Tagged: Elisa Chan

New ethics standards are on their way to San Antonio City Hall as the city council voted to add changes to the ethics code after several recent incidents cast a shadow of doubt on city leaders.

The most recent incident was over the vote for a new District 9 library, which was located next to Councilwoman Elisa Chan’s North Side business.

At the time, city staffers working on the project knew the library and Chan’s business, Unitech, were bordering each other, but said nothing to the city council on the matter.

San Antonio's District 9, which covers the city's North and Far North sides, has two candidates for city council. One of them is the incumbent for the seat, Elisa Chan, and the other is Chan’s former campaign worker and chief of constituency, Jason Salinas.

Chan would like to see a third term, but Salinas said he wanted to give voters an option, so he signed up for the race on the day of the deadline.

"Democracy works best when voters are given legitimate choices, and when citizens are heard and are properly represented," Salinas said.

The San Antonio City Council followed the lead of District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal Thursday to hold off on a vote about a proposed library branch on the city’s north side.

The 10 members and Mayor Julián Castro initially voted to approve the project at its April 4 meeting, but District 9 Councilwoman Elisa Chan, who represents the district where the library is proposed, asked for the item to be brought back to council. This time she recused herself from the process.

(Updated: 4/10/13 1:20 p.m.) Following some discussion, city council has postponed the vote on the library location until May.

District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal admonished city staffers, who knew the library location was next to Chan's business.

Chan gave an emotional statement before the council before leaving the dais so the rest of city council could discuss and decide on the issue.