The Edinburg CISD Board of Trustees is set to discuss potential term limits for trustees Tuesday, and although consensus on the item is unlikely and enforceable term limits would require state legislation, the matter is far from uninteresting.
Term limits first popped up on the radar in January when Trustee Louie Alamia requested a discussion on instituting them for trustees.
The board discussed term limits in executive session on Feb. 22, after which Alamia motioned to have an open session discussion on the topic.
“We have already received legal advice from our counsel, and now I would like to formally request for our board president to put it on the agenda in open session to discuss the merits in the public, the pros and the cons of adopting term limits for trustees, into our local policy for the next board meeting,” he said.
That motion failed. Votes from Alamia and trustees Letty Garcia and Mike Farias to have an open session discussion on the topic were overruled by a majority of the board.
Nonetheless, an executive session discussion with legal counsel concerning term limits is slated for Tuesday evening.
Alamia and other trustees explained their position on term limits to The Monitor after that initial board discussion.
What does appear to be clear is that enforceable limits are off the table.
Guidance from the Texas Association of School Boards says an attorney general ruling in 2018 concluded the power to institute term limits on school boards lies with the legislature, not local school boards.
“We discussed it and it is something that is not within our power to do,” Board President Dominga “Minga” Vela said.
So what’s Alamia pushing for?
According to him, legal advice indicated the board could adopt a policy regarding limits, but that any challenge from a trustee or candidate for trustee would defeat it. Alamia says his ideal change is two four-year term limits after the November 2022 election.
So why push for an unenforceable requirement? Alamia says unenforceable limits are better than none at all.
“To me, it’s about stopping what’s been going on over and over again,” he said. “Just kind of making sure that we stay transparent.”
Alamia supports those limits for two reasons. The first is that he feels limits will help the board better reflect a changing, growing community.
“My main motivation for this to come to place is to allow other leaders in our community the opportunity to serve in public office such as the ECISD school board, city commission and other municipalities that we offer, so that way we continue to make our school district and our city … a progression going forward, and we keep up with what’s current in our form of politics,” he said.
The second reason has the potential to spark a little more controversy.
Term limits, Alamia said, are also necessary to prevent corruption on the board. He said he feels long-serving board trustees can make their position a career, which he doesn’t think is right.
“Some of these board members tend to want to stay in office in order to help their own personal agenda or profit from their time served on these types of political offices,” he said.
Alamia alluded to instances of corruption at the district, but largely failed to provide specifics. He declined to say whether he felt there was any corruption on the board currently.
“I can’t say if there is or not, but we’ll find out, once I continue to dig,” he said.
It’s notable that Alamia, who was elected in 2020, is still serving in his first term, unlike all of his fellow trustees. He says the term limit push is not politically motivated and that he’ll voluntarily limit himself to two terms on the board.
Opinions from other trustees vary greatly.
Mike Farias, who supported discussing limits in public, said he’d support three term limits — which would leave him the opportunity to be reelected one more time.
“There’s so many good, qualified individuals out there that could serve. And if we have term limits, then we could give more people the opportunity to go out and serve,” he said.
In theory, Xavier Salinas said he too would support term limits applied to all trustees, even saying he’d favor a one-term limit.
“I have no problem with term limits. I have no problem. I know that he brought up something about everybody signing a gentleman’s agreement. And I’m like, I’ll sign it, I’ll be the first one to sign a gentleman’s agreement.”
In practice, Salinas says he’s doubtful about how that sort of arrangement would pan out.
“So what are you going to do when people don’t stick to the gentleman’s agreement?” he said.
Not all support limits, even theoretical ones or unenforceable ones.
Carmen Gonzales, who says she’s been on the board for some 15 years, thinks she may be one of the targets of Alamia’s term limit.
“He doesn’t mean any harm to any one of us; he just thinks that we’re too old!” she joked.
Nonetheless, Gonzalez says she opposes that term limit push. She said voters already implement term limits for trustees at the ballot box.
“I think this is a process that has been in place and practiced for many years, and the community and the voters of the Edinburg school district are the ones that decide how long you need to support,” she said.
Having long serving trustees, Gonzalez said, can be an advantage. Long-serving trustees have experience.
“There’s so many things in place that have a history to how they got there,” she said.
