Castro suggests ethics amendments

Mayor Julián Castro called Wednesday for the creation of a City Hall ethics auditor to ensure future high-profile contracts in San Antonio are shielded from potential conflicts of interest.

“I believe that we should create, essentially, a position ... that would have the responsibility for helping to achieve a high-caliber ethical culture and maintain that kind of culture here,” Castro said. “Specifically, that position would be charged with monitoring the highest-profile contracts and ensuring there aren't conflicts there.”

Castro first called for reforms to the ethics code last fall after the San Antonio Express-News exposed a city executive's conflict of interest in his role in recommending a company to handle the largest construction contract in city history.

As envisioned by Castro, the ethics auditor also would conduct random ethics checks to ensure conflicts aren't occurring.

“By randomizing ethics checks, by making it more accountable, you put everybody on their toes so that they hold themselves to a greater standard,” Castro said. “I think that's how you get at the issue of preventing stuff from happening in the first place.”

On Wednesday, the mayor outlined his suggested reforms to city policy during a council subcommittee meeting.

The Governance Committee will review changes to city policy at a future meeting before the full council votes on final changes.

Castro also called for curtailing council members' contracting with certain public agencies.

“I believe it is time for us to prohibit city officials from being able to contract or subcontract on work or business that happens with all of the entities that we appoint board members to,” he said, mentioning the San Antonio Water System, VIA Metropolitan Transit, the San Antonio Housing Authority, CPS Energy and other public entities.

As it stands now, a City Council member can seek work from agencies whose boards have members appointed by the council.

Castro, a lawyer, used himself as an example.

He said it wouldn't be right — and voters would agree — to take part in appointing board members to CPS Energy or the San Antonio Water System, and then go to those utility companies and offer his legal services.

The mayor also said it wouldn't be right for him to seek a subcontract with a law firm representing the utilities.

City Attorney Michael Bernard, who'll draft and present revisions to city policy to the Governance Committee before the full council will vote on them, said Castro's suggested addition most likely would apply to members of the City Council, but the term “city official,” which could end up in the final version, would encompass department heads, council aides and others. There's no reason not to be broad and encompassing, he said.

The change could affect Councilwoman Elisa Chan, whose Unitech Consulting Engineers Inc., has been both a prime and a subcontractor for VIA Metropolitan Transit.

A VIA source, who is not authorized to speak publicly, said Wednesday that Chan's company received its last payment as a prime contractor in September 2012 and currently is a subcontractor for Alamo Architects and Fisher Heck Architects.

Alamo Architects is doing work for VIA and is using Unitech, the source said.

Chan said late Wednesday from City Hall that she couldn't confirm what her company's contracts are because she would first need to review them.

The councilwoman questioned the need to enact new legislation without first determining whether the current policy is being enforced.

“To be quite honest, if people are going to violate and don't have integrity, it doesn't matter the law, they're still going to do it,” she said.

Chan, who isn't a member of the Governance Committee, said she wasn't privy to the details of Castro's recommendations earlier in the day and wanted to reserve reaction until she knew more.

“I don't know what they're proposing right now, but until I see the details I don't think I can make an intelligent comment,” she said.

Under Castro's suggested revisions, the city also would begin identifying members of selection committees charged evaluating proposals for discretionary contracts.

That information traditionally has been kept secret.

The ethics scandal over the city's Convention Center contract is at the heart of Castro's recommendations.

Former Deputy City Manager Pat DiGiovanni was admonished Tuesday by the city's Ethics Review Board for “unknowingly” violating the ethics code for his involvement with the selection of a joint venture that included Zachry Construction Corp.

DiGiovanni was on the selection team that recommended Hunt-Zachry for the $305 million expansion contract.

During the bidding process, DiGiovanni was negotiating with executive committee members of the nonprofit Centro Partnership for a job as CEO of the downtown-development agency.

David Zachry, CEO of Zachry Corp., is vice chairman of the Centro Partnership and one of the committee members that negotiated with DiGiovanni.

jbaugh@express-news.net