “registered voters” instead of “likely voters.” Instead, he pointed to the PAC’s internal polling, of which he provided KSAT a partial copy.
Renew SA’s polling, which used the actual ballot language, showed much more favorable responses to the amendments.
The biggest gap between the polling results was for Proposition C, the city manager salary and tenure caps measure. UTSA found just 17% support for the idea in its polling, but Renew SA said it found 45% in favor.
The original 2018 campaign was largely seen as a referendum on Walsh’s predecessor, Sheryl Sculley, and her salary - $475,000 before bonuses in 2018.
The caps didn’t apply to Sculley, though she announced plans to retire shortly after the election. They do, however, affect Walsh, who has a $374,000 salary and will need to leave his position by March 2027 unless the charter is changed.
The charter can only be changed every two years at most. So supporters would have a very narrow window to try again in late 2026 or early 2027 if the current campaign fails.
It’s also unclear whether the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association will weigh in on the proposition. Though the union was the driving force behind the change as part of its wider years-long contract battle with the city, the SAPFFA and the city now have a friendlier relationship and are both under different leadership.
The union is expected to decide this week whether it will take a stance in the Nov. 5 election.