Overview
- In a memo circulated Wednesday, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said the District 7 chief of staff had access to a confidential document about her condo security and declined a requested in-person San Antonio Police Department internal affairs interview while providing a statement through counsel.
- James Branch’s attorney said the internal affairs probe has closed with no discipline and no findings against him, and KSAT reported that Branch was not one of the sources who gave the security plan to reporters.
- The leak traces to a KSAT report last fall titled 'Mayor Jones Residence Post Orders,' which described an expanded after-hours security detail created after a social-media threat and prompted Chief William McManus to seek an IA investigation.
- Jones told city leaders that council aides are employed by a Local Government Corporation and therefore are not automatically subject to city administrative directives, and she asked the LGC personnel subcommittee to immediately apply those rules to aide staffers.
- The dispute has become a political fight between the mayor and District 7’s office, and the outcome could change how council aides are disciplined and how police internal probes handle access to sensitive city security information.