Edinburg is under new management once again.
The council met for five hours Tuesday evening to discuss a number of issues, including an offer they made last week to Ron Garza, the lone finalist for the city manager post and executive director of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council.
And after nearly three hours behind closed doors, the council emerged at about 10:50 p.m. to take one final vote. Mayor Pro Tem Gilbert Enriquez made a motion to approve an employment agreement with Garza “based on the items discussed in executive session.”
It’s unclear what those items were, but the council agreed last week to offer Garza $250,000 to leave his post at the LRGVDC and instead manage the city of Edinburg.
Garza has been with the organization for about four years and spent 17 years at the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, where he was promoted five times from his initial post as a vocational rehabilitation teacher to operations director from 1998 to 2015.
This appears to be Garza’s first stint as a city manager, and he’s coming into a city that has seen a high turnover rate for that position. In less than two years, the city has seen the departure of former city managers Richard Hinojosa, Pillar Rodriguez and Juan Guerra.
Garza, who holds a master of education from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor of science from Southwest Texas State University, attended the meeting, but was not present for the final vote.
