SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones dodged multiple questions from multiple KSAT 12 journalists about whether she publicly supports SAPD Police Chief William McManus.
Jones’ latest comments came during the mayor’s weekly appearance on KSAT 12’s 6 O’Clock News on Tuesday night.
The question of whether the mayor still has confidence in McManus was the third time KSAT asked her about the chief on Tuesday. KSAT has also asked Jones’ office about McManus multiple times over the last week.
The mayor’s lack of answers on Tuesday comes at a tenuous time in McManus’ tenure.
McManus criticized by police union
Following last week’s acquittal of three ex-SAPD officers in the 2023 killing of Melissa Perez, San Antonio Police Officers’ Association (SAPOA) President Danny Diaz criticized the chief in a message to union members.
“As for the Chief and the administration who have continuously made decisions that are knee jerk reactions,” Diaz wrote, “decisions that are politically motivated, or because of the fear of public perception of the incident, or because they are more worried about their own job and their thought process is ‘well let’s fire them and they can get their job back in arbitration.’”
The former officers — Nathaniel Villalobos, Alfred Flores and Eleazar Alejandro — were all arrested on the same day as the Perez shooting, though Diaz said he had “stressed to the Chiefs Office (sic) there was no reason to expedite the decision to arrest those officers.”
“It has been very clear for a long time; the Chief does not care about his impulsive decisions and the effects those decisions have on officers,” Diaz also wrote.
“The union (SAPOA), obviously, is entitled to ensure that their members feel represented and supported and, certainly, have confidence in the chief, right?” Jones told KSAT on Tuesday night. “So, I think that’s important — that they exercise their rights in that way. I don’t have any additional comment to that, at this point.”
When pressed further during Tuesday night’s 6 O’Clock News, Jones was asked if she had any discussions with City Manager Erik Walsh about McManus’ performance.
The city manager is responsible for appointing a police chief, but state law requires the city council to confirm the choice.
“Yeah, so those are private discussions, and I’m not going to go into those as they relate to the chief’s performance,” Jones told KSAT. “So, look, I think the stats in the city — in terms of the safety in the city — they speak for themselves. I’m not going to speak any further on the chief’s performance.”
KSAT’s first Tuesday attempt to talk to Jones
Earlier in the day, Jones pushed past the question when asked by KSAT Investigates reporter Dillon Collier following a press event at the San Antonio Food Bank.
The event addressed hunger and homelessness in Bexar County.
KSAT’s second Tuesday attempt to talk to Jones
Approximately 30 minutes later, Jones again refused comment when approached by KSAT reporter Garrett Brnger as she arrived at Boeing Center at Tech Port for a Texas Association of Business event.
Jones stood silently after Brnger asked if she still had confidence in McManus.
A member of the mayor’s security detail then told Brnger he would get him connected with a mayoral staffer.
KSAT also has multiple pending records requests filed with the city seeking the mayor’s recent communications with the city manager’s office regarding McManus.
Jones’ working relationship with McManus
The mayor told KSAT on Tuesday that she and the chief have a meeting once a month.
“Obviously, you know, (with) my background in national security, I like to have a good sense of any threats to the community and understand what may potentially be coming our way, right?” Jones said on Tuesday night. “Those are conversations that, I think, are important to have on some routine basis. As we were just discussing right before this, it is important that that’s a tight relationship — given what we’re seeing at the federal level and some of the actions happening in our community."
KSAT could find no record of Jones and McManus having any public arguments. However, she has shown concern about leaks on police-related issues in the past.
In August, KSAT reported on Jones’ emails with county and court officials over local news outlets’ use of public livestream video that showed District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez appearing before a magistrate judge after her arrest for DWI.
Jones, who referred to the public livestream footage as “leaked video,” wrote that there “remains a real concern that someone was tipped that the Councilwoman would soon appear on the live stream.” She said she would work with city staff to see if there was “an internal alert to a third party.”
In October, when KSAT Investigates reported on Jones’ unprecedented security measures, a spokeswoman declined to make the mayor available for an interview and referred all inquiries to “the chief of police.”
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KSAT’s request for a comment from McManus on the heightened security measures went unanswered by SAPD. However, McManus released a statement the day after it aired, saying he had directed Internal Affairs to investigate “how these sensitive details were leaked to the media and who is responsible.”
As recently as last week, SAPD officials said there was no update to this internal affairs probe.
McManus has tended to have strong public support from city executive staff and officials, though he has faced criticism from within the department’s rank-and-file at times.
McManus, who turns 74 this month, has led the San Antonio Police Department for most of the last 20 years under five different mayors.
He was hired as chief in early 2006 after stints as chief of police for the Minneapolis Police Department, chief of police for the Dayton Police Department in Ohio, and assistant chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. — the department where he started his law enforcement career in 1975.
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He left SAPD for nine months in 2015 for a job as CPS Energy’s senior director of security but was rehired in October of that year to take the reins back from Interim Chief Anthony Treviño, his former deputy chief.
SAPOA issued a vote of “no confidence” against the chief in 2016 during a bitter contract battle with the then-city administration. The union denied the vote was about the negotiations, though, instead citing reasons like McManus not reacting “appropriately” to staffing and morale issues in the department and showing “an unwillingness” to support Officer John Lee after a deadly shooting.
SAPOA could move forward with a vote of no confidence against McManus as soon as Dec. 11.
The city charter also forbids members of the city council, which includes the mayor, from directing or requesting the city manager to remove any city employees.
Jones has had problems retaining staff within her own office. Since she was sworn in on June 18, five people have departed, including a spokesman who stayed only four days.
McManus did not reply to an email from KSAT requesting comment, which was sent to the SAPD’s Public Information Office on Tuesday.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.