What you need to know
The new council includes the new District 8 council member Ivalis Meza Gonzalez, the new District 9 council member Misty Spears and District 10 council member Marc Whyte, who won a second term during the May 3 election. The runoff election also saw Gina Ortiz Jones elected as mayor.
Mayor Jones won the runoff election against opponent Rolando Pablos with 54.30% of the vote. Gonzalez and Spears also won their seats during the runoff election, with 57.35% of the vote and 56.74% of the vote, respectively. Whyte won the election with 69.13% of the vote.
San Antonio new City Council:
- Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones
- District 1 council member Sukh Kaur
- District 2 council member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez
- District 3 council member Phyllis Viagran
- District 4 council member Edward Mungia
- District 5 council member Teri Castillo
- District 6 council member Ric Galvan
- District 7 council member Marina Alderete Gavito
- District 8 council member Ivalis Meza Gonzalez
- District 9 council member Misty Spears
- District 10 council member Marc Whyte
The vote
According to the San Antonio city clerk, the total number of votes cast, including provisional and overseas ballots, was 143,164 out of 841,164 registered voters, or 17.01%.
What else?
During a brief press conference after the swearing in ceremony, Jones said one of the major features of her tenure as mayor will be monthly forums to speak with constituents throughout the city.
“People have to not only be heard, but I think it's really important that we are taking the time to remind ourselves constantly about whom we are accountable, and it is always the people, and the circumstances, the opportunities, the challenges [of the people] look quite different. We all know how economically segregated our community is, so part of the value, even of some of these town halls, is literally driving into a neighborhood and being able to see for yourself what some of the challenges are.”
Gonzalez said her main priorities as the District 8 council member will be to follow through on key aspects of her platform during her campaign, such as public safety and infrastructure.
“[I] really want to just follow through on those policy areas that [my campaign] talked about, making sure that residents feel safe, making sure that infrastructure is working for them and not against them, and making sure we're communicating at all times with everything that we're doing in the city,” Gonzalez said. There's so much I'm not expecting residents to get tested on any of this, but the more they know, the better off we will all be.”
Spears said her tenure will focus on getting the city back to the basics of governance.
“My priorities are what I outlined in my campaign,” Spears said. “It's mainly focusing on getting back to basics of city governance, and so that to me and to my constituents and to all of San Antonio should be public safety number one, infrastructure is important, careful use of tax dollars and economic growth for San Antonio, and those are my focus.”
Whyte said he will continue to work on priorities that influenced his first term as a City Council member.
“[My priorities are] the same as the first [term],” Whyte said.”It's public safety, it's infrastructure, as we've seen with the flooding. We've got to get a handle on the aging infrastructure in San Antonio, and so we'll need more resources to get there, and then, of course, economic development, [such as] providing good paying jobs for the citizens of San Antonio. That's what the council should focus on.”
