By RAY QUIROGA
publisher@sbnewspaper.com
On Saturday, the City of San Benito satisfied an open records request filed by the San Benito News on October 7 seeking to obtain a copy of the resolution censuring Mayor Pedro “Pete” Galvan, which the city commission passed during a contentious October 20 meeting.
The draft was not included in the packet for the October 6 or October 20 city commission meetings.
Commissioners considered the resolution at the October 6 meeting but tabled the item, giving the embattled mayor, who said he received the draft minutes before the meeting, an opportunity to review it and gather additional evidence supporting or disproving the allegation of harassment and threats that he allegedly posed against San Benito Economic Development Corporation (EDC) officials.
As reported last week, the San Benito Commission passed a resolution censuring Galvan at a regular October 20 meeting for allegedly making statements to various EDC officials, including the EDC’s legal counsel.
The censure also includes Galvan’s alleged comments to the EDC regarding the withholding of sales and use tax proceeds.
City Attorney Eric Flores explained that the censure essentially records the commission’s approval or disapproval of specific behavior in the city’s minutes.
Commissioners Daniel Cortez, Rick Perez, and Victor Manuel Gonzalez voted to censure. Cortez and Perez initially requested that the item be added to the October 6 agenda.
Galvan continued to deny the allegations and represented one of two votes against the item.
RESOLUTION NUMBER 2026-10-002 reads, in part: “A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF SAN BENITO, TEXAS, CENSURING MAYOR PEDRO A. GALVAN FOR STATEMENTS MADE ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 TO AN EMPLOYEE AND TO LEGAL COUNSEL OF THE SAN BENITO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, INC., INCLUDING DIRECTIONS CONCERNING THE PLACEMENT OF A CONTRACT OF THE CORPORATION ON THE AGENDA OF THE CITY COMMISSION AND STATEMENTS THAT SALES AND USE TAX PROCEEDS WOULD BE WITHHELD FROM THE CORPORATION; ATTACHING AND INCORPORATING AS EXHIBIT A THE LETTER OF SEPTEMBER 10, 2026 FROM LEGAL COUNSEL TO THE CORPORATION; MAKING FINDINGS; ISSUING A FORMAL WARNING AND GIVING NOTICE OF FURTHER ACTION; DIRECTING ENTRY IN THE MINUTES AND TRANSMITTAL; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
WHEREAS, the City of San Benito, Texas (the “City”) is a home-rule municipality operating under a council-manager form of government, and its governing body, the City Commission, composed of the Mayor and four Commissioners under Sections 3.02 and 3.03 of the Home Rule Charter of the City (the “Charter”), governs as a body and acts only by vote at meetings held in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code; and
WHEREAS, under Section 3.03 of the Charter the Mayor is a member of the City Commission and presides at its meetings, and the Charter provides that the Mayor “shall have no administrative duties”; no individual member of the City Commission, including the Mayor, is authorized to speak for the City, to bind the City, or to exercise the powers of the City except as the City Commission, acting as a body, has authorized; and
WHEREAS, Section 3.05 of the Charter provides that the City Commission and its members shall deal with City officers and employees who are subject to the direction and supervision of the City Manager solely through the City Manager and shall not give orders to any such officer or employee, either publicly or privately, and Section 3.08 of the Charter reserves the power of inquiry into the affairs of the City to the City Commission as a body; the Charter thereby establishes, as the settled policy of the City, that individual elected officials do not direct, pressure, or make demands of personnel, and that the authority of the City Commission is exercised collectively and not by any member acting alone; and
WHEREAS, under Section 1.02.041 of the Code of Ordinances of the City, any member of the City Commission, including the Mayor, may request that an item be placed on the agenda of a meeting of the City Commission for discussion or action; a member who believes that a matter requires the action of the City Commission therefore has a lawful and sufficient means of bringing that matter before the body, and has no occasion to direct any other person to do so or to condition the performance of the City’s obligations on that person’s compliance; and
WHEREAS, the San Benito Economic Development Corporation, Inc. (the “SBEDC”) is a Type B economic development corporation organized under the Development Corporation Act, Chapters 501 and 505 of the Texas Local Government Code, with the City as its authorizing municipality; under Section 501.055(b) of the Texas Local Government Code the SBEDC “is not a political subdivision or a political corporation for purposes of the laws of this state”; and the SBEDC is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the City Commission and is served by its own officers, employees, and legal counsel; and
WHEREAS, the SBEDC is funded principally by a sales and use tax adopted by the voters of the City for the benefit of the corporation under Chapter 505 of the Texas Local Government Code; the Comptroller of Public Accounts collects that tax and remits the proceeds to the City; and Section 505.301 of the Texas Local Government Code provides that “[o]n the authorizing municipality’s receipt from the comptroller of the proceeds of the sales and use tax imposed under this chapter, the authorizing municipality shall deliver the proceeds to the Type B corporation”; and
WHEREAS, the delivery of those proceeds to the SBEDC is therefore a mandatory duty of the City imposed by state law and is not a matter within the discretion of the City, much less of any individual officer of the City; neither the Mayor nor any other member of the City Commission acting individually has any authority to withhold, delay, condition, reduce, or redirect the proceeds, or to direct any officer or employee of the City to do so; and
WHEREAS, the oversight that state law does confer on the City with respect to the SBEDC, including the approval of the corporation’s programs and expenditures under Section 501.073, the appointment and removal of its directors under Section 505.051, and the alteration or termination of the corporation under Section 501.401, which may occur “only by a written resolution of the authorizing unit’s governing body,” belongs exclusively to the City Commission acting as a body by vote at a duly posted public meeting, and no part of it belongs to the Mayor or to any other member acting individually; whether any particular contract, program, or expenditure of the SBEDC requires the approval of the City Commission is accordingly a question for the City Commission as a body to determine under that law and the Bylaws of the corporation, and not a question that any member may decide, or attempt to enforce, alone; and
WHEREAS, the Bylaws of the SBEDC, which have been approved by its Board of Directors and by the City Commission, govern the approval of the corporation’s contracts and provide that the Mayor, when not serving as a director, is an ex officio member of the Board of Directors who may take part in its discussions but has no vote; neither the Bylaws nor the Charter confers on the Mayor any authority to direct the officers, employees, or legal counsel of the corporation…
The resolution will be published in its entirety on the San Benito News website: sbnewspaper.com.