UTSA’s Francine Romero to fill CPS Energy board seat

OCTOBER 22, 2021 — San Antonio City Council has approved the appointment of Francine Romero, chair of the UTSA Department of Public Administration and a professor in the UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy, to serve as a trustee of CPS Energy, the nation’s largest municipal electric and gas utility. Romero, a public policy expert with more than two decades of experience in local public service, was selected from among 26 candidates to fill the vacancy.

Romero’s broad expertise spans the financial, environmental and public policy challenges impacting the Alamo City. From 2016 to 2018, she was the City of San Antonio’s District 8 Zoning Commissioner. She has also served as vice chair of the San Antonio Parks and Recreation advisory board and as vice president of the Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy.

“Dr. Romero is deeply committed to doing what’s right for San Antonio and San Antonians.”

More recently, she has chaired the San Antonio Conservation Advisory Board and was instrumental in working with Mayor Ron Nirenberg in 2020 to identify an alternative funding mechanism for the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program.

“Dr. Romero is deeply committed to doing what’s right for San Antonio and San Antonians,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. “She is a researcher with deep experience in public administration and public policy, and she understands the complex issues facing our growing city. Drawing on her knowledge and her decades of public service, she is well positioned to advocate on behalf of San Antonians for sustainable and smart solutions that secure our city’s future.

“Dr. Romero has an admirable track record of skillful public service. She is committed to upholding the public trust and exercising responsible fiscal stewardship to protect ratepayers,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “Dr. Romero is well prepared for a role on the CPS Energy board. She understands the importance of electricity issues and what they mean to the most vulnerable members of our city as well as our economy.”

In 1998, Romero joined the faculty at UTSA, where she has educated and mentored undergraduate and graduate students seeking to make an impact in public service. Her teaching interests include administrative law and planning and land use law while her research has focused on institutional public policy determinants, local land use policy, 20^th century federal and state civil rights policies and Progressive Era policies.

Recently, Romero published a peer-reviewed paper examining how San Antonio’s tree preservation ordinance compares with tree ordinances in Charlotte, N.C. and another paper examining anti-zoning restrictions and the political and policy dynamics of municipal annexation in various Texas cities. 

With an eye on federal policy, she has also examined the voter turnout in U.S. Presidential elections from 1952 to 2020, the overlooked northern state civil rights statutes that preceded the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act and the determinants of U.S. Senators’ roll call votes on the nation’s first immigration restrictions laws.

Romero has been recognized with numerous awards and honors for the impact of her public service. In 2019, she was inducted into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame and two years earlier was a nominee for the San Antonio Clean Technology Forum’s Water of Life Award. In 2013 and 2016, respectively, she won the UTSA President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Community Service and was an honoree at the Green Spaces Alliance’s Land We Love Gala. She is also a recipient of the Patriotic Employer Award from the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense.

“Civic engagement is the most powerful force in our democracy. It enables people to advocate for the things that are most important to them and provides a forum for communities to bring forward solutions that will secure their future,” said Romero. “I am committed to shining a light on the experiences and priorities of the diverse constituents that I will represent as CPS Energy navigates its future.”

Romero earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from California State University, San Bernardino and her master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of California, Riverside.

She will represent Quadrant 1 of CPS Energy’s service area, beginning in February 2022, replacing outgoing trustee Ed Kelley, a retired USAA Real Estate Co. executive, who is currently completing his second five-year term as a CPS trustee.

UTSA is an urban serving research university that is committed to tackling society’s grand challenges. Its academic and research specialties include health, cybersecurity, fundamental futures and social-economic transformation.

— Tricia Lynn Silva