By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members set a runoff election for the office of Del Rio mayor after formally canvassing the results of a recent city election.
The city council canvassed the election results during a special meeting Monday. During that meeting, the council also declared winners in races for three other city council races, acknowledged the contributions of outgoing council members Ernestina “Tina” Martinez and Jesus Lopez Jr. and welcomed two new council members, LeRoy Briones and Elsa Reyes.
The winner of the election for the third seat on the council, Leno Hernandez Jr., will take office May 26. Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez explained Hernandez is a city employee, and city policy requires an employee to provide two weeks’ notice to retire in good standing. Jim DeReus will remain in the District 2 seat on the council until Hernandez is sworn in.
At the top of the agenda of Monday’s meeting was the consideration of an ordinance “providing for the canvass of the results of the City of Del Rio General Election held on May 2, 2026, declaring the official results of said city general election (and) declaring that certain candidates are duly elected as city officials.”
After reading the heading of the ordinance, City Secretary Mari Acosta announced she had placed copies of the official election reports and a tally showing the number of votes received by each candidate in the city election on the dais.
Acosta next read the official results of the election, beginning with the race for mayor. The candidates and the official number of ballots received by each person were read as follows:
Efrain V. Valdez, 793; Alvaro “Al” Arreola, 831; Ryan Horning, 97; Arturo Rodriguez, 54; Lazaro “Laz” Castro, 178; and James “Jim” DeReus, 775.
After announcing an official total of 2,728 votes were cast in the mayor’s race, Acosta said, “This race is undeclared, with two candidates not reaching a majority vote of 51 percent or 50 percent plus one, so the two candidates that will be in the runoff will be Mr. Efrain Valdez and Mayor Alvaro ‘Al’ Arreola.”
Acosta then read the official results of the race for Councilperson At-Large, Place C, as follows: Ernestina “Tina” Martinez, 565; LeRoy Briones, 1,454; and Alexandra Falcon Calderon, 665.
“In this race, the winner is Mr. LeRoy Briones,” Acosta said.
The results of the race for Councilperson District 1 were read as follows: Jorge Vargas, 318; and Elsa Reyes, 474.
“For this race, the winner is Elsa Reyes, with 474 votes,” Acosta said.
In the race for Councilperson District 2, Acosta read the results as follows: David Scarbo, 416; and Leno Hernandez Jr., 832.
“For this race, Mr. Leno Hernandez Jr. is the winner, with 832 votes,” Acosta said.
Following the reading of the results, Arreola said if there were no questions, he would entertain a motion to approve the ordinance.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez made the motion to approve, with Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus giving the second. The motion passed unanimously.
Consideration of an ordinance setting the runoff election in the mayor’s race was the second item on the council’s special meeting agenda.
Acosta read the heading of the ordinance: “… establishing a date for holding and conducting a runoff election in and throughout the City of Del Rio for the purpose of electing (a) person to hold the office of mayor; designating the places and manner of holding the election; providing for the posting and publication of notice …”
Arreola called for a motion to approve the ordinance.
DeReus made the motion to approve the ordinance, with Lopez giving a second. The ordinance was approved on a 6-0-1 vote, with Arreola abstaining.
The ordinance set the date for the runoff election as Saturday, June 13, as per state election law.
The ordinance also read that no candidate in the general election received a majority of votes cast, and Arreola and Valdez, who received the most and second-most number of votes, are the two candidates who will be on the runoff ballot.
Early voting by personal appearance in the runoff will begin at 8 a.m. Monday, June 1, and end at 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 9.
The polling places on Election Day, Saturday, June 13, will be at the Joe Ramos Facility, the Del Rio Civic Center conference room and City Hall (rear).
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
