MISSION, Texas - A Mission Economic Development Corporation board member says his popularity in the community must have risen since news broke about the City of Mission having financial issues.
Noel Salinas has been criticized by Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza for confirming to a local newspaper that the City of Mission held back more than $3 million in sales tax revenues over seven months that should have gone to the EDC.
But Salinas defended himself. He said he did not give this information to Progress Times reporter Matt Wilson. He said Wilson already had the information and all he did was confirm that the information was correct.
Salinas said he may well lose his slot on the Mission EC board because he serves at the pleasure of Mission City Council and can be removed without cause.
However, he said he feels sure the people of Mission will thank him for helping to publicize something that could have gone under the radar. He said he ran for city council on a platform of greater transparency.
“I am not in office yet, but I feel that this is what I want to do for the people. The people deserve to know what's going on and I guess this is really good for my resume. Because I can prove to people that I haven't even been in office and I'm already fighting for the people and telling them where their tax dollars are going,” Salinas told the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service.
Mayor Gonzalez Garza was not happy with what Salinas told the Progress Times. She said it was politically motivated because Salinas was running for city council. She also disputed the claim that money was withheld from the EDC, even though internal city correspondence obtained by the newspaper uses that term.
“To say the least, it’s disappointing that an EDC member would make comments without knowing the facts,” Gonzalez Garza told the Progress Times. “And that’s very disappointing. I hold all of our board members to a very high standard, and obviously, this is very disappointing. Very disappointing. There is (sic) no issues with liquidity.”
Salinas said he was told that the City of Mission owed Mission EDC about $3.1 million in sales tax revenues and that the EDC only had around $60,000 cash-on-hand. He said he was given this information by Mission EDC CEO Teclo Garcia the day before the city election. He said the information jived with the whispers he had been hearing at Mission City Hall - that the city administration had cashflow problems.
Salinas lost the election, coming fourth in a four-way race.
“I keep on asking myself why they could not have waited until after the election and had a special meeting to discuss what was going on. Instead, we didn't have a meeting, it was just person to person information. And that really makes me think about, why? Why did it happen like that?” Salinas told the Guardian.
“If I would have been in that position I would have had a meeting with the whole board. But I guess if you have a meeting, it becomes open and so the public can come in. But we could have gone to executive session.”
Salinas said he is concerned that he and other board members might have been signing off on financial statements each month that were not accurate. This would have been because there was less money in the EDCs bank account than expected.
The Guardian asked Salinas if he was surprised that the mayor, who, like Salinas, is an EDC director, did not come to the board earlier to say the sales tax receipts were not being transferred from the City to the EDC.
“Being that she was the mayor, I would figure that she would know what's going on in the city. But then I started thinking, maybe she didn't know what's going on. And maybe it was being done through… I've looked at the financials and the financials really don't show anything. But again, we need to look at the bank account and see how much is really being deposited. And it could be a possibility that she didn't know what's going on. So, we'll find out,” Salinas responded.
Asked if he fears being removed from the Mission EDC board, Salinas said: “Well, being that I was the one that was quoted in the newspaper… I really don't understand how it works and yes, it's up to the mayor and the city council to remove me. They have the right to remove me without cause. So we'll wait and see if that happens.”
Here is an audio interview with Salinas:
