HARLINGEN — After months of heavily funded campaigns and hotly contested elections, the new City Commission is seated.
Coming off a June 14 runoff election that shifted the board’s balance of power, Commissioners Ford Kinsley and Daniel Lopez took their oaths of office Thursday, taking office as representatives of Districts 1 and 2.
Meanwhile, outgoing Commissioners Richard Uribe and Frank Puente stepped away from the seats from which they led the past commission through a year of sweeping changes at City Hall.
Taking the oath
After Cameron County Elections Administrator Remi Garza canvassed the vote, commissioners passed a resolution officially declaring Kinsley and Lopez the winners.
Amid rounds of applause, former Cameron County Judge and Secretary of State Carlos Cascos gave Kinsley the oath of office.
“I’m ready to go. I’m excited,” Kinsley told the crowd. “I just want to thank these two gentlemen here, Richard Uribe and Frank Puente, for the service they provided the city.”
Then Rebeca Lopez, a notary public, swore in Daniel Lopez, her husband, as the audience, which included his parents Nemecio Lopez, an attorney, and Migdalia Lopez, a former longtime Cameron County state District judge, roared.
“I know this has been a lot of work,” Daniel Lopez told the audience. “I know we had a tough campaign with a phenomenal amount of candidates, each of us (making) one another a better candidate than we were when we first got in the race.”
District 1
In District 1, Kinsley, a retired Marine Corps sergeant major working as the Marine Military Academy’s alumni relations director, won 600 votes to defeat Uribe, a restaurant owner who lost his bid for a third term, drawing 472 votes.
“It was an honor and I consider it a privilege,” Uribe told the crowd.
Then, pointing to Kinsley, he said, “I’m confident he’ll do a good job.”
“It’s not about winning,” Uribe said. “It’s about doing the right thing.”
District 2
In District 2, Lopez, an attorney who serves as the Cameron County Commissioners Court’s litigation counsel, won 438 votes to defeat Ernesto Cisneros, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent who drew 283 votes.
In the May 7 election, Puente, who was running for a second term, fell short of making the runoff.
“It’s been an honor,” Puente told the audience. “These have been the best three years I’ve ever had. I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”
Lucio celebrates democratic process
From the audience, former longtime State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. spoke before the new commission, celebrating the democratic process before handing flags and gavels to Lopez, Kinsley, Puente, Uribe and Mayor Norma Sepulveda, who defeated longtime Mayor Chris Boswell in the May election in which she became the first woman to win the city’s highest office.
“That’s what we need for continuity to have successful candidates in any community,” Lucio told commissioners. “The public will decide who they want for their leadership. That’s so important. The public has spoken. They’ll be a lot of good things happening in Harlingen. We have to do what we can to work together.”
As the meeting closed, Sepulveda described the new commission as “united.”
“The election is over,” she told the crowd. “We’re here to work. Moving forward, we’re united.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the name of the notary public.
