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DONNA — An attempt to fire City Attorney Robert Salinas and City Manager Carlos Yerena was foiled when the city councilmen allegedly behind the effort were served with temporary restraining orders during a specially called meeting here Monday.
The TRO alleges that certain members of the Donna City Council illegally engaged in non-public meetings to plan the firings of the city’s two top administrators in what Salinas’ attorney, Jay Peña, called “serious violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act.”
“These violations have compromised the transparency required in public governance and threatened Mr. Salinas’ contractual rights, placing the city at significant legal risk,” Peña said during the public comments portion of Monday’s midday meeting.
There were only two topics of discussion set for the meeting — terminating Salinas and Yerena, and naming their replacements.
But those two items were immediately stymied when a civil process server walked up to the council dais and hand-delivered copies of the TRO to Place 3 Councilman Ernesto Lugo Jr., and Place 4 Councilman Oscar Gonzales as Peña made his remarks.
“We secured a temporary relief, a temporary restraining order, from the court to prevent further harm and to assist the city in fulfilling its charter-mandated investigative duties and to ensure that future decisions are made lawfully,” Peña said from a lectern at the center of the legislative chamber.
TO CALL OR NOT TO CALL
The TRO comes precisely one week after the council, under the threat of a mandamus from the 13th Court of Appeals, was forced to call an election for the Place 2 and 4 council seats this November.
Those two seats are currently held by Gonzales and Joey Garza Jr., who were elected in November 2021.
However, during that same election, Donna voters also approved a charter amendment measure to increase term lengths for elected officials from three years to four.
That ultimately led to a dispute this year over whether the longer terms of office applied to Gonzales and Garza, or if the election for their seats could be put off until November 2025.
Salinas, the city attorney, said it didn’t — that the charter amendment was “prospective” and applied only to future candidates.
When the city reached out to the Texas Municipal League for their take on the issue, TML’s attorneys concurred with Salinas; however, neither of those answers satisfied the council’s majority faction.
On Aug. 5, over Salinas’ objection, as well as the vociferous dissent of many residents who had crowded into Donna City Hall, a split city council voted to not hold an election in November.
Donna Mayor David Moreno cast the lone vote against canceling the election.
The matter later went before the 13th Court of Appeals after the mayor’s brother, Manuel “Manny” Moreno, filed a complaint against the city. The appeals court sided with Manny Moreno and ordered the city to hold an election.
Manny Moreno will be one of the candidates on the November ballot, as he filed to run against Gonzales.
Last Friday, just days after the appeals court forced Donna’s hand in calling an election, the city posted notice of a special meeting to be held at lunchtime on Monday.
That prompted Salinas to hire Peña to stave off the planned terminations.
THE ALLEGATIONS
The petition, which was filed at precisely midnight on Monday, names Gonzales and Lugo as defendants.
But it also names the mayor as a “co-petitioner” with Salinas, citing David Moreno’s responsibility as mayor to “maintain order, transparency, (and) lawful governance” of the council — a responsibility the mayor claims has been compromised by the allegedly illegal actions of his colleagues.
Salinas and David Moreno make a number of serious allegations in the 17-page petition — among them that Gonzales and Lugo committed malfeasance by holding a non-public meeting to discuss firing Salinas and Yerena.
It also details how that meeting came to light because Place 1 Councilman Jesse “Coach” Jackson revealed it to the mayor after the fact.
“Council member JACKSON told Petitioner MORENO that Council Member JACKSON held a meeting with (Gonzales and Lugo) to deliberate on and discuss the termination of Petitioner SALINAS, as well as the City Manager,” the petition reads, in part.
The petition further states that Jackson is a “cooperating witness” in what Salinas and David Moreno refer to as “criminal TOMA violations.”
Gonzales and Lugo “engaged in a civil conspiracy to violate TOMA by holding secret deliberations outside of a duly noticed public meeting, during which they conspired to discuss and decide on the termination of Petitioner Salinas and the City Manager,” the petition states.
“This agreement among (Gonzales and Lugo) constitutes a meeting of the minds to engage in unlawful conduct,” it further states.
The petition also claims that Gonzales and Lugo are acting beyond the scope of their authority on the council by attempting to fire Salinas as the attorney for the Donna Economic Development Corporation, which is a related, but independent city entity.
Salinas and David Moreno are seeking an investigation into Lugo’s and Gonzales’ actions and that they be forced to vacate their council seats if found guilty of malfeasance.
The Donna City Charter mandates that such an investigation be carried out — and its findings voted on — by “non-conflicted Council members.” But now that duty may have to be carried out by the court.
“With three of the five members conflicted due to TOMA violations, the City is effectively paralyzed and unable to take action,” the petition states.
Salinas is further seeking the remaining portion of his contracted salary as monetary damages.
That latter demand may turn out to be quite pricey if the court sides with Salinas.
That’s because the council recently approved a new contract with the city attorney, the mayor said after Monday’s meeting.
“Just three weeks ago, we gave our city attorney … a contract for two years where, you know, I heard from every council member that said, ‘Oh man, this guy is great. He’s doing great for our community,’” David Moreno said.
“And then all of a sudden, now they want to get rid of him. Why? ‘Cause we’re gonna have an election in November,” he added.
LINGERING CONFUSION
But if the bulk of the petitioner’s claims rest on allegations that members of the city council have been holding illegal meetings — what are often called “walking quorums” — the confusion that erupted in the legislative chamber on Monday served to illustrate that the accused council members may not understand what a walking quorum is.
Immediately after both Peña and Salinas said that the court was ordering the council to halt its actions, Councilman Lugo asked if the attorneys could join the council behind closed doors to explain what had just happened.
“If the meeting is over, I would like to just raise this, maybe, in executive (session) somewhere where we can talk to you. … We can use another room if we want to,” Lugo said.
“Give us a chance to kind of see what’s going on here. This is, uh, I wished you would have briefed us, given us a little bit of a heads up or something,” Lugo added a moment later.
Again, both Peña and Salinas reiterated that the meeting was over due to the court order, with Salinas additionally explaining that he could no longer offer legal advice on the matter because he is one of the parties in the litigation.
Speaking after the meeting, Councilman Garza — whose seat will be up for a vote in November, and who was not named as a participant in the allegedly illegal meeting — expressed surprise at Monday’s turn of events.
“I’m totally shocked by everything that happened right now,” Garza said.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I will tell you one thing — we were working great together, and all of a sudden, I don’t know what transpired that is breaking the council. And that is not good for the city,” he added.
Yerena, the city manager, declined to comment, saying simply, “I’m just here to do a job.”
Neither Councilmen Lugo nor Gonzales returned messages seeking comment for this story.
But the mayor did add one parting thought about Donna’s revolving door-like history of suspending or firing its top administrators, and then quickly reinstating them.
Indeed, the city has forced out or fired, then rehired both Yerena and Salinas, as well as other top officials, several times within the last five years alone.
“For too long, decisions like this have been made here in this city. And it’s the people and the community that feel it. They’re the ones that go through this,” David Moreno said.
“No wonder there’s, at times, no trust in what’s going on in government.”
