SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio’s Ethics Review Board sanctioned Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) Tuesday night over his October 2024 attempt to kill a semi-truck dealership project.
Acting ERB Chairwoman Esther Gergen said the councilman “intentionally did not do what he had agreed to do with them (Doggett Freightliner).” However, she would not say McKee-Rodriguez “misled” the company by trying to give its Northeast Side property the wrong zoning in a key vote that he’d reportedly told Doggett’s representative would be delayed.
The board said by the time McKee-Rodriguez told Doggett’s representative about his new plan, it was too late for the company to pull its application.
Though McKee-Rodriguez’s maneuver ultimately failed, the six council-appointed board members present Tuesday night still voted unanimously to find McKee-Rodriguez violated the ethics code by impeding the private interest of a third party.
The board also voted to give him a letter of admonition and refer him to ethics training.
McKee-Rodriguez’s appointee to the board, Chairman Patrick Lang, was recused from the vote, and three other members were absent. The 11th and final seat on the board for the District 9 appointee is currently vacant.
The sanctions have no effect on McKee-Rodriguez’s standing as a councilman, and he told reporters after the vote he believed his attempt to block the project was worth it.
“I think what comes out of this is a greater resolve to do all I can on behalf of my constituents for the next four years and some change,” said McKee-Rodriguez, who is up for re-election in May.
Oct. 17 meeting
During an Oct. 17, 2024, council meeting, McKee-Rodriguez tried to convince the rest of the city council to annex a piece of far Northeast Side property owned by Doggett Freightliner into the city limits without the zoning the company had requested.
It was an attempt to block the company from using the land at Interstate 10 and Weichold Road, just outside Loop 1604, as either a dealership or for semi-truck parking — both of which residents in a nearby neighborhood opposed.
However, the trick failed when the rest of the council voted to delay the issue anyway.
McKee-Rodriguez’s move came after Ken Brown, a land use attorney representing Doggett, said the councilman had originally told him a vote on the issue would be continued to another meeting.
Brown said McKee-Rodriguez then came down after the ceremonial items at the beginning of the meeting to tell him he actually planned to put the issue up for a vote with the wrong zoning that would make the property useless to Doggett.
McKee-Rodriguez said Tuesday that he hadn’t known what he was going to do until the meeting started.
“I waited until the meeting started, made a final decision based on all legal and ethical options, made my decision and let the applicant know immediately,” he told the board. “Had I have informed them that I was considering other options, my constituents would lose the opportunity for something better.”
Brown told council members at the time that the delayed notice meant he had been unable to pull his items ahead of time.
City ordinance allows applicants to pull their zoning request before the item is called and staff have begun presenting it. If they withdraw their application past that point, there is an automatic six-month waiting period before they can refile.
Though Brown said after the October meeting that he didn’t think he could ever trust McKee-Rodriguez again, the two quickly reconciled and worked out a compromise plan, which McKee-Rodriguez reluctantly pushed forward at a Nov. 21 meeting.
The entire 35-acre property is now fully inside city limits with the zoning needed for a new dealership. The councilman said the neighbors had decided using the property for parking, which wouldn’t have required city approval at first, was “the greater terror.”
McKee-Rodriguez said Doggett had agreed to several measures, including the size of the setbacks, a 10-foot masonry wall, no semi-trucks on Weichold Road, keeping trees along the property line and no on-site fuel storage.
After McKee-Rodriguez was hit with the complaint, Brown submitted an affidavit in his defense. The lawyer said he respected that McKee-Rodriguez told him of his plans at the beginning of the Oct. 17 council meeting and that Doggett Freightliner had not experienced any harm or loss.
‘Political stunt’
McKee-Rodriguez’s maneuver prompted an ethics complaint from a North Side resident with no apparent connection to the project, Oscar Zepeda, who called McKee-Rodriguez “a liar.”
Zepeda specifically accused the East Side councilman of violating the city’s ethics code by damaging public confidence and impeding Doggett’s private interests.
Zepeda did not appear at Tuesday’s meeting.
The councilman, though, denied wrongdoing and called the complaint a “political stunt.”
Speaking to the board, McKee-Rodriguez said Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8), a mayoral candidate with whom McKee-Rodriguez frequently butts heads, had “paraded” Zepeda around functions, introducing him as “the man who filed the complaint against Councilman McKee-Rodriguez.”
“This is not a genuine ethics complaint,” McKee-Rodriguez said. “It is an attempt to create a public narrative that undermines my credibility and the trust that my constituents have in me. And it is not working.”
Asked after the board’s vote about his comment regarding Pelaez, McKee-Rodriguez said “I’m going to leave Councilman Manny Pelaez alone until he can make it into a run-off for mayor. I’m going to let him do that. Other than that, get rid of him in a few months. So, I’m good.”
Reached by phone Tuesday night, Pelaez said, “I seem to live in his head rent-free. And any other comment I’ll make will just serve to distract from his violating the rules he took an oath to not violate.”
Gergen said there was no “smoking gun” that caused board members to decide McKee-Rodriguez had crossed a line. They considered the complaint and video of the meeting as well as the councilman’s social media posts.
In one post, McKee-Rodriguez said his “tactic” had “Failed, but worth a shot.”
What I tried today would have stopped both uses lol
— Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez 🇵🇸 (@theloserteacher) October 18, 2024
I tried to get the lot zoned for limited use for retail, restaurants, etc. so they couldn’t do dealership OR parking.
I could only do that today using this tactic. Failed, but worth a shot! My constituents appreciated it. https://t.co/EpuAo4sW8j
Second council member sanctioned
The board reprimanded District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte in August 2024 for using his position for private interests and using city resources in a way not lawfully available to the public. The board also referred Whyte to ethics training.
At the time, Lang described the reprimand toward Whyte as one of the board’s most severe options.
According to city ethics code, a letter of admonition is for when the violation was minor or may been unintentional.
Gergen said the board found McKee-Rodriguez’s actions to be intentional, but not necessarily an intentional violation of the ethics code.
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