MERCEDES — The man who brought the big boots to town is on his way out.
MERCEDES — The man who brought the big boots to town is on his way out.
Effective Aug. 6, Hernan Gonzalez will resign as executive director of the Development Corporation of Mercedes, ending a near four-year tenure at the helm of the Queen City’s economic development arm.
Gonzalez, 69, mentioned his age, grandchildren and future when asked why he decided to step down.
“I’ll be 70 in September … and you start to think about the grandkids in Kerrville, San Antonio and San Marcos,” Gonzalez said on Friday. “So I started thinking in life what my next steps are. I don’t know how many tomorrows I have, and that’s a factor in how you choose to live them. I told the board that as we look back in the last three-and-a-half years, I’m just privileged to work here in Mercedes during that time. I leave with a great deal of satisfaction that we were able to help Team Mercedes broadly define the city to a greater point than they were three years ago.”
In a letter of resignation submitted to Board President Joel Quintanilla on July 6, Gonzalez wrote that the corporation “influenced” more than $22 million in new construction and created 300 new jobs in the local economy.
He also referred to 20 projects spearheaded during his career in Mercedes. Among them are the monthly Little Nashville concert series, the Mid Valley Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center as well as the Knapp-UTRGV Family Medicine Residency Center — the latter of which is celebrating its opening this Thursday.
He also listed several redevelopment and expansion projects, including renowned boot makers the Rios of Mercedes Distribution Center, and the Llano Grande Resort and Country Club.
Arguably the most visible is the Botas de Mercedes, a public art project that — under Gonzalez’s direction — saw the installation of 25 hand-sculpted boots standing at 5 feet, 6 inches tall and bearing the logos of Texas colleges and universities. They now dot Mercedes city streets and have since attracted curious onlookers to the area.
“The collection of college boots gave people a reason to drive into Mercedes,” Gonzalez said before thanking Mercedes residents, coworkers, the Board of Directors and former City Manager Ricardo Garcia for their support. “Communities today have to have a component of culture and art to them, and we combined the historic boot-making of Mercedes with so much more. It exceeded our expectations in a way that I hadn’t anticipated. So we branded Mercedes with something you can see and something you can feel.”
His departure comes at a time when the DCM has come under criticism by concerned citizens. Recent questions surround Mercedes Chamber of Commerce and DCM electric bills being charged to the City of Mercedes, as well as $374,336 the corporation owes the city in outstanding notes.
An independent report of the city’s financial procedures shows that the corporation has paid $2,274.83 of the electric bills, which are not outstanding. Still, the concerns were enough to stoke calls for forensic audits of both the city and DCM.
Gonzalez has said the corporation’s annual external audits have not yielded the need to look deeper into the corporation’s financial statements, and previously referred to the issue as “political grandstanding.”
Prior to his arrival in Mercedes, Gonzalez led the Weslaco Economic Development Corporation for 14 years and was credited for helping bring as many as 50 companies into the city’s industrial zone, as well as relocating Lone Star Bank to Weslaco and repurposing the former juice plant company on Business 83 into the South Texas College Mid-Valley Campus.
Alicia Aguilar joined him as his marketing director at the Weslaco and Mercedes agencies, where she helped start Alfresco Weslaco – Music and Art on the Street and Little Nashville, respectively.
“I’ve been working with Hernan for so many years, and closing this chapter is going to be hard,” she said of Gonzalez’s pending departure. “I have so much admiration and respect for him. I can’t lie; it’s going to have an effect on me. But I’m a professional and I will continue to do my best for the community.”
Despite the recent flurry of criticism that’s frustrated local economic development officials, Gonzalez expressed gratitude for his time in Mercedes.
“I wish the community well, and I’ll be available to help in any capacity later on,” he said. “God bless Mercedes. I know it’s blessed me.”
