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MISSION — In the wake of questions over the city of Mission’s finances, City Manager Randy Perez has rescinded his decision to retire.
The surprise turn of events came after the Mission City Council held a lengthy closed-door discussion regarding the city manager’s fate during a specially called meeting Thursday evening.
And it comes just one week after Perez attempted to explain what happened to nearly $3 million in sales tax revenues meant for the Mission Economic Development Corporation that MEDC board members say the city has failed to transfer over for months.
“After much discussion with the mayor and the council, I am rescinding my letter of retirement with the city of Mission and (am) committed to continuing to be the public servant that I am to this community, to continue to improve and prosper the city…” Perez said once the council emerged from executive session.
Speaking after the meeting, Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza said she was glad Perez decided to stay, echoing his comments that the council had given him their “vote of confidence.”
“I’m really, really happy about his decision to stay and work with us,” Gonzalez Garza said. “We are a good team. We’ve done some great things in the last few years with his help.”
Perez added that staying with the city will allow him and his staff to continue implementing corrective actions, disclosing “any and all information” regarding the city’s finances to the public, and clarifying any additional questions on the issue.
That issue, however, remains unresolved.
On Dec. 18, Perez spent more than half an hour delivering a cash flow analysis to the city council.
The presentation attempted to explain how Mission could go about repaying more than $2.8 million to the MEDC — monies representing its share of sales tax revenues.
Of the 8.25 cents per dollar that consumers pay in state sales tax when shopping within Mission, 1.5 pennies come back to the city, while another half-penny is supposed to go to the MEDC.
But for some months, the city has failed to transfer that half-penny share to the MEDC’s bank account — an error that went undetected until the MEDC brought it to the city’s attention.
During his presentation, Perez explained that the funds had been deposited in a city-controlled bank account that contains monies pooled from different sources.
He also went on to explain potential ways that the city could “repay” the MEDC the nearly $3 million that should have been transferred to its bank account all along.
Perez’s suggestions included reallocating about $1.9 million in COVID-19 relief funds the city has received through the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. That funding has already been earmarked for several large-scale infrastructure projects.
He also suggested using all or part of some $747,000 from an operating investment return, or part of $1.2 million that Mission is expecting from the city of McAllen as payment for a joint road project.
But Perez’s presentation failed to explain why Mission would need to dip into those other funding sources in order to “repay” the MEDC its share of sales tax revenues.
And after rescinding his retirement, the answers were no more clear.
Instead, when pressed repeatedly by the gaggle of media who attended Thursday’s meeting, Perez demurred answering.
“We can definitely set up a meeting so that way we can clarify, sit down, get all the information, because it’s information that needs to be detailed and explained thoroughly,” Perez said.
When The Monitor asked specifically why Mission would need to look to other funds to repay the MEDC, the city manager again referred to meeting at a later date.
“So, like I mentioned, we can set up a meeting to explain all the details regarding that, and we can definitely sit down with staff to go over all the information thoroughly,” Perez said.
Perez did, however, assure that the city is not missing any money, nor were funds commingled, he said.
“There’s no commingling of funds. It is funds that are within the cash pool, and that’s why I mentioned I wanted to clarify that there is no funds missing. They’re accounted for and everything will be disclosed in our financial statements,” Perez said.
The mayor, too, was emphatic that no money has disappeared.
“I want to make something really, really clear: there is no missing money,” Gonzalez Garza said. “I know that’s been a … talking point, but there is no missing money. (The) money’s there.”
The mayor also said she believes Mission could repay its EDC without having to dip into other funding sources.
“I believe that if that needed to be done today, it could be done today without moving ARPA funds. It’s just a matter of timing,” Gonzalez Garza said.
And contrary to at least one member of the MEDC board of directors, Gonzalez Garza disputed allegations that the city had used MEDC’s portion of sales tax revenues to bankroll city operating expenses.
“Not to my knowledge. But we’re still kind of in the process of forming some internal controls and all those types of things so it doesn’t happen again,” the mayor said, referring to the city manager’s plans to implement tighter financial controls to ensure the sales tax revenues are timely transferred to the MEDC in the future.
