22 Oct San Benito Commission Censures Mayor Galvan Over Comments About Pulling EDC Funding

San Benito’s city commission voted 3-2 Tuesday to censure Mayor Pete Galvan over remarks he made to officials of the city’s Economic Development Corporation about withholding the agency’s sales tax funding.

Commissioners Daniel Cortez, Rick Perez and Victor Manuel Gonzales supported the resolution. Galvan and Commissioner Joe Navarro, the mayor pro tem, voted against it. Galvan stepped aside from presiding over the item, and Navarro ran it.

The resolution cites statements Galvan made to the EDC board’s president, an employee and its attorney. An attached letter from the EDC’s attorney, Michael Pruneda, lays out what he believes was said. City Attorney Eric Flores (yes, the same Eric Flores running for Congress in Texas’ 34th District) explained that a censure simply puts the commission’s disapproval on the record in the minutes and carries no legal power to silence or remove anyone.

Galvan disputed the resolution’s basis and said no one asked for his side before it was drafted. He told the audience he was sorry the community had to watch the dispute and acknowledged his comments may have been misconstrued. He said he can’t hold back sales tax money himself, but he can ask the commission and voters to redirect it, and that his comments about withholding funds hold true in that sense. He said the charter gives him oversight responsibilities over the EDC, and argued commissioners should have talked to him directly or revised the agency’s bylaws.

The commission first took up the item Oct. 6 and postponed it so the mayor could review the resolution and letter. Galvan said he didn’t receive them until the weekend. Flores said the mayor had them at least 48 hours before Tuesday’s meeting.

The EDC receives a half-cent of the city’s sales tax, about $1.8 million a year. Galvan said he’s weighing a request that the commission put a measure before voters to cut the EDC to a quarter-cent and send the other $900,000 to a fund for street upkeep and repairs. He said Brownsville’s equivalent agency gets a quarter-cent and Harlingen’s an eighth.

At the Oct. 6 meeting, according to the Valley Morning Star, Perez said making threats is not how San Benito should operate, and Galvan answered that no threats were made, only a push for accountability. The paper also reported that the remarks to EDC officials came after the agency’s board brought in a certified accounting firm to run its finances, replacing the city finance office, and that Galvan said he could weigh pulling the agency’s city funding.