The San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association is accusing City Manager Sheryl Sculley of violating city policy that prohibits campaigning on city property or on city time because she talked about the union’s three proposed charter amendments at a city employee appreciation breakfast last week.

City officials deny there was any violation.

“Union executive board members are being threatened with discipline for even speaking of these propositions at fire stations,” a union media advisory dated Tuesday states. “Firefighters are being told they will be disciplined if they discuss these propositions at the station with union board members.”

The union statement alleges that Sculley held a “‘Go Vote No’ meeting” with the city’s airport employees during the appreciation breakfast Friday and asks when the incident “will be addressed by the Ethics Commission.” The statement also suggests that Aviation Director Russ Handy was complicit, as he sent an email to workers with information about the charter amendments.

City Attorney Andy Segovia said Wednesday that Sculley and Handy shared factual information and didn’t violate any policies. The breakfast, city officials said, wasn’t a campaign event.

Segovia said that during a question-and-answer session at the breakfast, Sculley was asked about the proposed amendments and she responded with facts.

“There is no prohibition against sharing factual information,” Segovia said. “The city manager stated that she could not and did not ask employees to vote a particular way.”

The controversial proposals, on the Nov. 6 ballot, 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 impose a term limit; and give the firefighters’ union unilateral power to decide when contract negotiations would be taken to binding arbitration. Early voting begins Monday.

In a September email to all city employees, Segovia noted the city’s rules surrounding political campaigns, including prohibitions against campaigning or politicking on city property. It also said: “Employees in the course of their duties for the City may provide factual information to members of the public regarding City elections.”

The accusations against the city manager come in the wake of two high-profile letters from Fire Chief Charles Hood. He first reprimanded union President Chris Steele for wearing a fake Fire Department uniform at a political event and then issued a warning against attempting to intimidate firefighters into disclosing the source of a recording that captured Steele talking about the union’s strategy, which includes ousting Mayor Ron Nirenberg and replacing him with “our guy” Councilman Greg Brockhouse in May.

Steele called Segovia’s response Wednesday a “blatant lie.”

“The stance of the city government has proven without a doubt that the city opposes these propositions and thus anyone from the city using city property to discuss them is in violation of Texas ethics laws,” Steele said in a text message provided by a spokesman.

He claimed the information sheet approved for distribution “is biased to influence city employees to vote against these measures which is illegal according to state ethics law.”

The document was prepared by the city attorney’s office and leans heavily on information provided to the city by local economist Steve Nivin. Union allies have dismissed that report as biased.

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. | jbaugh@express-news.net | Twitter: @jbaugh