Business-backed PAC uses a hose of cash against firefighters in San Antonio charter fight

Garrett Brnger, Reporter

Adam B. Higgins, Photojournalist

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio’s business community has spent two-and-a-half times more than the local firefighter union in the fight over caps on the city manager’s tenure and salary.

Campaign finance records show Renew SA, a political action committee backed by big names in the city’s business community, spent close to $424,000 through Oct. 26, according to campaign finance reports. On the other side, the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association’s Vote Against Prop C PAC’s expenses of nearly $167,000.

Both campaigns have spent heavily on advertising and consulting costs. Renew SA has spent $146,000 on direct mail advertising alone.

Renew SA supports all six charter amendments on the San Antonio ballot. With the fire union fighting the attempt to repeal the caps they campaigned for in 2018 as part of an extended contract battle with the city, that proposition has drawn the most attention.

Prop C supporters said forcing a city manager out after eight years in the position and capping their salary at 10 times the lowest-paid city employee could make it harder to attract quality candidates. The fire union said the city hasn’t had a chance to determine whether the caps are actually a problem and suggests it provides more balance in San Antonio’s city manager-led style of government.

READ MORE: All in how you frame it — UTSA says ballot language causes big opinion shift on San Antonio charter amendments

Renew SA has raised more than $544,000, the vast majority of it from big donors kicking in at least $10,000. USAA, HEB, Frost, Valero, the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and Silver Ventures Chairman Kit Goldsbury each wrote $50,000 checks for the campaign.

Even Sheryl Sculley, the former city manager whose $475,000 base salary helped fuel the 2018 campaign, contributed $1,000.

Though Renew SA has raised three times as much money, the fire union could likely dig deeper if it wanted.

Vote Against Prop C’s more than $177,000 in donations was drawn almost entirely from the SAPFFA’s standing PAC, which had nearly $920,000 in it before the start of the current campaign.

While Renew SA’s campaign manager has previously said they plan to spend more than $1 million, the fire union has an advantage: manpower. Yellow-shirted, sign-toting firefighters have been a regular sight at polling stations.

Plus, their identity as firefighters carries an inherent bonus.

“I have only seen, I think, the fire department speak against it. So I kind of took that as a clue,” Joseph Almeter told KSAT after voting “no” on all six propositions.

Despite all the spending, it’s an uphill fight for both campaigns to alert voters to the proposition’s mere existence.

Polling done by UTSA Center for Public Opinion Research just before the start of early voting found that 71.5% of San Antonio voters weren’t even aware the six amendments were on the ballot.

Hector Romero said he was surprised to see them at the end of his ballot. Though he read the propositions in the voting booth, he decided not to vote on any of them.

“Yeah, I mean, I read it. If I understood it I would have, you know, make a decision, but there wasn’t a clear choice,” he said.

For more information on San Antonio’s six charter amendments, check out KSAT’s election preview story HERE.

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