Pharr CM’s resignation plays out fully this Tuesday night
By G. Romero Wendorf
The one thing we’ll never know is: if Pharr Forward had managed to win four of the four seats up for election May 9th, would Fred Sandoval still have any job with the city?
His supporters point to what they perceive as his strengths and say, without a doubt.
His critics, meanwhile, say no.
During the heated campaign that seemed to go on forever, the winning mayoral candidate, Ambrosio “Amos” Hernandez, made it clear that if elected, he wasn’t going to go into city hall on any sort of head-hunting expedition. But as the campaign progressed, and it was clear the city manager was backing Pharr First vs. Hernandez’s Pharr Forward, even though Sandoval made it clear he was doing his politicking off the clock, the chemistry between the two men couldn’t have helped but become testy and somewhat contentious.
Which brings us back to the original question: if Hernandez’s entire slate, Pharr Forward, had beat Pharr First, would Sandoval still have a job at city hall?
As it is, he does, if the city commission approves, as expected, the agreement/contract he hammered out with the newly elected PEDC (Pharr Economic Development Corporation) late Monday morning.
During its firstmeeting post-election Monday, the EDC board names its new officers.The entire board is comprised of Hernandez, City Commissioners Oscar Elizondo, Edmund Maldonado and Ricardo Medina, businessmen Vic Carrillo and Danny Smith, and Dr. Ramiro Caballero (part of the Pharr Forward slate who lost to Pharr Forward’s Mario Bracamontes). Its new officersare: Hernandez, president; Caballero, vice president; Maldonado, secretary; and Smith, treasurer.
Last week, as most followers of Pharr politics already know, Sandoval, 48, resigned as city manager after 10 years in that position and approximately 18 years with the city as a whole, after following former City Manager Bennie Lopez here from Hidalgo in the mid-1990s.
Asked why he resigned, Sandoval said, based on the circumstances, he considered it his best move since he considered economic development his strong suit.
It was obvious the status quo wasn’t going to continue post-election. Namely, Sandoval wearing two hats: that of CM and PEDC director. In the mind of the new mayor, and apparently the city commission majority, the two jobs demanded the full-time attention of two people as opposed to one.
Some people though, erroneously as it turned out, thought if Hernandez was short his majority, the Pharr First majority, 4 to 3, was still going to be able to call the shots. If they wanted to keep Sandoval at the two positions, the new mayor could take it or leave it, because without the four votes to pull it off, he could do little to advance his agenda.
But it was soon clear that the 4-to-3 paradigm wasn’t written in stone.
After last week’s special meeting Tuesday, during which Sandoval announced his resignation as city manager, Commissioner Bobby Carrillo said he wasn’t going to stay rock solid behind this slate mentality.
“I respect the new mayor,” he said. “I think he has some good ideas. And I think he is a business mayor as opposed to being a political mayor. If he has a good idea, I’m going to support it. You know why? Because my duty is to represent this city, its taxpayers, not any sort of slate.”
For his part, Medina wanted to get rid of Sandoval altogether – wipe the slate clean. He said as much after the executive session last Tuesday, during which the city commission accepted Sandoval’s resignation, conditional upon his getting a contract from the EDC to which he could agree. Medina, however, later softened his comments, saying what’s past is past, it’s time to move forward.
In his resignation letter dated May 26, Sandoval wrote that after conferring with the mayor, he was respectfully submitting his resignation and two weeks’ notice as city manager. He asked that he be re-assigned as executive director of the PEDC subject to a finalagreed-upon contract with the EDC and the city commission, which must essentially ratify all decisions made by the EDC board. If such an agreement couldn’t be reached, Sandoval asked for 18 months severance, retirement from the city with full benefitsto include health insurance, all accrued annual and sick leave and any and all city approved retiree benefits.
After an approximate hour spent in executive session Monday morning – 11:30 to 12:30 – the EDC board emerged with a new offer: a contract (still not sure if it’s two or four years) worth $150k annually, plus incentives (still unclear what those will include); with a six-month severance package if Sandoval is fire with cause; or 12 months without cause.
There was also a moral turpitude addendum added to Sandoval’s new EDC contract. What exactly is moral turpitude, you may ask, since it’s a somewhat arcane term usually added to a contract’s fineprint. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, Moral Turpitude is defined thusly:
“Moral turpitude means, in general, shameful wickedness—so extreme a departure from ordinary standards of honest, good morals, justice, or ethics as to be shocking to the moral sense of the community. It has also been definedas an act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which one person owes to another, or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between people.”
The Pharr City Commission meets during a regular meeting this Tuesday night, during which Sandoval’s contract is expected to be approved by the full commission as part of its regular agenda.
The full story with details about that meeting should be posted at this newspaper’s website before noon on Wednesday (June 3). For details, visit: www.anjournal.com