Governance Committee Meeting - August 19, 2026: Board Review Cycle and East Side Corridor Plan
Governance Committee Meeting – August 19, 2026
The Governance Committee of the San Antonio City Council met on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, at 10:04 AM. The meeting covered approval of previous minutes, an update on establishing a regular review cycle for city boards and commissions, and a council consideration request (CCR) for an east side corridor economic development master plan. The committee voted to advance both items.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the previous month were approved unanimously by voice vote. No corrections were noted.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public spoke.
Discussion Items
- Item 2 – Ad Hoc Committee on Boards (CCR by Councilmember Mark White, District 10): City Clerk Debbie Rocka Sitter presented the ad hoc committee’s proposal to create a structured, cyclical review of all city boards and commissions, replacing the current “periodic” review with a set two‑year cycle (even‑numbered years beginning in 2026). The committee approved a board evaluation worksheet to be completed by each board with its liaison. Proposed code amendments would require the Mayor to appoint a three‑member ad hoc committee in January of even‑numbered years and mandate that board members complete training within 90 days (reduced from one year). Committee members discussed concerns about evaluation criteria (e.g., quorum, alignment with council priorities), ensuring individual board member voices are heard, and the potential need for a supplemental survey. Councilmember McKee Rodriguez suggested a short, anonymous survey for all board members to provide independent feedback; the clerk agreed to develop one for ad hoc committee review.
- Item 3 – East Side Corridor Economic Development Master Plan (CCR by Councilmember McKee Rodriguez, District 2): Staff presented a CCR requesting a comprehensive revitalization and master development plan for a major commercial corridor on the east side. The proposal includes corridor infrastructure improvements, targeted small business investments, strategic land acquisition, public‑private partnerships, anti‑displacement protections, and a financial strategy leveraging federal, state, county, and potential Spurs community benefits funds. Staff recommended referring the item to the Economic and Workforce Development Committee (EWDC) to evaluate implementation options, funding sources, and a timeline. Councilmember McKee Rodriguez expressed strong support, noting resident interest in corridors like South WWY and citing the need for creative financing (e.g., Inner City Capital Fund). The motion to refer passed.
Key Outcomes
- Item 2 (Board Review Cycle): Motion to approve the staff recommendation (send code amendments to a session) passed unanimously by voice vote. The motion also included an amendment to change the required board member training timeline from one year to 90 days. The clerk will develop a survey for individual board members and coordinate with the ad hoc committee for its release before October 2026.
- Item 3 (East Side Corridor Plan): Motion to approve staff’s recommendation to refer the CCR to the Economic and Workforce Development Committee passed unanimously by voice vote.
- Meeting adjourned at 10:54 AM.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. The time is now 10 04 a.m. on Wednesday, August 19th, 2026, and the meeting of the governance committee is now called to order. Madam Clerk, please call roll. Councilmember Mickey Rodriguez. Present. Councilmember Via Gran. Here. Councilmember Mungia. Councilmember Spears. Mayor Jones. Here, Mayor, we have Quorum. Great, thank you. First item on the agenda is approval of the minutes. Are there any corrections to the minutes from last month? Great. If there's not a mo is there a motion in a second to approve the minutes. I make a motion to approve. Thank you. We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. Okay. Motion carries. Thanks. We don't have anybody here from the public to speak. We'll move on to the action items. Madam Clerk, please recaption for item two. Item number two is an update from the ad hoc committee on boards related to council consideration requests by council member Mark White, District 10 on the amendment of chapter two of the city code. Is there a presentation? Okay, thanks. Governance committee, my name is Debbie Rocka Sitter, City Clerk, and I was staffing the ad hoc committee on boards that was created under this CCR and by the governance committee. Councilmember White submitted the CCR on March 30th, titled Amending Chapter 2, which would be establishing a defined review cycle for city boards and commissions. The CCR mentioned a model used by the state of Texas for a sunset review board and cited section 2-541 of the city code. 2-541 of the city code uh calls for the city clerk to maintain a list of all city boards, and that periodically the mayor would appoint an ad hoc committee to review all boards. This would be a three-member ad hoc committee uh members of the city council. And that committee would uh review the boards and then refer boards to the respective council committee having oversight of the board as deemed necessary. So the issue for the CCR was that council currently lacked a consistent and predictable mess mechanism to assess whether boards and commissions were meeting their stated objectives, um, identify opportunities for consolidation, modernization, or improved performance, and ensure efficient use of staff time and city resources. Under this CCR request, the there is and has been an inventory of city created boards that was provided to the ad hoc committee. And the request was to develop a structured census review framework consistent with the city code, preserving the mayor's appointment authority over the ad hoc committee with a review cycle recommended at three-year intervals, objective criteria, standardized review timeline, public input process, and options for council action, and then to pilot the review framework. So the mayor appointed the three member council committee on boards and commissions with the uh council member McKee Rodriguez serving as chair and council members Meza Gonzalez and and Mark White as the other two members. The first meeting was held August 3rd, and the committee established a two-year even number review cycle beginning in 2026, so it would be reviewed in 2026, 2028, 2030. The committee approved a board evaluation worksheet, which would be sent to all board liaisons by the office of the city clerk, compiled and reviewed uh by the city clerk, reviewed by the city attorney's office. And then another meeting would be held in October for the committee to review those evaluations and recommend any boards that scored low for review by their respective council committee. The ad hoc committee proposed some minor updates to the city code, which included instead of having a periodic review and a periodic ad hoc committee that the mayor would establish that in January of even number years, and that committee would do this process every other year. And then in support of the ad hoc committee, the city clerk will also provide a board board information using the evaluation worksheet that was approved by the ad hoc committee. The city clerk does not recommend adding that the actual worksheet to the code, but just ref referencing it that way. It leaves flexibility for the future of what the committee might need for the evaluation. So the city clerk recommends the government governance committee send the city code updates to a session, and then we would have further follow-ups through from the ad hoc committee as they meet again.
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