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DONNA — Just two weeks after the Donna City Council unanimously voted to halt some $61 million in funding efforts for the commercial expansion of the Donna-Rio Bravo International Bridge, the council’s new majority continued to shake things up at city hall.
Those shakeups included restructuring all of the city’s major advisory committees during the council’s first meeting of the year. It also included calling for a forensic audit of city finances, and severing ties with a Mexican consultant tasked with facilitating bridge-related relationships on the other side of the Rio Grande.
“I think on (Dec. 9) it was loud and clear that the community wanted change,” Mayor David Moreno said after Tuesday night’s meeting.
“And the way that we’re gonna approach that is that we are gonna make the changes that are needed in order to better make decisions here for the city when it comes to transparency, accountability and progress,” the mayor added.
Moreno was referring to the election victory he secured last month in a runoff against his former running mate and previous Donna mayor, Rick Morales.
Moreno’s newest running mate, Jesse “Coach” Jackson, also won his runoff that night against another of Morales’ faction, former Place 1 Councilman Richie Moreno. Meanwhile, Lupita Bueno, who rounded out Moreno’s slate, lost to Ernesto Lugo in the runoff for Place 3.
And one of the first orders of business undertaken by the reshaped council Tuesday was to similarly restructure the boards of directors for Donna’s two economic arms, its international bridge board and its housing authority board.
ECONOMIC BOARD SHIFTS
First up was the 4A economic development corporation board, which consists of five members.
The board was previously included Mayor Moreno, as well as Councilmen Jackson and Oscar Gonzalez, and Guadalupe Nieto and Dr. Michael Flores.
After Tuesday’s restructuring, Nieto was replaced with former council candidate Arturo “Art” Mendoza, and Gonzalez was swapped for Councilman Lugo.
Meanwhile, Jackson nominated his brother, Jaime Jackson, to take over Flores’ spot on the 4A board, but not before asking City Attorney Robert Salinas if he could nominate a family member.
“So long as they are nonpaid positions,” Salinas replied.
“It is proper, Mr. Mayor,” the city attorney added before the council unanimously approved of the nomination.
When it came time to restructure the 4B EDC board, Salinas reminded the council that they could appoint a maximum of four elected officials or city employees to the seven-member board of directors.
Moreno nominated Gonzalez to the board, as well as Tammy Ramos Flores, who works as an insurance agent, and a local accountant named Joe Garcia. The council unanimously approved the nominations.
Meanwhile, Jackson nominated the mayor’s brother, Manuel “Manny” Moreno, to the board, while Gonzalez nominated Amanda Guerrero, a child nutritionist at Donna ISD, and daughter of Donna Police Chief Gilbert Guerrero. The two nominations were unanimous.
Lee Roy Longoria rounded out the nominations for the 4B board.
OTHER BOARDS
The council then made changes to the bridge board of directors, which also consists of seven members, including the mayor and all four councilmen.
By unanimous vote, the council appointed local bail bondsman Norman Cordova Jr. and former Donna Councilman Frank Garza to that board.
The mayor also made two changes to the Donna Housing Authority board, where he has sole discretion to make appointments.
“I will be replacing Mr. Joe Valdez and Mr. Frank Quintero,” Moreno said.
“In slot No. 1, I will recommend Mr. Pete Gonzalez and … in slot No. 2, I’m gonna recommend Ms. Lily Lugo,” he added.
Pete Gonzalez and Oscar Gonzalez are brothers, while Lily Lugo is Councilman Lugo’s wife.
FUNDING QUESTIONS
After a lengthy discussion on several other matters, the council retired to executive session for nearly two hours.
There, they were slated to continue closed door discussions with the city’s financial advisers over the Donna bridge expansion. They also discussed the upcoming renewal of a contract with Arturo de las Fuentes Hernandez, a Mexican bridge consultant.
The council voted to not renew the contract, which expires in mid-February.
When they emerged, both the mayor and Lugo spoke of the possibility of putting the $61 million in revenue bonds up to a public vote this May.
“I believe that, when it comes to that type of money — almost $60 million revenue bonds — that’s something that the community needs to get involved in,” Lugo said.
The mayor echoed Lugo’s sentiments.
“We definitely don’t want to put $60 million, $70 million on the backs of our taxpayers,” Moreno said.
However, the bulk of the $61 million debt issuance that the council indefinitely halted last month would not have come out of Donna residents’ tax bills.
Instead, much of that sum — about $58 million — would have been repaid via revenues generated by traffic crossing at the international bridge.
Some $2 million of the remainder would be funded through tax anticipation notes, while $1.2 million would have come via public property contractual obligations.
“There was no talk about property taxes, using property taxes to pay that. In fact, I don’t think we can even do that,” the mayor added when asked if any of that debt would have been repaid using property taxes.
However, according to state law, both tax anticipation notes and contractual obligations are forms of debt that can be repaid via bridge toll revenues, property tax levies or a combination thereof.
Neither revenue bonds, tax notes nor contractual obligations need voter approval.
However, general obligation bonds, which are a different kind of debt that are repaid by property taxes, do require an election.
It’s unclear what kind of debt the council is considering putting on the ballot.
“That is one option, as well — bringing it to the community for a vote. And again, that’s just one option that we talked about,” Moreno said, before deferring questions to the city manager about what other options the council is considering.
