Small Cities Stop McAllen’s ‘power play’ On Council

BOSWELL ADMITS HE IS A PIG!

Boswell said. “But all of us are guilty of being piggies at the trough and trying to get as much as we can for our cities.”

Small cities stop McAllen’s ‘power play’ on council

By JARED JANES, The Monitor
01/31/2011 4:43 AM

McAllen city officials said they only laid out “mathematical facts” in a failed attempt to change the voting structure of the Rio Grande Valley’s regional association of local governments.

But La Feria Mayor Steve Brewer, who stood to be outvoted 133-9 by McAllen’s representative if the proposal passed, characterized McAllen’s attempts to change the bylaws of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council as a “power play.”

An attempt by McAllen to change the structure of the council failed after vocal opposition from Brewer and other officials from the smaller governmental entities in Willacy, Cameron and Hidalgo counties.

“This is going for total control, and you can’t have that. We’ve come a long way to look at projects regionally,” Brewer told the 25 other members of the council Thursday during its biannual membership meeting. “We can’t go stepping backward where all the power is in one power base.”

The voting structure of the council hasn’t changed since it was formed in 1967 to coordinate regional development in land use, transportation, housing, economic development and other issues. McAllen City Attorney Kevin Pagan said changing the board’s structure would address an inequity where 12 governmental entities who represent almost 85 percent of the council’s constituents only have 47 percent of the total votes on the board.

The council is composed of cities, county government, educational institutions, special purpose districts and special interests groups who use population counts to determine who gets a seat on the 26-member board of directors. But once the board of director seats are apportioned, those directors have equal voices in council activities under its one-person, one-vote structure.

That means McAllen City Commissioner John Ingram, who represents 132,204 McAllen residents, has as much say as Brewer, who represents 8,098 La Feria residents, in how the Valley should distribute millions in federal and state funds that flow to the council.

McAllen sought to move the board’s structure toward one wherein the power of each director’s vote is based on population. Pagan said using population to determine votes ensures that residents are fairly and proportionally represented on the council.

But Pagan’s proposal failed 825-314, with its only support coming from representatives of the cities, school districts and economic development corporations in Brownsville and McAllen. Opponents of the proposal said it would have unfairly shifted a majority vote on the council toward the Valley’s nine largest cities, eliminating the voice of smaller governments who count on a share of the millions in federal and state dollars distributed through the council.

Governmental entities contribute $215,000 annually in membership dues to the council, which has an annual budget of $20 million from federal and state funds that are distributed to the Valley on formulas that include population. The board of directors also is periodically tasked with splitting up larger sums, most recently when it oversaw $175 million in Hurricane Dolly disaster relief funds.

Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell, who is president of the council, said McAllen’s proposal was in reaction to disagreements in how the board divided funds between cities and selected consultants, ignoring recommendations of technical committees.

“What Mayor Brewer said is right about how we need to think regionally and try to achieve things regionally,” Boswell said. “But all of us are guilty of being piggies at the trough and trying to get as much as we can for our cities.”

However, the board’s current structure forces each governmental entity to work together to secure votes, said Edinburg City Commissioner Gus Garcia, who voted against the proposal despite his city’s potential to have the fourth-most votes on the board. Changing the board’s structure to one where voting strength was based on population would make some votes meaningless.

For example, under the proposal, Hidalgo County governments voting together could approve anything without the support of governments in Cameron and Willacy counties.

Boswell and Brownsville City Commissioner Edward Camarillo said the council should appoint a committee to recommend other ways to align the board’s voting structure more closely with population. But the committee proposal was also rejected by the board.

Edcouch Mayor Pro Tem Eddy Gonzalez said the council should be evenhanded in how moneys are distributed in the Valley. In 2009, Gonzalez successfully lobbied other small city representatives to split a $1.7 million Justice Assistance Grant equally, rather than making each cut proportional to population. Under Gonzalez’s plan, Edcouch gained about $20,000 more from the federal grant, which was sent to the regional council through a formula that accounts for population and crime rates.

“I work within the system they have established,” Gonzales said of the council. “(McAllen officials) are trying to change the system to benefit themselves.”