Mission city manager announces retirement again

Three months after he first announced — then rescinded — his retirement, Mission City Manager Randy Perez has again notified officials of his intention to step down as the city’s top administrator.

Perez notified city leaders on Thursday, according to a news release issued by the city the same day.

His retirement is effective March 31, Mission Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza said Thursday evening.

“I don’t have all the details, but I’m sure that within the next day or so we’ll have more information,” Gonzalez Garza said.

“This is just initial information that we wanted to get out there so that there isn’t any miscommunication,” the mayor added, referring to the news release.

Thursday’s announcement marks the second time in recent months that Perez has announced his departure from the city.

In mid-December, Perez announced his retirement after he and the city came under scrutiny over approximately $3 million in sales tax revenues that the city had failed to transfer to the Mission Economic Development Corporation.

The money represented months’ worth of revenues the MEDC was entitled to receive from the city thanks to a decades-old city policy to split the sales tax revenues proportionately between the two.

The discrepancy first came to light when the MEDC’s own finance staff discovered it and informed city officials.

That news kicked off a firestorm of questions, including allegations by at least one MEDC board member, Noel Salinas, that Mission had been using the money to bankroll day-to-day operations.

On Dec. 18, 2024, Perez delivered a lengthy “cash flow analysis” presentation to the Mission City Council.

In it, he explained the sales tax revenues had been kept in a bank account pooled with other monies and described a series of “corrective actions” the city would follow going forward.

Perez also outlined how the city could repay the MEDC, in part, by deobligating about $1.9 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds that had been earmarked for several infrastructure projects.

A week later, Perez announced his retirement.

But after a lengthy closed-door discussion with the council, Perez rescinded the decision, saying he was “committed to continuing to be the public servant that (he is) to this community.”

In January, Mission announced that it had repaid the MEDC from the city’s general fund, then replenished that fund via the $1.9 million COVID-19 relief money it had received via the American Rescue Plan Act.

That same day, the city council replaced Salinas on the MEDC board with Julian Alvarez, a former commissioner with the Texas Workforce Commission.

In February, Mission City Attorney Victor A. Flores abruptly resigned after just one year on the job.

Flores departed Mission City Hall quickly after that Feb. 26 council meeting and declined to take questions from reporters, although he later said his brief tenure at the city had been a positive one.

And now, Perez has once again notified city officials of his pending retirement.

Perez did not return a message seeking comment.

Mayor Gonzalez Garza admitted that the quick succession of the two high-level departures could spur questions, but said they are unrelated.

“The perception is not good, but I can tell you it’s two separate, totally separate situations and circumstances. Totally different,” Gonzalez Garza said. “I know it may not seem that way, but that is the fact.”

Flores left due to family obligations, the mayor said.

She was less clear on Perez’s reasons for leaving, but denied that the MEDC sales tax debacle contributed. Instead, Gonzalez Garza said Perez’s financial training will serve him well in his future endeavors.

“He’s an accountant, which, you know, that means he knows his numbers. To me, that is like one of the most important things for a city manager. So, I know that he’s gonna do well,” Gonzalez Garza said.

However, the mayor pushed back when pressed about how the sales tax issue — whether Perez had been unaware of the failed transfers, or if he had knowingly allowed those monies to be used as part of the general fund’s obligations — may have negatively colored perceptions about Perez’s leadership.

“That’s an opinion. I have no problem and I have all the confidence in the world in Randy,” Gonzalez Garza said.

Instead, she criticized the reporting the issue had garnered.

“I just feel that the way that it was reported was not necessarily correct … I wouldn’t have said that the money was missing. I wouldn’t have said that the money was misappropriated,” Gonzalez Garza said.

“I wouldn’t have used those words,” she said.

The mayor also spoke of the corrective actions that Perez implemented to ensure such an issue does not arise again in the future.

And in so doing, Gonzalez Garza revealed a new piece of the puzzle that had not been made public before.

During his December cash flow analysis, Perez described a new protocol for tracking transfers between various city funds. That protocol creates a paper trail showing who is requesting a transfer, what it’s for, the fund accounts involved, and requires several layers of administrator approval.

On Thursday, Mayor Gonzalez Garza explained that, previously, the finance director had unilateral authority to make transfers.

“Under the current job description, (it) allowed her to manage funds, transfer funds, from one fund to another… Technically, she didn’t have to ask for permission to do that, or anybody’s authorization to do what she did,” Gonzalez Garza said, calling it “a practice.”

The council first became aware of that practice during those December discussions, though the mayor reiterated that “there wasn’t any money missing.”

Further details were discovered during an investigation by an ad hoc finance committee to which the mayor appointed Councilmembers Ruben Plata and Marissa Ortega Gerlach.

As to what happens next, the council is already making plans.

During its most recent meeting on Monday, they held an executive session discussion with Mike Perez.

“Yes, I was there,” Mike Perez said when reached via phone, though he declined to say more, citing executive session confidentiality.

Mike Perez has served more than 40 years in public administration, including 22 years as the McAllen city manager and seven years as the Weslaco city manager.

Currently, he serves as a consultant for the office of Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez.

Gonzalez Garza said Mike Perez would be her choice to lead the city next.

“He is a very well-respected consultant that has a lot of experience. I think that if we were to bring him on that would be a real asset for the city because of his experience,” she said.

The city council will discuss those next steps during a specially called meeting next Monday.