By RAY QUIROGA
publisher@sbnewspaper.com
BROWNSVILLE, TX—Visiting judge to the 197th District Court Michael V. Garcia of Wells County issued an order on Monday, Nov. 4, “restraining” the City of San Benito from enacting the results of a Charter Amendments Election on the Nov. 5 General Election Ballot.
This comes on the heels of last week’s two-and-a-half hour hearing where the Plaintiff’s Houston-based trial attorney, Jeffery Diamant, representing San Benito citizen and voter Julian Rios, argued that the City Commission approved the charter amendments election through a “consent agenda” — which is typically reserved for governing bodies to expedite routine business — in violation of Texas Open Meetings Act.
During last week’s hearing, Diamant also provided the court with case precedent in which the Texas courts ruled against a Texas school district that attempted to roll the employment of its superintendent as part of a consent agenda.
At issue was whether or not the City provided ample opportunity for citizens to be aware of and have input on the proposed charter changes per state and local Open Meetings laws. Rios, a former San Benito Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Board President earlier asked for an injunction to stop the election, but the City’s stance was that it had no authority to stop the election at that stage of early voting.
The City, represented by McAllen attorney Javier Villalobos, countersued Rios to recoup legal fees incurred during the process. Now Garcia is insisting that the City not implement the voters’ will post-election.
One of the proposed amendments seeks to change the charter so that the city manager is not required to reside in the City of San Benito, “which will benefit no residents of San Benito just Fred Sandoval, the current city manager, who has repeatedly expressed his intention to not move to the town he represents,” reads a statement issued by Dolcefino Media, headed by investigative journalist Wayne Dolcefino, whose services were obtained by an unknown client(s) last spring initially to investigate the City’s dealings with VARCO, a development agency acquired by the City/EDC to build and lease the Resaca Village commercial center which is located off of Business 77 and Sam Houston Blvd. in San Benito.
During sworn testimony last week Monday, it was revealed that the $5,000 bond for Rios’ suit was paid for by Dolcefino as Villalobos attempted to interject that Dolcefino was hired to disrupt the democratic process and cause chaos in San Benito to which Dolcefino replied that he’s “helped” communities and individuals in the past and will continue to do so, exemplified by his role in a recall petition currently being verified by the City, which may lead to a recall election for the entire City Commission.
“The city manager living in San Benito has been a controversial item for the last seven years. They put this item for the voters to decide, but it doesn’t change the fact of how hypocritical they’re being,” stated Rios in a statement to the media.
During court testimony, Sandoval said the issues addressed by the proposed charter amendments were raised as far back as his hiring process over a year ago when commissioners asked how he’d go about organizing a charter amendment election and how he would bring the charter more in line with other communities’ charters and in line with state mandates. Sandoval has long maintained that the City’s requirement to have its city manager reside within city limits violates state law, however, detractors maintain the state law does not apply to city managers.
Sandoval also said that despite what’s alleged in Rios’ suit, the City went out of its way to keep the public informed of the initiative specifically by holding the amendment election during a presidential election year which tends to attract more voters to the polls and to suggest otherwise was an affront to him personally and professionally. “I believe in transparency. I believe in good government, and I believe in letting the citizens know what’s going on in the City, and I take personal offense to the claims being made that anything sinister or underhanded was trying to be done.” However, when pressed by the plaintiff’s attorney, he also admitted that consent agenda items tend to be more for routine items.
Villalobos countered by saying that the City broke no Open Meetings laws and allowed the public ample opportunity to review the proposed amendment changes (See the Oct. 11 and Oct. 18, 2024 editions of the San Benito News for the proposed amendments in their entirety) adding that if the proposed changes were so secretive that Rios has yet to see them, as he testified at the hearing, then how could his attorney have submitted them verbatim as part of the suit?
A prepared statement distributed by Dolcefino’s firm this week read, “The City had accused Rios of attacking democracy and voter suppression. The Judge clearly disagreed. The same judge had already issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to halt the city charter change election the week before voting started, but the ballot had already been printed and early voting commenced.”
Rios said, “The mayor and the city commissioners should reach from their own pockets to refund the $26,000 it cost for the city to hold this clearly illegal election.”
Diamant added, “I am very pleased to see the Judge’s decision. These regulations are in place for a reason, and that reason is the protection of the interests of the citizens and voters and to ensure transparency of a governmental body’s actions, which is foundational to our society. The City of San Benito blatantly tried to skirt those laws and that should not be allowed. The Judge’s ruling is monumental in the protection of the citizens’ rights.”
One of the proposed amendments would have taken power away from voters when commissioners resign with less than a year left in their term, giving the power to the commissioners to pick the replacement.
Another sought to alter the charter to allow the city manager to live outside San Benito. This change would have only benefited Fred Sandoval, the current city manager, who has made it clear that he has no intention of relocating to the community he serves.
All eyes are on the city secretary, who is supposed to decide on the legality of hundreds of signatures calling for the removal of Mayor Ricardo Guerra and members of the city commission.
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