With the Nov. 5 election fast approaching, the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association announced their disapproval of Proposition C in a news release on Monday, Oct. 7. Proposition C is one of several proposed amendments to the City Charter that voters will see on the ballot in November. The amendments include changes to term limits and compensation caps for government officials including the mayor, council members and city manager.
Proposition C is set to remove all limits on city managers’ terms and salaries. Currently, the city manager is restricted to eight years of service, and their salary is capped at no more than 10 times that of the lowest-paid full-time city employee. This puts the salary ceiling at about $375,000. The limits have existed since the election in 2018 when the Firefighters Association led a campaign to approve the limits. Nearly 60% of voters approved the change, and then-City Manager Sheryle Sculley resigned shortly after.
“Term limits promote a healthy rotation of leadership and fresh perspectives in our city’s governance. Furthermore, tying the City Manager’s salary boundary to the lowest-paid city employee’s wage underscores our commitment to fair and healthy working conditions for all city employees,” Fire Union President Joe Jones said Monday. “These measures were designed to ensure accountability, fairness and balance within our city’s administration.”
The proposed charter changes results from months of conversation led by the Charter Review Commission, which Mayor Ron Nirenberg reconstituted in November 2023. The commission was charged with addressing revisions to the Ethics Review Board, council compensation and term limits, city manager tenure and compensation and council redistricting, among other updates to language found in the City Charter.
According to Bryan Gervais, professor of political science at UTSA and director of UTSA’s Center for Public Opinion Research, the proposed term limit and salary changes are designed to bring the city more in line with larger cities, like Houston. For reference, the same position in Dallas gets compensated to the tune of $455,000, and the city manager for Austin now makes just over $470,000.
Mayor Nirenberg and other industry leaders claim the current limits on the city manager’s pay hinder the city’s ability to attract strong candidates for the role. However, a recent poll conducted by UTSA’s Center for Public Opinion Research doesn’t bode well for Prop C. Almost 70% of respondents said they weren’t in favor, while only 17% said they would vote for Prop C.
Gervais emphasizes that Proposition C, which would remove the pay ceiling for the city manager, and Proposition E, which would raise the salaries for both the council members and the mayor, have not received much support from residents. According to the survey, San Antonio voters are likely to vote “no” on both propositions come Election Day. “Both of those appear to be underwater this time and in danger of not passing in November,” Gervais said.
