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McALLEN — The atmosphere inside the McAllen Chamber of Commerce was jovial and kinetic as some of the city’s best and brightest rubbed shoulders during an event to welcome new City Manager Isaac Tawil on Thursday evening.
As attendees mingled, snacking on charcuterie and sipping glasses of wine, there was a sense of familiarity in the air — a sense of long-acquainted friends just catching up.
And that familiarity only continued moments later, when Mayor Javier Villalobos officially began the welcome remarks by speaking of Tawil’s yearslong service to the city.
“It’s not necessarily to welcome Ike anymore … because it feels like he’s been here. Well, he has. He was our city attorney,” Villalobos said.
Tawil spent more than a decade providing city leaders with legal advice on all manner of things, from commission meeting agendas, to civil litigation, to complex contracts and more. As such, the mayor had become accustomed to calling on Tawil by addressing him by a professional honorific.
“When we’re in meetings and I go, ‘Counselor!’ and I forget he’s not counselor. So what do I call him now?” Villalobos quipped to a laugh from the crowd.
In August, the McAllen City Commission tapped Tawil to succeed Roel “Roy” Rodriguez as city manager, continuing a long history of appointing the city’s top administrators by promoting from within.
Tawil took the helm at 5 p.m. on Sept. 13, when Rodriguez officially began his retirement.
But it hasn’t just been city commissioners who have long relied on Tawil’s sage legal wisdom.
Chamber president and CEO Elizabeth “Liz” Suarez, and Chamber board Chairman Hershal Patel, also spoke highly of Tawil’s leadership — and that sense of familiarity.
“Like the mayor said, this isn’t really ‘welcome.’ You’ve been with us already, and here at the Chamber, especially, we’ve felt Ike’s presence for a few years now,” Patel said, referring to how Tawil has also served as a legal adviser for the association of small businesses.
“He’s stood by and helped us and so, thank you for all that, Ike,” Patel added.
“This is the guy you want to lean on in those tough moments, not only ‘cause he’s sharp and smart and he can work his way out of anything, but also because his heart is in the right place” Suarez said.
The chamber CEO would know. Before becoming the chamber’s top official, Suarez served as the aviation director of the McAllen International Airport.
That position gave her ample opportunity to work with Tawil as a colleague.
During her 10-year tenure at the airport, Suarez said she saw firsthand how Tawil supported city employees with humility. It’s why she’s so excited to see him lead Hidalgo County’s largest city now.
“We’re excited to have him enter this new role. It’s an exciting time for McAllen. There’s no better community than the one that develops its own people,” Suarez said.
When it finally came time for Tawil himself to address the crowd of city officials, staff and local business leaders who had gathered to welcome him, he did so with the very humility that Suarez had mentioned.
“I’m really excited. I’ve gotta tell you that the strength of this community are the people in the room, not the one person standing before you in any given moment,” Tawil said.
The city manager then thanked attendees, crediting their success with making McAllen officials look like “rock stars.”
Tawil expressed his optimism about McAllen’s current successes as a hub for cultural events, small business opportunities, and high quality of life for its residents.
“Living in McAllen, we want for nothing and we work every day to make sure that you, our citizens, the people that we serve, are getting what you need and you want,” Tawil said.
He pledged to use his time as city manager to continue being a partner to the small business community, and to continue to put McAllen on the map, and to progress international trade relationships between the city and Mexico.
Tawil recalled misconceptions he encountered during conversations he had more than 20 years ago as he prepared to move to McAllen.
“I remember when I moved here in 1999, people telling me, ‘My gosh! You’re moving to the end of Texas.’ We’re not the end of anything. We are the center of everything!,” Tawil said, to raucous applause.
After the brief comments, Tawil stood for photos with numerous of his new, longtime supporters. And it was perhaps the mayor who best characterized that sense of simultaneous familiarity and newness.
“Even though I see you everyday, talk to you everyday, I still once again want to welcome you, wish you the best, and I know you’re gonna kick some butt!” Villalobos said.
