SAN BENITO — After more than two years as the city’s top administrator, City Manager Manuel De La Rosa’s job might be on the line.
Yesterday, City Commissioner Tony Gonzales said the city is rescheduling a closed-door meeting for Tuesday to discuss De La Rosa’s job and the possibility of appointing an interim city manager.
On Wednesday, the city canceled a special meeting in which commissioners were scheduled to meet in closed session to “deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline or dismissal of a public officer or employee: City Manager.”
The meeting’s agenda also appeared to call for the possible appointment of an interim city manager.
Gonzales declined to disclose the reason he and Commissioner Rick Guerra called for the meeting to discuss De La Rosa’s job.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Carol Lynn Sanchez stated she did not know the reason behind what seems to be a push to fire De La Rosa.
“I actually have no clue why he is up for termination,” Sanchez stated. “Yet again, another special meeting is being held so I guess I have to wait to find out like everyone else.”
Guerra, Mayor Ben Gomez and Commissioner Rene Villafranco did not respond to requests for comment.
De La Rosa also declined comment.
More changes?
Big changes might be sweeping City Hall.
Last month, Gomez, Gonzales and Guerra voted to fire City Attorney Ricardo Morado, a former mayor who had served as the city’s legal counsel since 2011.
Meanwhile, they voted to hire former Brownsville City Attorney Mark Sossi.
Villafranco and Sanchez voted against firing Morado and hiring Sossi.
Concerns pop up
On Tuesday, Gonzales and Guerra called for the meeting to discuss De La Rosa’s job more than three weeks after he told commissioners he and administrators did not know the city had a tax increment financing zone which has generated more than $1 million since its establishment in 2008.
In that meeting, Fred Bell, assistant to the city manager, told Gomez administrators found out about the tax zone after Cameron County notified the city in March of its failure to annually report the amount of revenue the tax zone generated since 2014, when it filed its last report.
In response, De La Rosa said he and Finance Director Belen Peña did not know about the tax zone because they took office in 2016.
“We were unaware that it existed,” De La Rosa told commissioners. “There was nothing in our financial accounting system.”
During an Aug. 28 workshop, officials held off on questions regarding the city’s proposed $12.7 million general fund budget after De La Rosa told them some copies of financial information distributed to them did not contain accurate figures.
Job performance
Questions regarding De La Rosa’s duties seem to be coming up after commissioners appeared to support him.
In January, commissioners gave De La Rosa “above-satisfactory” marks on his job performance.
The evaluation scored De La Rosa’s performance from 1 to 5 on issues including financial stability, assuring the city’s old water plant produces good drinking water, resolution of a lawsuit against companies involved in the construction of the $17 million water plant cited as improperly operating, providing accurate information to the community and commission, streamlining city staff, installation of street lights at San Benito Plaza, maintaining professional work ethic, reducing costs of upgrading the city water plant and launching Southside Park’s first phase.
The contract
Under his contract, above-satisfactory evaluations lead to annual $5,000 pay increases.
Yesterday, city spokeswoman Martha McClain forwarded to De La Rosa an emailed request from the Valley Morning Star asking for his current salary.
However, De La Rosa did not respond to the request for information.
In May, De La Rosa did not disclose his salary, only stating his contract renewed Feb. 1, 2017, gave him a salary of $110,000.
De La Rosa was hired at a salary of $95,000 in December 2015.
The contract, which runs through Jan. 31, 2020, states De La Rosa could be fired for “good cause” for “any willful, knowing, negligent or grossly negligent breach, disregard or neglect of any duty or obligation required to be performed by (the) city manager under this agreement or under the ordinances of the city and/or the laws of the United States or the state of Texas.”
Meanwhile, the contract states the city would give De La Rosa severance pay if he is fired “at the pleasure of the commission and without the necessity of good cause.”
Under that scenario, the city would pay De La Rosa six month’s salary plus accrued vacation and sick leave and personal leave as well as six months of health insurance coverage.
