By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
Arturo Prida
RIO HONDO – Rio Hondo City Administrator Arturo Prida was terminated Tuesday night following a unanimous vote of the Rio Hondo City Commission.
As first reported by the News on sbnewspaper.com Wednesday, the decision to terminate Prida came from items 14 and 15 on the agenda.
“It was two items. It was properly worded to give the city commission the flexibility to either evaluate, reassign, do a number of different things or dismiss the city administrator. The next item was an action item for anything that they would resolve,” said Rio Hondo City Attorney Eddie Lucio, III.
Attempts to reach Prida, Mayor Alonzo Garza and Commissioners Mike Uresti, Gus Olivarez, Gerry Hartzog and Enrique Tello were unsuccessful as of presstime. Commissioner Arnulfo “Kitter” Huerta refused to comment.
While Lucio, who also serves as State Representative for District 38, was forthcoming he was also mum on certain aspects of recent developments.
“There’s a new city commission, and I think that what they’re trying to do is they’re taking steps to look at employment policy, job responsibilities, job titles, and I really think that they’re trying to restructure city leadership,” said Lucio. “They’re trying to create some consistency in how things are administered in the city, and this was a policy decision that they made in order to continue moving the city in a direction that they thought was positive and good for the future of the City of Rio Hondo.”
Prida’s termination comes in the wake of recent reports that the city is approximately $30,000 in debt.
When asked about the motive behind Prida’s firing, Lucio said, “I’m sure that several things were taken into consideration, there’s probably a personnel file that documents some of these things. The information, and the consensus of the commission last night, was that they were making this decision because they felt that it was the best thing to move the City of Rio Hondo forward. It has to do with creating a new leadership structure at the city.”
When asked about the possibility of other city officials’ jobs possibly being in jeopardy, Lucio said that he had not been made privy to such discussions.
“I do think that they want to clearly define what everybody’s job title is. They want to clearly define what the organizational structure of the city government is and govern accordingly,” Lucio said. “I think that they are in the process of setting up a series of workshops in order to make those policy decisions. The only discussion that I have been privy to, or they have asked for any legal advice on, is that on the city administrator.”
It was decided on Tuesday that Prida would receive a severance worth two weeks of pay. According to Lucio, the commission will be seeking requests for qualifications for a new city administrator.
To see this story in print, pick up a copy of the June 19 edition of the San Benito News. Or view our E-Edition by clicking here.
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