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EDCOUCH — By a unanimous vote, officials here opted to fire embattled city manager Victor Hugo de la Cruz just days after federal agents arrested him and Edcouch Place 1 Alderman Rene A. Flores on public corruption charges.
“Today, we had quorum. We had four commissioners present. They reviewed the status of our city manager … and at the end of the day, council motioned, and recommended and approved to terminate his employment status as city manager for the city of Edcouch,” Mayor Virginio “Virgil” Gonzalez said Tuesday.
The city had initially suspended de la Cruz with pay the day after his Sept. 12 arrest, the mayor confirmed.
De la Cruz’s employment status had been slated for discussion during a regular meeting last Thursday; however, the absence of three aldermen — including Flores — meant the council could not establish the quorum necessary to conduct the city’s business.
Flores similarly failed to show up on Tuesday, but the rest of the council did.
“There was four members that were present and all voted in favor of terminating (de la Cruz),” Edcouch City Attorney Roel Gutierrez said.
De la Cruz, 60, and Flores, 40, are accused of soliciting kickbacks from a Brownsville marketing company.
In the indictment, that company is identified only as “Business A,” and its owner as “Person 1.”
However, a subpoena served on the city on Sept. 2 shows that federal investigators specifically sought out records related to a company called Pink Ape Media and its founder, Rodrigo Moreno-Fernandez.
Moreno-Fernandez, a Mexican national, is a known FBI informant. In 2020, he served as the chief witness in the public corruption trial of former Brownsville school board trustee Sylvia Atkinson.
Pink Ape created the city of Edcouch’s website, according to a 2018 copyright mark shown at the bottom of the site.
Federal prosecutors allege that de la Cruz and Flores met with Moreno-Fernandez several times over the summer months of 2019.
During those conversations, the two public officials allegedly agreed to get Edcouch to pay Pink Ape for marketing work in exchange for kickbacks from Moreno-Fernandez.
The Monitor obtained records via a Texas Public Information Act request showing that Pink Ape submitted two invoices to the city for $3,000 each on July 10 and Sept. 12, 2019.
The indictment alleges that just days after Edcouch paid those invoices, Moreno-Fernandez paid Flores a total of $2,000 in kickbacks, and that de la Cruz facilitated the communications between the two sides.
Meanwhile, after the council voted to terminate de la Cruz as city manager, they named City Secretary Marisela Aguilar the interim city manager.
As for the status of Flores’ position on the city council, that remains less clear.
As part of the conditions for his release on bond, a federal magistrate judge admonished him to refrain from contact with potential witnesses, victims or co-conspirators to the charges he faces.
The city attorney said that missing three regular meetings in a row could prompt Flores’ removal from office. Twice now, his seat on the dais has remained empty.
However, neither Flores’ presence nor absence will have much impact on the council.
“We still have enough commissioners to form a quorum … and so, we’re still able to go forward and do what the city needs to do,” Gutierrez said.
The situation will resolve itself when a new alderman takes Flores’ seat early next year.
“He decided not to run for reelection, and so his term really expires come January anyway. So, either he’s removed or, by operation of law, he’s not gonna be present in January,” Gutierrez said.
