The debate over who the city of Mercedes will hire as its next city manager devolved this week into allegations of threats of violence and name-calling between public officials.
The he said, he said issue has now resulted in a law enforcement investigation into last Tuesday’s closed-door meeting of the Mercedes City Commission.
The tensions began Tuesday, when the commission was set to discuss its short list of candidates for the city manager position during executive session.
But even before the commission could retire behind closed doors, there was friction between Place 2 Commissioner Leonel Benavidez and Mayor Oscar Montoya regarding the discussions taking place outside the public view.
When the commission reemerged to public session some five hours later, that friction remained palpable when the commission entertained nominations for two unnamed individuals.
Mayor pro-tem Joe Martinez, Montoya and Place 1 Commissioner Jacob Howell voted for a nominee put forward by Martinez, while Benavidez and Place 3 Commissioner Jose Gomez voted against that person.
Montoya later declined to divulge the names of the two candidates who had been named in the motions, citing the confidentiality of executive session discussions.
The mayor deferred the question to Mercedes City Attorney Mark Sossi, who did not return messages seeking comment.
The meeting adjourned shortly after the second vote, but according to Benavidez, the commission’s hourslong discussions behind closed doors had been more caustic than the few snippets that occurred in public view.
The atmosphere at one point became so hostile that another commissioner attempted to provoke him into a physical fight, Benavidez said.
“He slammed his chair against the table. And when that happened, everybody was startled,” Benavidez said, speaking about Martinez.
“He takes a step towards me… and he says, ‘You want to do something about it?’ and then he’s cussing,” Benavidez added.
Martinez allegedly swung his arms in a motion Benavidez took to mean “get up,” while saying “let’s go.”
No one attempted to de-escalate the situation, Benavidez said. On the contrary, at least one person seemed to make it worse.
“The mayor never expressed disapproval of that. And instead, moments later he called me the female part,” Benavidez said, alleging that Mayor Montoya had called him a derogatory term for female genitalia.
Benavidez said the incident — which he feels was meant to “shame, humiliate and instigate” him — has made him concerned for his safety.
For his part, the mayor declined to comment on the closed-door discussions.
“The allegations that he is making is that these things happened in executive session, and I’m not going to discuss what occurred in executive session,” Montoya said.
He also declined to answer whether or not he called Benavidez a “p – – – -.”
Martinez, however, said it was Benavidez who had been out of line, not him.
“I felt that he provoked me because, prior to what happened happened, he had been using profanities. He had accused people of all sorts of outlandish things,” Martinez said of Benavidez.
“He had called us names, accused us of cheating, accused us of being corrupt. I mean, he just went on a tirade,” he said.
Martinez denied Benavidez’s allegation that he attempted to provoke a physical fight between them. Instead, the freshman commissioner alleges it was Benavidez who invoked violence during what had up to that point been a “heated, passionate discussion amongst colleagues.”
“To top it off, the guy is Steven Seagal, man. He (said) he beat up five guys at the same time,” Martinez said of Benavidez.
By the time he arrived home after the meeting that night, Benavidez said the entire situation struck him as wrong enough to warrant filing a report with local police — both against Martinez, for attempting to instigate a fight, and against the mayor, who, as a career law enforcement officer, Benavidez felt should have done more to stop the brouhaha.
The commissioner said he spoke at length with a Mercedes police investigator, who video recorded the interview and gave him a case number.
But Mercedes Police Chief Jose Macias says the matter does not fall under the jurisdiction of his department, adding that Mercedes police turned the investigation over to the Texas Rangers.
“He filed a concern, but it was not accepted by the Mercedes Police Department, so we have no jurisdiction over his concern,” Macias said via phone Tuesday.
However, when asked about the police report and case number given to Benavidez, Macias denied such a report exists.
“No, there was no report taken. As a law enforcement agency, we have to hear what happens to people that want to come to talk to us. We cannot be ignorant to what they’re gonna say to us. But, at the time they come talk to us, we have to determine whether it falls under our area or not,” the chief said.
When pressed further about the police report, Macias said, “That report now belongs to the Rangers. It does not belong to us. Whatever we wrote goes to the Rangers. They have the authority to release it, not us.”
The Monitor reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Rangers, to confirm whether their agency has taken up the investigation. DPS did not respond as of press time.
Nor did the city of Mercedes, with whom the newspaper filed a public information request for the first page of the police report Benavidez said was generated when he filed his complaint.
Meanwhile, the commission is set to again discuss filling the city manager position during a meeting next Tuesday. According to a copy of the meeting agenda, the commissioners will deliberate on appointing Alberto Perez.
