SAN ANTONIO – Months of frustration have Cheyenne Rendon and Debra Ponce calling for change.
“It’s not fair, and it’s not equitable,” Rendon said. “It shouldn’t have had to take several months to get to this point.”
Rendon and Ponce serve as two community members on the City of San Antonio’s task force created to update two city codes for metal recyclers. After less than a year, the team’s efforts are being paused.
“We thought we were finally going to make some changes,” Ponce said. “We want to be able to operate in peace.”
The task force was set to update Chapter 11 Fire Prevention and Chapter 16 Licenses and Business Regulations following months of widespread community concern over the safety of metal recycling entities in San Antonio.
While there were a sufficient number of metal recycling representatives at meetings, a spokesperson for District 5 said the task force did not have a balance in representation from community-appointed members.
Ponce said, in part, that it was because of the meeting’s time and length.
“What employer is going to allow you to leave for four hours every other Friday and allow you to keep your job?” Ponce said.
Since September, the task force has met approximately once every two weeks. Rendon said not feeling heard is another suspected reason for low attendance.
“It was very difficult to actually have a voice at that table,” Rendon said.
Last week, multiple task force community members sent a letter to District 5 Councilwoman Terri Castillo’s office. Castillo signed the initial Council Consideration Request to create this task force in 2023.
A week after members sent that letter, the city announced it temporarily paused the task force for re-evaluation.
KSAT requested an interview with Michael Shannon, the director of Development Services. However, he was unavailable for comment on Thursday.
In an email, a spokesperson for the department said that the office’s next priority would be to fill openings.
The goal is to get the task force meeting again by March.
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