City Council torn over response to Marc Whyte’s DWI arrest | #citycouncil

More than a week after Council Member Marc Whyte was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated, most of his City Council colleagues are struggling over whether to formally reprimand him. 

That’s a far cry from council’s reaction after Council Member Clayton Perry, Whyte’s predecessor in District 10 on the Northeast Side, drunkenly crashed into a Honda Civic on a busy North Side street and fled the scene Nov. 6, 2022. 

The San Antonio Police Department was quick to release body camera footage in Perry’s case — it was available four days after the crash. It showed Perry answering an officer’s question in the backyard of his home, barely coherent and with a bleeding head wound. Body camera video of Whyte’s interaction with police and his arrest the night of Dec. 29 has yet to be released. 

Most council members don’t want to speak publicly about Whyte’s situation or say they need more information before deciding how to move forward.

“I think we’re at a point where we need to learn more details,” District 5 Council Member Teri Castillo said. Those details include the results of Whyte’s blood alcohol test, which aren’t expected for several weeks.

She said she was “grateful no one was hurt.”

The details in Perry’s police report were shocking — enough so that most on council quickly decided to penalize the three-term council member. In Whyte’s case, the few details that have come to light so far seem less egregious. 

Whyte, 43, was arrested shortly after 11 p.m. that Friday night. An officer with SAPD’s DWI unit pulled Whyte over after watching him driving erratically in the eastbound lanes of the Northeast Loop 410 access road just south of San Antonio International Airport.

According to an arrest report, Whyte told the officer he had consumed three beers that night: the first at El Mirasol, a popular Mexican restaurant at the upscale Alon Town Centre shopping and dining center on Northwest Military Highway; a second at Myron’s Prime Steakhouse next door; and another at the Thirsty Horse Dance Hall & Saloon, just over a mile south of Alon Town Centre.

Whyte refused to take a breathalyzer test or have his blood drawn to determine his blood alcohol concentration. Police got a warrant, and a nurse drew his blood about 1:30 a.m. that Saturday. 

While Whyte was booked into the Bexar County Jail the night he was pulled over, Perry wasn’t taken in until four days after his crash. 

Whyte was released from the jail early that Saturday. His bail was set at $2,000. A court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 30.

The crime of driving while intoxicated is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail. 

City Council is expected to discuss Whyte’s arrest in a closed-door meeting this week.

In Perry’s case, council members fell short of passing a resolution calling for him to resign but then slapped him with the no-confidence vote — a symbolic measure that carries no real penalties.  

Days before Perry’s crash, council had censured then-District 1 Council Member Mario Bravo and passed a vote of no confidence after he verbally attacked then-District 7 Council Member Ana Sandoval the day council approved the 2022-2023 budget. 

District 8 Council Member Manny Peláez said he doesn’t think council should reprimand Whyte, in part because the city charter does not outline how measures such as votes of no confidence should be carried out.

“Council doesn’t have established rules that set forth when and how we censure,” he said. “That lack of rules subjects censure decisions to the whims of the majority of council. Whims should not guide our decisions. That’s why I don’t think we should be in the business of censuring. We need to leave the censures to the voters when they cast their ballots.”

District 2’s Jalen McKee-Rodriguez takes a similar view on the use of censures and calls for resignation.

“Censures are really just a message we can’t back up with any tangible action,” he said.

Peláez and McKee-Rodriguez have changed their thinking. In 2022, both voted to reprimand Bravo and Perry. 

Since first winning her District 4 seat in 2019, Council Member Adriana Rocha Garcia has pushed council to adopt a code of conduct — and procedures for how to respond when council members behave badly — but she said her colleagues have rejected several versions.

“This is kind of my third ‘I told you so,’” Rocha Garcia said, referring to Whyte’s arrest. “Hopefully we get to do that and hopefully that helps set a process of what we do in these situations, specifically in situations where a law is possibly violated.”

District 7 Council Member Marina Alderete Gavito said she’s waiting to see what actions, if any, the mayor proposes before she’ll publicly discuss  Whyte’s situation.

Nirenberg mostly has been silent on the matter, only issuing one vague statement early last week. 

“I spoke with Councilman Whyte and appreciate his willingness to immediately acknowledge his behavior, but his actions cannot be condoned,” he said in the statement. “Representatives of the public should be held to a higher standard and a further course of action will be determined once more details of the case come to light.”

Nirenberg has far more power than council’s 10 members. He can unilaterally decide to strip a member of their committee assignments. Each council member serves on several committees, allowing them to have a say in policy proposals before they make it to the full council for a vote. 

Nirenberg took away Perry’s and Bravo’s committee assignments in fall 2022.

Whyte serves on three committees: Audit, Public Safety, and Economic and Workforce Development.

Molly Smith contributed to this report.