San Antonio City Charter propositions: Election results

Reality check: With high turnout for the presidential election, many local voters might not have known much about the propositions.

• A pre-election poll from the Center for Public Opinion Research at UTSA showed likely voters supported Proposition C at a higher rate when shown the actual ballot language, but were less likely to support it when it was described to them.

Here's what you need to know about all six propositions and how they performed.

Proposition A — passed, 72% for

This proposition is aimed at strengthening the Ethics Review Board.

It will:

• Add a definition of "conflicts of interest"
• Require enough funding for the board to operate
• And allow the board to choose to accept or decline complaints that have already been resolved elsewhere.

Proposition B — passed, 68% for

This amendment will modernize City Charter language — for example, referring to city officials not only as "he/him" but with more gender-neutral pronouns.

• It will also revise or eliminate parts of the City Charter that state law has superseded.

Proposition C — passed, 54% for

This proposition will remove the current caps on the city manager's tenure and pay, allowing the City Council to set those instead of the City Charter.

• It will allow city manager Erik Walsh to earn more money and serve beyond 2027 if the council allows it.

Context: Voters approved the cap — which ties the city manager's pay to 10 times the lowest-paid city employee, and caps tenure at eight years — in 2018 during a feud between the firefighters' union and former city manager Sheryl Sculley.

• Business leaders had been spending in support of Proposition C, while the firefighters union was opposed to it.

Proposition D — passed, 63% for

This will allow civilian employees to donate to or campaign for candidates running for local elected office, while ensuring protection if anyone retaliated against an employee for not supporting a campaign.

• City executives will still not be able to participate in local campaigns.

Proposition E — passed, 64% for

This proposition will raise annual pay for city councilmembers to $70,200, and yearly pay for the mayor to $87,800.

• Future raises will be tied to federal income limits for the city.

Context: Councilmembers are currently paid $45,722, equivalent to the then-median household income in San Antonio when the pay was set in 2015. The mayor's salary is $61,725.

Proposition F — passed, 53% for

The final amendment will extend City Council terms to four years from the current two years.

• The maximum amount of time the mayor and councilmembers will be allowed to serve would remain the same, at eight years total — but they will campaign every four years, instead of every two years.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to show all propositions passed.