A San Antonio City Council staffer the mayor publicly suggested may have leaked information about her security has left City Hall for the private sector.
District 7 Chief of Staff James Branch’s last day with the City of San Antonio was Monday, according to a letter Branch provided to KSAT 12, though the letter itself was dated June 10.
That was shortly after Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones sent a May 20 memo, which she later posted to social media, stating Branch had access to security detail information for her home and had failed to comply with a San Antonio Police Department Internal Affairs probe of how the information leaked to the media.
KSAT broke the story about the mayor’s unprecedented security measures last fall. Multiple sources provided details about the home protection plan. Branch was not one of those sources.
Reached for comment Tuesday, Branch supplied KSAT with an unsigned copy of his June 10 resignation letter to Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito but provided no further statements.
Branch made no mention of the mayor’s allegations in his letter. Instead, he praised Alderete Gavito for her leadership and called her a “mentor, a confidant, an advocate and a friend” during his three years with her office.
“During our time together you have made me feel like I am family, and while I am excited to see what the private sector holds for me, I know that our journey together is not over and I look forward to watching you lead our city for years to come,” he wrote.
In a statement through a spokesman Tuesday, Alderete Gavito said Branch had been an important part of the District 7 team.
“I’ve been fortunate to have him play a key part in our collective success, and I wish him all the best in the next chapter of his career,” the councilwoman said.
Alderete Gavito announced Monday she had picked La-Tieka Sims, who had previously led the district office’s constituent services team and managed community events, as her new chief of staff.
In her May 20 memo, Jones stated that 115 SAPD officers have been interviewed as part of the department’s investigation. One of those officers noted that a council aide had access to the security information.
The memo, which does not name Branch but references the District 7 Chief of Staff, states he did not comply with requests from Internal Affairs from October to March to take part in an in-person interview.
Branch instead provided a statement through his legal counsel, according to the memo.
Though Jones never accused Branch outright of leaking the information in the memo, she stated that by not appearing for an interview he prevented a “full and thorough investigation of a major security breach.”
Alderete Gavito has frequently clashed with Jones through the mayor’s first year in office.
She and Branch’s attorney blasted the mayor in separate statements earlier this summer for “baseless” and “unfounded” attacks.
The councilwoman said she stood by Branch’s integrity, and his attorney said Branch had “nothing to do with the disclosure of the Mayor’s security information.”
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