EDCOUCH — The fate of an alderman’s place on the city council here remains up in the air after three aldermen failed to attend a regular meeting Thursday evening.
The council was slated to discuss the removal of Place 5 Alderman Lorenzo “Lencho” Cabrera at the top of Thursday’s meeting, but his absence — along with that of Aldermen Joel Segura and Robert Gutierrez — meant the council could not convene due to a lack of quorum.
It remains unclear why the three aldermen did not attend Thursday’s meeting, though it may be related to a writ of mandamus the trio applied for on Tuesday. The aldermen are seeking a court order directing the city to place certain items on meeting agendas which they allege have been purposely excluded.
“I know they’ve been in multiple meetings where the councilmen, they’ve asked that things be put on the agenda, and all they need is two councilmen for something to be put on the agenda and they (the city) have refused to do it,” Dallas Gutierrez, the attorney representing the three aldermen said via phone Friday.
It’s also unclear what prompted the removal process against Cabrera. Neither City Manager Victor Hugo de la Cruz nor City Attorney Orlando “O.J.” Jimenez would comment on the issue as they sat in the city council chambers after the meeting’s cancellation Thursday evening.
“There was no packet. I told our city secretary to just put out the agenda, that’s all we had,” de la Cruz responded when The Monitor asked to see any supporting documentation that may have been submitted along with the request to place the item regarding Cabrera’s potential removal from office on the agenda.
Under Texas open records law, agendas, minutes and any documentation accompanying agenda items for public meetings are matters of open record and should be available for inspection upon request.
When asked if the city normally receives agenda item requests without supporting documentation, the city attorney responded that the situation at hand was “abnormal” and therefore could not be commented on.
“If you’re asking about this item, which I think you are, there is no comment on that because this is the first time it’s happened,” Jimenez said.
Thursday was not the first time an Edcouch meeting had been canceled due to a lack of quorum, nor was it the first time the city was subjected to notice of litigation in recent weeks.
Last month, the council was set to consider the termination of two high-level staffers — Assistant City Manager Ernesto Rosales Jr., and Fire Chief Victor Nieves Jr., who also serves as the city’s chief code enforcement officer.
But the discussions never materialized after the same three aldermen failed to show up meaning, again, a quorum could not be established.
City officials confirmed that it was those aldermen — Cabrera, Segura and Robert Gutierrez — who had requested the agenda items to discuss the employment of Rosales and Nieves.
Had the meeting occurred, however, the council still would not have been able to discuss terminating the assistant city manager because Rosales filed for a temporary restraining order enjoining Edcouch from taking any action against him.
An injunction hearing scheduled for March 30 was later rescheduled for April 27. Until then, the city remains enjoined.
Edcouch was served with Rosales’ TRO shortly before that March 17 special meeting was slated to begin. However, though city officials were aware Thursday of the three commissioners’ petition for mandamus, they were not officially served with notice of the litigation until Friday.
Meanwhile, other controversies are currently plaguing the Delta city.
Amidst the turmoil that followed Rosales’ TRO, the city attorney submitted a letter of resignation.
Jimenez said he submitted the resignation letter in response to pressure from some members of the city council. He referred to that pressure Thursday as “external influences and pressure” from “certain members” that he allowed to “cloud my judgment.”
“After further determination, contemplation, prayer, I decided that was not something that my good moral (sic) would allow me to do or should do. And I still felt obliged and loyal to the city, so I rescinded the resignation,” he added.
Jimenez said he withdrew his resignation before the council could meet to accept it, and before the two-week period he had provided had lapsed.
But for Dallas Gutierrez, the attorney representing the three aldermen in their request for mandamus, Jimenez’s resignation was — and still is — in effect.
The status of the city attorney position is one of several professional services contracts the three aldermen have been trying to place on a meeting agenda for several weeks to no avail.
That’s largely what prompted their litigation against the city, Dallas Gutierrez said.
“We do believe the resignation is in effect, but also there have been multiple meetings in which this issue could have been brought up and they refused to put it on the agenda,” he said.
Precisely what the other issues may be, however, remains unclear as the exhibits referenced in the mandamus petition were not included in the court filings.
Thursday’s meeting agenda, however, did include discussions regarding the city’s engineering services and wrecker services contracts.
Neither of those contracts are set to expire soon, the city manager said, adding that such contract discussions are typically held closer to when the city is deliberating its annual budget in the fall.
Questions also remain about Alderman Joel Segura, whose name is referenced in Rosales’ TRO petition.
Rosales said he was originally hired as a consultant tasked with rectifying “issues arising from a developer, Kassal (sic) Construction,” the petition read.
Edcouch later extended a full-time position to Rosales as assistant city manager. De La Cruz then tasked Rosales with auditing the city’s departments.
It was during that audit that Rosales claims he discovered “some questionable actions and discrepancies by one of the elected officials,” namely, Alderman Segura.
The petition does not elaborate on what those alleged discrepancies were, though Rosales says he and de la Cruz met with the alderman to discuss the issue.
Meanwhile, the city officials who did try to attend Thursday’s meeting say the controversies are beginning to negatively affect Edcouch’s ability to operate smoothly.
The council’s inability to establish quorum is affecting the city’s ability to move forward on grant applications for the police and fire departments, Mayor Virginio “Virgil” Gonzalez said.
“At times agenda items need to be brought to the commission and voted on so we can continue doing other things. Sometimes we have those challenges when the quorum is not here, but anything in between that we can do as a city, we’re doing,” Gonzalez said.
Jimenez, the city attorney, called it “wasted energy.”
“So when you say, ‘how is the community being affected?’ It’s being gravely affected,” he said.
Dallas Gutierrez countered, saying his clients just want city officials to follow the rules.
“And going forward, let it be known to Edcouch that just because they’re not the mayor that rules still need to be followed, that whatever they … put on the agenda needs to be put on the agenda if two council members agree to it,” Dallas Gutierrez said.
