Kelly, Guerrero allege Adler broke law in endorsements

Council Member Mackenzie Kelly and former City Council candidate Linda Guerrero have filed complaints with the Texas Ethics Commission and Travis County Attorney Delia Garza alleging that Mayor Steve Adler broke the law when he endorsed Zo Qadri and José Velásquez at a news conference carried on the city’s TV channel, ATXN, on Dec. 1.

Attorney Bill Aleshire is representing Kelly and Guerrero, who have also filed a complaint with the city attorney alleging a violation of the city charter.

The video is available on the city website as “Austin Mayor Vote News Conference” and indicates that ATXN employees did the filming. However, Adler told the Austin Monitor Wednesday that he did not instruct the city employees to be there or invite them to the press conference.

The press conference begins with Adler saying that Dec. 1 is the first day of early voting in the Dec. 13 runoff elections for mayor and Council candidates. After encouraging people to vote, Adler said he also wanted to warn Austinites about a fraudulent petition related to police oversight that would have the opposite effect of the previous petition already set for a spring election.

Adler then said that, because he lives in District 9, he would be voting in that race. He said he would be voting for Zo Qadri, describing him as “smart, knowledgeable and focused on the issues.” He noted that he would not be able to vote in the District 3 race, but that if he could, he would vote for José Velásquez.

Qadri and Velásquez won their races, with Qadri ending the evening with 352 votes more than Guerrero out of about 14,200.

Adler said positive things about both of the mayoral candidates, Kirk Watson and Celia Israel, saying he would not endorse either of them. At the end of the press conference, which was held in the plaza in front of City Hall, Adler invited Qadri to join him inside where early voting was taking place.

The complaints filed with the Ethics Commission say, “Mayor Adler had the same free speech rights as any other member of the public and the same access/restrictions to city resources as other members of the public for political purposes. The city staff, equipment and website are not available for political advertising, such as candidate endorsements, to the general public or anyone. As a city official, Mayor Adler has control of certain city resources by virtue of his position. Mayor Adler misused his position as mayor to commandeer city staff, audio-video equipment and website to engage in his own political endorsement of candidates.”

In their complaints, Guerrero and Kelly say, “On good faith belief, complainant asserts that prior to his Dec. 1, 2022 press conference, Mayor Adler was warned by city legal counsel that Council members are not allowed to spend or authorize spending public funds for political advertising, and the prohibition includes using city equipment, computers, copiers, supplies … resources, ATXN, Channel 6, and the like. Mayor Adler was surely aware that this press conference was set up, recorded and archived on the city’s website in violation of the prohibition against political advertising.”

In addition to the complaint filed earlier in the day, Aleshire supplemented the complaints to Garza by adding an allegation about Adler violating the Texas Election Code prohibition against “electioneering within 100 feet of the outside door of City Hall while it was a polling place.” He also complained that Adler used an amplification device “within 1,000 feet of the polling place for a political speech and electioneering.” Such violations are a class C misdemeanor. The other complaints allege a class A misdemeanor.

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