San Antonio District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez was fined $1,000 by the city's Ethics Review Board for disclosing a constituent's personal email during a Facebook dispute, while other council members faced no ethics fines after DWI incidents. The Ethics Review Board imposed maximum fines for two violations, raising questions about consistency in enforcement compared to other cases involving council members Marc Whyte and Ivalis Meza Gonzalez.
- McKee-Rodriguez was called a 'monkey' by a constituent and responded by posting a screenshot that included her personal email address.
- The Ethics Review Board found McKee-Rodriguez violated two ethics code provisions and fined him $500 for each violation, plus issued two letters of reprimand.
- Council members Marc Whyte and Ivalis Meza Gonzalez were censured by City Council and faced criminal penalties for DWI arrests but received no comparable ethics fines.
- Whyte pleaded no contest to obstruction of a highway and received deferred adjudication, community service, and fines; Meza Gonzalez received similar penalties after pleading no contest.
- The article highlights concerns about the Ethics Review Board's inconsistent application of fines and disciplinary measures among council members.
$1,000 After Being Called a ‘Monkey.’ San Antonio’s Ethics Board Priorities Deserve a Closer Look
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez has been fined $1,000 by San Antonio’s Ethics Review Board following a Facebook dispute that began when a constituent referred to the Black councilman as a “monkey.”
But the fine was not imposed because McKee-Rodriguez objected to the racial remark.
The three-member Ethics Review Board panel determined Monday that McKee-Rodriguez violated two provisions of the city’s ethics code when he responded to the constituent and posted a screenshot that exposed her personal email address. The board imposed a $500 civil fine for each violation — the maximum permitted for an individual violation — along with two letters of reprimand.
The punishment creates an interesting comparison with how San Antonio has handled other council members whose conduct resulted in criminal cases, including District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte and District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez.
The cases are governed by different processes– McKee-Rodriguez’s fine came from the city’s Ethics Review Board, while Whyte and Meza Gonzalez faced criminal proceedings and separate disciplinary actions from City Council.
A Racist Facebook Dispute Leads to Maximum Ethics Fines
The dispute began after San Antonio resident Trisha Thatcher-Garza accused McKee-Rodriguez of failing to respond to a request for assistance involving an elderly woman and referred to him as a “monkey.”
McKee-Rodriguez called the remark racist and posted evidence showing that his District 2 office had previously responded to her. The screenshot, however, included Thatcher-Garza’s personal email address.
McKee-Rodriguez acknowledged that the address should have been redacted and described its disclosure as inadvertent. He subsequently completed Texas Public Information Act training.
Related: Councilman Called a ‘Monkey’ on Social Media, Then Faces Ethics Review
Juan Rider Mireles II, who was not involved in the original exchange, later filed an ethics complaint.
The board ultimately found McKee-Rodriguez violated Section 2-46 of the city ethics code, dealing with disclosure of confidential information, as well as Section 2-44, which prohibits officials from using their position to unfairly advance or impede private interests.
The second finding is notable because the outside attorney appointed to evaluate the complaint initially recommended proceeding only with the confidential-information allegation. Mireles himself later said he could not support proceeding with the Section 2-44 allegation based on the available facts. The board nevertheless found violations of both provisions.
McKee-Rodriguez has 20 days after issuance of the board’s written opinion to appeal the decision in district court.
Whyte Was Censured, Then Fined in Criminal Court
When Marc Whyte was arrested on a DWI charge in December 2023, City Council responded by formally censuring him.
The city’s censure resolution specifically said Whyte’s “behavior of drinking and driving is not acceptable and should not be tolerated.” He was also temporarily removed from his council committee assignments.
Whyte’s blood test later showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.089, above Texas’ 0.08 legal limit.
His DWI case ultimately did not result in a DWI conviction.
Whyte pleaded no contest in November 2024 to obstruction of a highway under a plea agreement. He received six months of deferred adjudication, 48 hours of community service and an $850 fine, plus $270 in court costs. His probation also prohibited alcohol use and required DWI education.
Whyte did separately face the Ethics Review Board that year, but for an unrelated matter involving his contacts with law enforcement officials about a potential child-abuse case. The board reprimanded him and required ethics training.
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There is no indication that the Ethics Review Board imposed a monetary fine against Whyte for the DWI incident itself.
Meza Gonzalez Also Faced Censure and a Criminal Fine
District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez was arrested in July 2025 after police stopped her on Interstate 10.
A toxicology report later showed her blood-alcohol concentration at 0.169 — more than twice Texas’ legal limit. Her case was refiled as DWI with a BAC of at least 0.15, a Class A misdemeanor.
City Council censured Meza Gonzalez, and Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones temporarily removed her from her committee assignments. She was reinstated to committee work in January.
Like Whyte, however, Meza Gonzalez ultimately avoided a DWI conviction.
She pleaded no contest in January to obstruction of a highway. Under the agreement, she received nine months of deferred adjudication, 24 hours of community service and a $1,000 criminal fine, plus approximately $270 in court costs. She was also required to undergo alcohol and drug evaluation and had already completed DWI education and a victim impact panel.
The $1,000 was a criminal-court fine, not a sanction imposed by San Antonio’s Ethics Review Board.
So What Exactly Are We Punishing?
Driving while intoxicated is a criminal matter. Disclosing information obtained through public office can be an ethics matter, meaning different laws, institutions and penalties apply.
But residents are still entitled to look at the outcomes together and ask whether the city’s standards make sense.
The Ethics Review Board gave McKee-Rodriguez the maximum fine available for each of the two violations it found. Meanwhile, San Antonio has watched elected officials face allegations of getting behind the wheel after drinking — conduct that can endanger everyone sharing the road — without those incidents producing comparable monetary sanctions from the city’s ethics system.
That should leave San Antonio asking what its ethics process is designed to accomplish.
When the city’s ethics system reaches its maximum monetary punishment in a case that began with a Black elected official being called a “monkey,” residents have every right to question whether the punishment fits the offense.
McKee-Rodriguez should have redacted the constituent’s email address, which he has acknowledged. But the circumstances surrounding that mistake cannot simply be erased. This was a Black councilman responding to a constituent who had publicly referred to him as a “monkey.” He was defending himself against a racist insult while attempting to show that his office had, in fact, responded to her concerns.
That does not excuse the disclosure. It does, however, raise a legitimate question about whether the mistake warranted the maximum financial punishment available for both violations.
The board had other options. We know that because it has exercised that discretion before.
In 2024, the Ethics Review Board found District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte violated three provisions of the city’s ethics code in an unrelated case involving his use of his position and contacts with law enforcement in a private matter. Whyte received a letter of reprimand and was ordered to complete ethics training, but the board declined to impose a $500 civil fine.
The same Ethics Review Board found three violations involving Whyte and determined that a monetary penalty was unnecessary. Two years later, it found two violations involving McKee-Rodriguez and imposed the maximum $500 fine for each — $1,000 altogether — along with two letters of reprimand.
Whyte’s ethics history did not end there. In 2025, the board sanctioned him again after finding that official city photographs had been improperly used in campaign materials.
The more difficult question to ask about this is why that mistake warranted two maximum fines when the same board previously found another council member committed three ethics violations and determined that a financial penalty was unnecessary.
The DWI cases add another layer to that question. Whyte and District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez were both censured by City Council after DWI arrests and later faced consequences through the criminal courts. Neither DWI incident, however, resulted in a comparable monetary sanction from the Ethics Review Board.
Again, those cases involved different laws and different proceedings, but taken together, they illustrate how uneven accountability can look from outside City Hall.
McKee-Rodriguez was called a racist slur, where he responded, failing to redact an email address, and acknowledging the mistake and received two maximum ethics fines.
There are rules, and then there is judgment in how those rules are enforced.
San Antonio’s Ethics Review Board had room for both. In this case, it should have shown more of the latter. Maybe don’t make racist comments if you don’t want to be exposed of just how little integrity one has.
Until then, good night and good luck.
