WESLACO — Plans to name a new city manager hit a hiccup here after one of two final candidates removed his name from consideration just before the Weslaco City Commission was scheduled to conduct a second round of interviews Wednesday evening.
After a total of 13 people applied for the position, the commission — in consultation with retired City Manager Mike Perez — had narrowed the field to five applicants and set a first round of interviews with them on March 8.
Those applicants included interim City Manager Andrew Muñoz, former Harlingen City Manager Dan Serna, former Laredo City Manager Robert Eads, San Juan City Manager Benjamin Arjona, and San Benito City Manager Manuel de la Rosa.
Perez described what the commission was looking for as they interviewed the applicants.
“Someone who had city management experience, had experience in running, managing cities,” Perez said after last Tuesday’s meeting.
“Weslaco is a small city, but it’s complex. We have all the elements that any of the larger elements have, other than we don’t have a convention center. So, they had to have knowledge of water and sewer, and streets, and public works. We have collective bargaining (with) police and fire, and we have all of those, so they had to have all of those experiences,” he said.
After hours of interviews last Tuesday, the commission named de la Rosa and Serna as the two finalists for the position and scheduled another round of interviews this week.
But just before they could convene Wednesday, Serna told Perez that he was withdrawing his name from consideration.
The city commission went on to conduct an in-depth secondary interview with de la Rosa behind closed doors, but declined to announce a hiring decision once they reemerged from executive session.
Part of the reason for that, Perez said, was because Commissioner Leo Muñoz had been unable to attend the interview session and the remainder of the commission wanted to give him a chance to go over the interview notes.
But when asked if the commission would ultimately name de la Rosa as the lone finalist for Weslaco city manager, Perez said he was unsure.
The commission may go back to reevaluate the interviews they conducted with the other three semifinalists, or they may decide to restart the search process.
Perez lauded all of the applicants who had been selected for the final rounds of interviews, saying any one of them would be qualified to manage Weslaco.
“At the end of the day, it’s about what’s gonna be the best fit for this community and for the mayor and the city commission. That’s what it is, it’s about fit,” Perez said.
