Ana Sandoval announced on Tuesday, January 17, the day before city council candidates could apply for re-election, that she would not run for a fourth term and would not complete her third term, opting instead to leave at the end of January. In a statement, the outgoing District 7 council member said it was time for her to retire, taking a job at the University of Health after a tumultuous past two years for her and San Antonio.
Sandoval was first elected to the city council in 2017. Since then, she has had nearly three terms to champion the issues she has fought for and won: transportation, housing, health care, the climate, and the elimination of inequalities in government systems. Sandoval served on the council during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During Sandoval’s reign, her father, Thomas Mauricio Sandoval, died in November 2021.
She was also the victim of a public appearance by council member Mario Bravo last year. Sandoval will step down on Jan. 30 to take up a post at Bexar County Health University to oversee health equity. Depending on who takes her place next, San Antonio could lose one of its most vocal environmentalists.
But MySA is about to look back on the MIT-Stanford graduate’s time and efforts on the city council.
District 7 council member Ana Sandoval weighs in as the San Antonio City Council considered a funding agreement and contract amendment to design and build protected bike lanes in 2019.
Marvin Pfeiffer /Climate Action Plan
This initiative was first proposed and supported by Sandoval in 2019. The Climate Change Action and Adaptation Plan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make San Antonio “carbon neutral” by 2050 through policy and technology changes to the city, businesses, and residents.
The climate change action plan was mulled over in 2019 until it was passed in October 2019 in a single “no” vote by council member Clayton Perry, who is now on alert.
Regulate CPS energy
In April 2022, Sandoval teamed up with other environmentalists to urge the city of San Antonio to crack down harder on CPS Energy while operating the JKSpruce plant.
Spruce Power Plant is San Antonio’s largest coal-fired power plant and is also a source of pollution.
Incentives for housing and developers
Sandoval, along with other council members, advocated protecting low-income homes and housing from being squeezed out by developers lured in by economic stimulus.
In December 2018, Sandoval and former Councilman Rey Saldanha voted against amendments to the City’s Reinvestment and Infill Policy and the Downtown Housing and Incentive Policy. The changes still allowed developers to receive a share of property tax revenues and exemption from fees for “affordable housing” projects, which could still increase the market value of housing.
Women’s Council
When Sandoval was re-elected in 2019, she served on the female-led San Antonio City Council, in which six of the 10 council members were women.
She joined Jada Andrews-Sullivan, Adriana Rocha Garcia, Melissa Cabello Havrda, Rebecca Viagran and Shirley Gonzalez. This has changed over the years, and there are currently only five women on the city council, including Sandoval. The balance could shift even more depending on who takes her place.
Rosie Castro, a civil rights activist and mother of former Mayor Julián Castro and current Congressman Joaquin Castro, expressed interest in running. Marina Gavito, current CEO of SA Digital Connects, applied to be nominated on Wednesday 18 January. Dan Rossiter, Brooks Development Board Member, applied for Sandoval’s seat on Wednesday, January 18th.
