By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A divided commissioners court on Wednesday approved a request for funding from the
International Good Neighbor Council (IGNC)-Del Rio Chapter, but not before County
Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. said he “doesn’t trust” the group amid ongoing questions over
the organization’s status.
Before discussing the IGNC’s request for $10,000 in funding from county hotel
occupancy tax (HOT) monies, the court heard from Del Rio resident and former city
councilwoman Alexandra Falcon Calderon, who urged the court to demand more
accountability from all organizations receiving HOT funds from the county.
Calderon, who spoke during the citizens’ comments portion of the
court during its meeting Wednesday. Calderon called on the court to require more
accountability from organizations to which it gives county hotel occupancy tax monies.
(Photo by Karen Gleason)
court’s agenda, urged
the court to insist that organizations requesting HOT monies be required to fill out a
application for the funds, as well as submitting a post-event report detailing how those
funds were spent.
After Calderon spoke, Owens called for the IGNC’s funding request to be discussed.
Owens began by saying the county had paid the IGNC $10,000 the past two years.
“My comments are going to be that I received information that they are not a corporation,
not listed as a corporation yet, but I think the (city) council took action last night, that as
soon as you get that cleared, you all are going to get your funding from council, correct?” (See story here)
Andrew Scarbo, president of the IGNC-Del Rio Chapter, replied, “Correct.”
Owens said, “My understanding was that last night during (the city) council (meeting), it
was a 4-to-3 vote, to give you all funds, and that 4-to-3 vote, there are members of the
IGNC that are on council that voted for it.”
Owens was referring to the fact that two members of the city council, Councilwoman
Ernestina “Tina” Martinez and Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez, are both members of
the IGNC-Del Rio Chapter.
During Tuesday night’s city council meeting, City Attorney Ana Markowski Smith
addressed the issue by telling Gutierrez, “That is not a legal conflict of interest; that’s
what we call a personal conflict of interest, and you decide whether or not you feel you
can vote fairly, and evaluate the facts based as a councilwoman, and this is not
influencing your vote, and that’s your decision to make, and Councilwoman Martinez’s
decision to make.”
Both Gutierrez and Martinez were also present for Wednesday’s commissioners court
meeting.
In response to Owens’ statement, Scarbo replied, “They voted for it, and they did ask the
city attorney if it was legal or not for them to vote, and the city attorney did inform the
public that it is absolutely legal for them to vote, because they are just volunteers in the
organization, they are not officers. They do not make decisions on the money that is
being spent in the organization or anything like that. The officers make those decisions.
“And so since neither of them are officers in the organization, they’re just volunteers in
the organization, it was legal for them to make the vote. Same thing with any of you, if
any of you were in the organization,” Scarbo added.
Owens responded, “Don’t put us in the same boat as the city because then we’re going to
have another conversation that’s not part of this.”
Scarbo then explained the IGNC-Del Rio’s status.
Scarbo said, “So, basically, IGNC has always had an EIN (employee identification
number, used for tax purposes) under Monterrey (N.L., Mexico). Monterrey is the
headquarters for all IGNCs. And we’ve used that number many, many years. The number
has always worked for us. We’ve used it for HOT funds. We’ve used it for other things
when we go out and buy something and we need to prove that we’re a non-profit to get
the tax exempt, and it’s always worked. Recently that number was found out by Ms.
Markowski Smith that it was no longer working, so she asked us if we had another
number. We did tell her that we were in the process of trying to get our own status and
not be under Monterrey anymore, but there was work still being done on it.”
Scarbo also told the court that Smith told the city council they could vote on the local
IGNC’s HOT fund request contingent on the group’s obtaining a state tax number and
state standing as a corporation.
Owens said, “We’ll get into my thoughts, why I’m going to vote not to give you all a
dime. Part of your form that you presented was there is a lot of people that come to your
event that stay with friends and cousins and stuff. That was in your information that you
gave to us.”
“Correct,” Scarbo said.
Owens said one of the reasons the county gives out HOT funds is “that (an event) puts
heads in beds.” He said when he checked with a database managed by the Del Rio
Chamber of Commerce on the top 10 businesses visitors to the IGNC’s Fiesta de Amistad
parade patronized, no hotels or motels were on that list.
Owens added he checked the data for other events, like the Rotary Club of Del Rio’s
Rotary Rodeo and the George Paul Memorial Bullriding and found several motels in the
top 10 businesses its visitors patronized following the events.
Owens then returned to the IGNC’s efforts to establish its status as an independent
organization and get its own tax numbers.
Owens said, “. . . We were giving you $10,000 the last two years in a row, and this year. .
. in my opinion, and the court can do whatever they want to, but, and I’m trying to be
nice here, if it had to be brought to you all’s attention that your number was not valid,
how do I trust you?
“If it was brought to you all by somebody else? It seems like you should have known
because you’re the person in charge, and now you’re asking me to give you $10,000. . .
I’m going to make my comment one more time, it was brought to your attention that
there was a problem.
“You’re the person in charge, and now you’re wanting the county to give you another
$10,000. I’m going to go ahead and stop with that. The court can do whatever they want
to do, but I personally have an issue with you all. I just do, and we’re not going to get
into it right now, but I have an issue with you all. I have an issue with the money, the way
it’s spent,” Owens said.
“Whatever you all want to do, commissioners,” the county judge said.
Owens then recognized County Auditor Matt Weingardt, who got up to stand beside
Scarbo at the podium.
“We’ve had emails going back to 2023 trying to clean this issue up, and now we’re still
trying to clean it up?” Weingardt asked Scarbo.
Scarbo replied, “We’ve provided emails to you, and everything has been on the up-and-
up.”
“I’m talking about your EIN, because we’ve been searching that since 2023, and now
we’re at a different route?” Weingardt asked.
“Correct, and we’ve provided you with the EIN number at the time, and everything was
told to us that it was good,” Scarbo said.
He added, “The city council just informed us yesterday. . . that the EIN number that was
on their form was incorrect. That was just by mistake, and we went ahead and corrected
that one, just like when you informed us that it was wrong, we corrected it and gave you
the new one.”
“So are you in the process of working out the 501 (corporation paperwork)?” Weingardt
asked.
“We are in the process of 501 and working on filing as a corporation with the state, with
the Secretary of State, and I just got a text today saying that should be done within the
next few days, because Jeanne Roe is the one that’s doing it for us and she has all the
information on that.”
Scarbo went on, “As for the numbers, I did want to state to you all that the city does do
an application, and we have to show them proof that we bring in heads in beds, and so
every year we have shown them that proof that we bring in heads in beds, at least 200
heads in beds, and they go in and check and that was even brought up last night by
(Mayor Pro-tem) Jim DeReus, do we show proof of heads in beds, and they asked the
assistant city manager, and he said yes.
“We do show proof of heads in beds, we showed it for the last three years to the city, so
much so that even Ramada Inn this year is doing a special deal because they realize that
people come in and stay at their hotel, so they even want more to come in,” Scarbo said.
Owens then asked if anyone else had any comments or if someone had a motion.
“Judge, I’ll make a motion to approve the HOT funds for IGNC in the amount of $10,000
with instructions that they provide us with receipts on everything, on how the monies are
spent and of course, giving them to (the county auditor) to show that’s how the money
was used,” Commissioner Pct. 2 Juan Carlos Vazquez said.
Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores said he would second the motion “for
discussion.”
Flores then said, “I think we need to wait on this $10,000 until we get a good number
from you guys or a 501(c)(3) classification. That’s my opinion on this. I wouldn’t give
you all a dollar right now, not until you all are on the up-and-up (with your paperwork).”
Scarbo asked if he wanted the corporation number or a 501(c)(3) designation, which will
take longer. Scarbo also noted, “You don’t have to be a 501(c)(3) to get HOT funds.”
Flores then asked the county auditor, “Matt, what would be the proper thing here, to be
able to consider them for HOT money?”
“The (city) council was correct. You do not have to be a 501(c)(3), and we have an LLC
on the agenda (also asking for HOT funds). It is an issue that we’ve been working with, and I do speak with Mr. Chavez (the assistant city manager) frequently as we compare
receipts. . . ,” Weingardt said.
When Flores asked him what he would recommend, Weingardt responded, “I do not
govern resources, commissioner, I account for them.”
He did add the county HOT fund balance “is pretty healthy.”
Weingardt also said, “All their (the IGNC’s) numbers are current.”
Commissioner Pct. 1 Kerr Wardlaw asked Scarbo if he was spending the city HOT
money with different advertisers than the money he was asking for from the county, and
Scarbo said he was.
Owens said, “I completely am against it. I think we’re a bunch of hypocrites for giving
you all money. We complain about everything else and then we go to do this, we’re going
to go do hugs and abrazos and shit with people and Mexicans on the bridge, and that’s
part of this. We can’t even get a meeting with them, even though they called, the
Mexicans have called. They couldn’t even take care of themselves in COVID, so I have a
hard time with just the whole thing surrounding this, and then you all in general.”
Owens said he would vote against the motion “and then we’ll do some videos and put
that out.”
Owens also said, “I think it’s completely wrong. With the action that this court is taking
today, I will run for office again, and I know this is not the proper place, but actions like
today is what’s going to separate me from people that run. We just can’t be handing out
money. I don’t believe that people that are on council, I will go so far as to say that, that
are part of this (organization asking for money) should have voted on this, whether it’s
legal or not legal, it doesn’t pass the smell test.”
He then called for the vote, and Vazquez, Wardlaw and Commissioner Pct. 3 Fernando Garcia voted in favor of the motion, with Owens and Flores voting against.
There was some brief shuffling since Flores gave the second to the original motion and so
could not then vote against it.
Vazquez then repeated his motion, and Garcia gave the second. The vote was again 3-2.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
