The Mercedes City Commission has named a former Starr County prosecutor as their top pick for city attorney.
The commission selected Martie Garcia-Vela — formerly the Roma city attorney and who currently serves in that capacity in La Grulla — as their top-ranked candidate to replace Brownsville law partners Anthony Troiani and Mark Sossi, who opted not to renew their contract with the city earlier this year.
“I’ve been mulling over everybody that submitted everything here. I have looked at the presentations. I’d like to make a motion that we, as far as ranking is concerned (with) the two that we have here, I’d like to put Ms. Martie Garcia-Vela at the top,” Place 4 Commissioner Joe Martinez said.
The motion was seconded by Place 1 Commissioner Jacob Howell.
“I’m a big supporter of strong female lawyers or people in the workforce. To me, this is impressive,” Howell said.
But the decision was not a unanimous one.
The commission voted 3-to-2 to pick Garcia-Vela, who is the sister of attorney and Rio Grande City school board trustee Daniel J. Garcia, one of three men expected to go to trial in federal court next month on bribery charges in relation to the rehabilitation of Weslaco’s water treatment facilities.
The other candidate who delivered a presentation for city attorney Tuesday night was a familiar face — retired McAllen city attorney Kevin Pagan — who served as Mercedes’ interim city manager earlier this year.
Mayor Oscar Montoya joined Martinez and Howell in voting in favor of Garcia-Vela, while Commissioners Leonel Benavidez and Jose Gomez voted against.
The minority commissioners, however, questioned their colleagues’ vote for an attorney with less experience in municipal law than Pagan, who spent 27 years with the city of McAllen, including 13 years as assistant city attorney and 14 years as city attorney.
Garcia-Vela spent two years as the Roma city attorney, and has worked for La Grulla for about a year.
Prior to that, she worked as a prosecutor in the western Rio Grande Valley, including a stint with the Border Prosecutor Unit, she said.
“I prosecuted felonies and all kinds of crimes in the Starr County, Jim Hogg and Duvall area,” Garcia-Vela said during her presentation.
She touted her relationships with various law enforcement agencies, including the Texas Rangers, as something that could benefit Mercedes.
Now, Garcia-Vela heads up her own practice, which she referred to as a “boutique” law firm.
Gomez’s and Benavidez’s criticism was especially pointed because the other half of the commission had previously voted to hire Pagan as interim city manager after Sergio Zavala resigned in December.
Pagan served in that capacity from January through April, until the city hired Alberto Perez, formerly the city manager of Rio Grande City.
At the time, Gomez and Benavidez had voted against hiring Pagan to serve as interim city manager because his lack of experience as a city administrator relative to his experience in law.
Pagan himself explained his extensive experience serving not only McAllen, but Edinburg, Brownsville, Harlingen, Alice and other cities.
After leaving Mercedes this spring, Pagan took a position with Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta, an Austin-based law firm with a significant number of local governments as clients.
“I do think it’s one of the benefits of engaging myself and Bickerstaff Heath is that we are… a one-stop shop for all things related to municipal government,” Pagan said in his presentation.
“Just explain to the people what the difference is during your first vote for him (Pagan) without city manager experience, and you voted for him. And now, for city attorney, which is life of experience, you are not voting for that,” Gomez asked of Martinez.
“What this city needs is something more personal touch because we don’t have the flair of bigger cities,” Martinez replied.
“It’s about what fits the system and this young lady fits the system,” Howell added a few moments later.
Benavidez, however, criticized his peers’ decision making as inconsistent. The commissioner, who has been a vocal critic of his colleagues, added that he felt the decision was predetermined, saying he had heard similar thoughts from other attorneys.
“Something along the lines of that it felt like the decision was already made, you know. … That’s something I heard about other law firms said they didn’t even want to put their bids in because they felt the fix was in, you know. And that’s wrong,” Benavidez said.
The comment echoed similar criticisms Benavidez has made, including allegations that the mayor has been too influential in some of the city’s top hires.
“First of all, Mr. Benavidez, I’ve never met the young lady that they made the motion on. I didn’t recruit her,” the mayor said.
“I did recruit Kevin Pagan (as interim city manager), so, anyway — all those in favor, say ‘aye,’” Montoya said, calling for a vote.
City staff will now negotiate a contract with Garcia-Vela before bringing the contract back to the commission for approval.
