Mercedes swears in new commissioner; outgoing official sent off with murmurs of ‘fuera’

MERCEDES — The city commission here welcomed its newest member with the swearing in of political freshman Armando Garcia at Place 2 during a well-attended ceremony Thursday evening.

But the festivities didn’t begin until after outgoing commissioner Leonel Benavidez spoke a few words about his three-year tenure in office, much to the vocal dismay of several in the audience.

Benavidez began by saying it was “an absolute pleasure and honor” to have served as a commissioner, adding that the six years he spent as a highly-engaged resident prior to his 2019 election had helped inform his service as a public official.

“This proves that one does not have to hold a seat of office to begin a good effort for the community,” Benavidez said.

Armando Garcia, left, signs the oath of office shortly after being sworn in to Place 2 on the Mercedes City Commission. To the right, Leonel Benavidez, who was defeated by Garcia, shakes hands with Dr. Ruben Saldaña as he leaves the dais for the last time as a public official. (Dina Arévalo | [email protected])

But it wasn’t long before the outgoing commissioner’s comments took a turn toward accusations of wrongdoing by his political opponents — both the man he faced at the ballot box and his colleagues on the board he was leaving.

“For the record, the election for place 2 was not as clean as one might think. On my part, the Benavidez campaign was a clean campaign. We did not attack. We did not resort to lies,” Benavidez said.

“We don’t use those tactics, but we saw it from the Garcia campaign — people that were lying and spreading lies,” he added.

Standing near the door to the legislative chamber, former commissioner Leandro “Leo” Villarreal could be heard scoffing, “Right. Come on, dude!”

Benavidez further alleged that the bulk of the people hired by city officials to conduct a ballot recount were members of Garcia’s family or political campaign.

“An initial concern on the day of the recount was that the counters, when I got to the venue, included family members of the Garcia campaign, you know, and I wasn’t aware of that,” Benavidez said.

The recount, which was conducted Sunday morning, showed no change in the election results. As expected, Benavidez lost to Garcia by more than 120 votes.

“The system was meticulous in the county and the process is very transparent,” Mayor Oscar Montoya said in a tweet shortly after the recount concluded.

But Benavidez had never claimed he expected the recount to change the outcome. Instead, in the days before the recount, he said he had requested it as a means of testing the local elections system.

It was a point he reiterated Thursday.

“It’s not just for this campaign, but it could be for the next campaign that could be closer. So, it was good to check,” Benavidez said.

The recount request represented a pattern of action by the outspoken commissioner, who — along with fellow defeated commissioner Jose Gomez — spent the last three years in office pressing for increased public transparency and accountability.

Those efforts often led to extremely contentious meetings, replete with raised voices, bitter arguments, and — on at least one occasion — threats to have the police remove Benavidez from public proceedings.

In one instance in 2019, under the leadership of former mayor Henry Hinojosa, the commission’s efforts to remove Benavidez from office via an administrative process led to a brief court battle.

A subsequent citizen protest of the ouster attempt resulted in the arrest of four residents during a raucous September 2019 commission meeting, and a fifth person months after the fact.

A similar ouster attempt began to foment against Commissioner Gomez earlier this year, but later fizzled. Gomez had long felt so uncomfortable around his fellow commissioners that he had at one point taken to wearing a body camera for his own protection.

Nonetheless, Benavidez said his perseverance both before and after he entered office had netted tangible results.

“A lot of the things that were being brought up on the finances, on the legal, turned out to be reality, you know. There was concerns. There was the bending of the rules and the law,” Benavidez said.

He was, in part, alluding to financial irregularities he helped uncover, and which were ultimately substantiated by a fiscal audit in 2017 — two years before he became a commissioner.

Benavidez was also referring to the recent arrest of Juan R. Molina, who served as the Mercedes city attorney for more than a decade. Molina is currently under federal indictment on theft charges related to a series of land deals he helped orchestrate on behalf of the city.

Garcia chose not to address Benavidez’s allegations of dirty campaigning when given the opportunity to speak to the residents who had gathered for the swearing in ceremony. Instead, the new commissioner focused on the path ahead.

“We’re here to work for the community, for you all. We’re ready to hit the ground running,” Garcia said.

“We’re gonna get ready to start some appointments and some meetings here, workshops, so that we can get to work because things need to get done,” he added, speaking of partnership efforts he hopes to kick off with the city’s economic development corporation.

But after the ceremony, Garcia spoke freely about Benavidez’s comments.

Leonel Benavidez, center, looks on as Precinct 1 Hidalgo County Commissioner David Fuentes, right, congratulates Armando Garcia on his election win just prior to being sworn in Thursday. (Dina Arévalo | [email protected])

“What my opponent stated was false information and defamation of character,” Garcia said via phone.

Garcia also rebutted Benavidez’s claims that he had run a “clean” campaign.

“Him, along with his followers, were constantly putting out false information about myself. I never responded back to them because they’re not worth my time,” Garcia said.

As for the makeup of the ballot recounters, Garcia admitted several were his supporters.

Some six of his campaign supporters found themselves on the recount team after Garcia reached out to the city to ask how the recount process worked.

The city informed him that both candidates needed to submit a list of potential recounters. Garcia submitted 15 names, of which half a dozen were chosen.

Benavidez said only one of his supporters was assigned to the recount process — on the day of the recount.

Eleven other people were selected to round out the team of 18 required to conduct the recount, Garcia said.

“If (Benavidez) didn’t do his due diligence and find out how the recount worked, that’s on him,” Garcia said.

Meanwhile, back at the swearing in ceremony, a timer chimed as Benavidez continued to speak, indicating that the five minutes allotted for him to make a public comment had ended.

“Finally,” Villarreal, the former commissioner, said.

“Okay, people, please,” the mayor said, calling for order.

With that, Benavidez thanked the residents for their time and began to make his way out of the chamber for the last time as a Mercedes public official.

As he approached the door, murmurs of, “Fuera, fuera,” could be heard from several in the crowd.

“The commissioner that was saying what he was saying — he does not speak for us as a whole,” Montoya said a few minutes later.

Hidalgo County Precinct 1 Commissioner David Fuentes, right, congratulates Armando Garcia shortly after administering the oath of office for Garcia, who won election to Place 2 on the Mercedes City Commission. (Dina Arévalo | [email protected])

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