Monday Musings #52: San Antonio's F-Bomb Mayor Sinks to New Low

If you thought things couldn’t get worse at City Council under Mayor Gina Jones, think again. As you read this on Monday morning, the City Council is meeting in executive session to decide whether to censure the embattled mayor for her latest destructive meltdown at City Hall.

The mayor and District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, one of the targets of her backroom verbal assaults that included a string of F-bombs and left Kaur visibly shaken, will not participate in the meeting. Both will be briefed separately on the investigative findings by the third-party lawyer hired by the City Attorney’s Office after the Feb. 5 incident.

I expect the other nine councilmembers to emerge from the investigative briefing and discussion with a unanimous call for a special public City Council meeting to censure the mayor for unprofessional conduct. Her disturbing outburst, coupled with other controversial actions on her part during her first eight months in office, raises serious questions about her fitness to hold public office. A censure vote, while symbolically important, seems inadequate here. What is likely to change as a result?

The investigation focused on a tense meeting in a room behind council chambers outside public view that included Jones, Kaur, Joan Duckworth, co-owner of the Bonham Exchange gay nightclub, City Manager Erik Walsh and Assistant City Manager John Peterek.

That followed a disagreement between Jones and Kaur over the long-delayed installation of a fire suppression system at the club, and the fire chief’s recommendation that admissions at the club be cut in half, from 600 to 300 people, until the sprinkler system is installed and operative.

Kaur, whose district includes the Bonham Exchange, had been working with Duckworth on a compromise that called for a proposed one-year extension to install a sprinkler system estimated to cost $550,000 while allowing crowd admissions to continue unchanged.

Unbeknownst to Kaur, the mayor contacted Duckworth with her own proposal, which the club owner said she reluctantly accepted and signed in advance of a planned council vote on Kaur’s proposed extension, thus rendering it moot. Duckworth’s attorney said she signed after feeling “somewhat threatened” by Jones. Under the signed agreement, Duckworth accepted the reduced admissions policy with Jones promising to help the owners raise the $550,000 needed to improve the club’s safety systems.

That caught Kaur by surprise. She had assumed the council would vote to support her compromise. Jones had left Kaur in the dark about the compromise she pressured Duckworth to sign. Kaur felt ambushed by the mayor.

That’s when the matter was moved to a private room, where Jones unleashed an unprovoked wave of F-bombs directed at Duckworth, after expressing concern that devastating fires that have occurred at other gay nightclubs could happen at the Bonham Exchange.

When Kaur attempted to intervene on Duckworth’s behalf, Jones turned on her colleagues and released a fresh stream of F-bombs directed at her. Walsh and Peterek, who by custom and policy do not intervene in mayor-council interactions, were present for Jones’ outburst but did not attempt to rein her in.

Sources say the mayor remained unapologetic for her threatening behavior, prompting Kaur to file a complaint with the City Attorney. An executive session with the mayor and council present failed to move Jones to retract her threatening comments, so five council members filed a request with the City Clerk to seek a censure vote once the investigative report is delivered.

Jones would be the first mayor to be censured in the modern era. Two council members have been censured for drunk driving episodes, and another council member was censured for his verbal attack in council chambers against another council member and a former romantic partner.

Deadly nightclub fires, especially those that allow indoor pyrotechnics, have occurred again and again at nightclubs featuring large crowds and inadequate safety measures. Gay clubs have suffered a disproportionately high number of those fatal fires.

The broader conversation taking place among many City Hall observers is whether Jones will continue on her current path of hostile engagement with council colleagues and ineffective governance, with council majorities routinely opposing her bullying personality and her efforts to govern as a strong mayor in a city manager-led form of municipal government.

Jones was the first mayor to be elected for a four-year term following voter-approved changes to the City Charter, meaning she can continue on course, however ill-advised, until 2029 before any challengers can campaign for the office.