DONNA — City Manager Carlos Yerena still has a job — for now.
But that fact wasn’t so clear prior to 5 o’clock Friday, when the Donna City Council was set to convene for a special meeting where — among other agenda items — they planned on discussing his employment, as well as the possible appointment of an interim city manager.
It was all but certain that the meeting would end with Yerena being told his services were no longer needed. Instead, the city manager sat quietly in the seat customarily reserved for him at the far end of the dais while the council and city attorney awaited the arrival of Mayor Rick Morales.
As 5 o’clock came and went, Yerena’s phone rang. It was the mayor, his voice coming through the speaker tinny.
“There is no meeting, uh, until further notice,” Morales said.
The city had been served with a temporary restraining order enjoining the council from conducting the meeting, Morales said, due to the agenda item regarding the city manager.
As the council wondered about the veracity of the order — City Attorney Robert Salinas said he was unaware of the restraining order — The Monitor asked who had filed for the TRO.
A woman sitting in the audience replied, “Me.”
That woman turned out to be Rachel Martinez, a Donna resident who afterward said she had no personal affiliation with the city manager.
However, Martinez said she has grave concerns regarding the city’s leadership — namely, allegations that members of the council have been meeting in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
While the language of the TRO gives a rough outline of the shifting political tides in Donna, the complaint Rodriguez filed to support the TRO application leaves little doubt about the concerns residents like her have.
“Members of the city of Donna Texas are in a rampage and destroying our city,” the complaint reads, alleging that Councilmen Oscar Gonzales, David Moreno and Jose “Joey” Garza” have met together in violation of the open meetings act “with the ultimate goal of micromanaging all of the city’s operation.”
According to the complaint, Yerena’s proposed ouster is just one part of a larger civil conspiracy involving the trio of councilmen — who form a new voting majority on the five-person council — to control key city departments at the highest levels.
The complaint also alleges that Donna Municipal Judge Javier Garza is a participant in the conspiracy. The two Garzas are brothers.
The alleged conspiracy includes the termination of Javier Villalobos as city attorney and replacing him with Salinas during a special meeting that took place at noon on Feb. 22.
It also includes plans to appoint an assistant police chief, as well as rescinding a November 2020 ordinance that slashed the pay elected officials receive — including the municipal judge — to just $50 annually.
“They intend to place an assistant Chief of Police as the current one does attempt to uphold the law, and they intend to compensate the Municipal Judge Javier Garza … (with) funds he is not entitled to…” the complaint reads.
This isn’t the first shift of power within the council over the last several years.
Gonzales previously ran on a joint slate with the mayor and another man, Arturo “Art” Castillo.
But after the trio won, both Gonzales and Castillo switched their allegiances and often sat in opposition to Morales’ council priorities — most notably clashing with the mayor on the city’s finances during the 2020 budget process.
Morales found new allies in David Moreno and Ricardo “Richie” Moreno, pitting the two — who are unrelated — against his former running mates in the November 2020 election.
The mayor’s new slate prevailed, giving Morales a supermajority on the council with the votes of the two Morenos and then-Commissioner Eloy Avila Jr.
But last November, Gonzales reentered the fray, this time running against — and beating — Avila for Place 4 on the council.
Since then, David Moreno has also switched his political affiliations.
When asked what has prompted now three of his former running mates to come to oppose him, Morales said, “You’d have to ask them.”
“I wouldn’t call it switching,” David Moreno said after Friday’s meeting, which the council had gone on to hold, save for the items regarding the city manager.
David Moreno added that he is “pro-Donna” and not necessarily “pro” any one particular councilmember or another.
“So, the decisions that I make are going to be in what is in the best interests of the city and this community,” he said.
A hearing on the TRO preventing Yerena’s termination is slated to be held on March 10.
