San Antonio fire union President Chris Steele has been reprimanded for overseeing a political news conference while wearing a fake uniform that was nearly identical to its official San Antonio Fire Department counterpart.
On Sept. 20, Steele held a rally and news conference at the headquarters of the Bexar County Democratic Party, where he announced that the organization had endorsed the three proposed charter amendments the union had placed on the Nov. 6 ballot. He was wearing a starched white shirt with patches and a badge that appeared to be official Fire Department garb.
The city of San Antonio prohibits its public safety personnel and other employees from wearing their uniforms when participating in political activity.
Fire Chief Charles Hood issued a blistering statement late Friday about Steele’s behavior Sept. 20.
“I recently issued District Chief Christopher Steele a written reprimand in response to his intentional attempt to circumvent the rules that prohibit wearing an official fire department uniform while participating in political activity,” Hood said in the statement. “It is clear that he went to great lengths to mislead the public by creating and wearing a fake uniform virtually indiscernible from the department’s standard issue uniforms during a political endorsement on Sept. 20.”
The incident is the latest in the highly charged, controversial charter amendment campaign. Earlier this year, the union spent more than a half-million dollars on a petition campaign to place the three amendments on the November ballot. Those amendments would make it easier to use referendums to challenge council decisions, including on tax and utility rates; cap the salary of future city managers and place a term limit on them; and give the fire union unilateral power to decide when contract negotiations would be taken to binding arbitration.
Steele did not return a call seeking comment, but a spokesman said late Friday that he was unaware of any reprimands, saying the newspaper’s inquiry about it was the first he’d heard of it. According to the city, the letter of reprimand was sent by certified mail to Steele’s Converse home Tuesday.
The city declined to release the letter, citing state law that prevents the release of such documents. The letter will be added to Steele’s permanent personnel file, though he doesn’t appear to face any further discipline over the matter.
Last week, Hood said Steele had previously been reprimanded for wearing his official uniform to a political event. Afterward, he had a union uniform made, Hood said.
“I would hold any of my firefighters accountable for such behavior,” Hood said in his Friday statement. “His actions do not reflect the integrity of the hardworking men and women of the San Antonio Fire Department, and District Chief Steele is not exempt from our obligation to safeguard the trust and confidence of the people we are sworn to protect and serve, some of whom may be having the worst days of their lives.”
Through a spokesman, Mayor Ron Nirenberg declined to comment Friday. He blasted Steele last week, however, hours after the union president backed out of a debate at the 11th hour, calling him a “total fraud” for wearing the mock uniform at the political news conference.
Councilman Greg Brockhouse, who’s the union’s closest ally on the City Council, took umbrage to Nirenberg’s attack on Steele and suggested that he and City Manager Sheryl Sculley were retaliating against him.
“Ron Nirenberg and Sheryl Sculley have made this entire charter amendment fight about Chris Steele. The personal attacks are beyond ridiculous, and this uniform attack by Ron is weak,” Brockhouse said Friday. “Ron has made this all about his mayoral strength and re-electability. If Ron Nirenberg wants to talk about this city and its future, pick a place and I will show up and let’s see if his attack antics continue. Stick to the facts and merits of the amendments and leave personal garbage and now employee-related punishment out of it.”
Steele isn’t the first public safety official to find himself in trouble for violating the city’s uniform policy. In October 2016, several members of the Police Department’s motorcycle unit were reprimanded for wearing red “Make America Great Again” caps while in uniform on the tarmac at San Antonio International Airport with then-candidate Donald Trump, who’d been in town for a fundraiser.
Nearly two dozen officers and supervisors received either letters of reprimand or counseling letters after video emerged of them posing in the hats. City Attorney Andrew Segovia requested that the Trump campaign remove the images from its social media accounts.
Josh Baugh is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | [email protected] | Twitter: @jbaugh
———
©2018 the San Antonio Express-News
Visit the San Antonio Express-News at www.mysanantonio.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
