By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The city’s mayor and council members need to be paid more money, a citizen told members of the Del Rio City Council on Tuesday.
Del Rio resident Jimmy McDonald, who identified himself to the council as a private citizen, thanked the mayor, council and interim city manager for giving him the opportunity to address them and asked God to bless the city of Del Rio and Val Verde County.
McDonald handed copies of his remarks to the council members, then said, “On three occasions, I asked the chairperson of the city of Del Rio charter review committee, Mr. Robert Fernandez, to speak to the (review) committee. Three times he approved me and scheduled me to speak to said committee on the first Tuesday of each of the subsequent months at 12 noon, as an informed citizen of Del Rio, Texas, who had input into the charter committee’s work at hand.
“Each and every time I was shut down by your city attorney’s office. Other than a closed-door city council meeting, I do not legally believe you, or anyone else for that matter in the city of Del Rio, can shut down a citizen from participating in any other committees within the city of Del Rio’s form of government.
“So what did I want to say to the charter committee anyway? That I believe we should be paying our mayor $800 a meeting for every meeting he attends. Right now, we are paying him $100 a meeting with a max(imum) of two meetings a month. He has many more appearances than two a month.
“Currently the rightful comparison person in the county is the (county) judge, who currently makes $125,000 a year. That’s $10,416 a month, with our mayor only making $200 a month. How do we ever expect to get high quality candidates to run for the office with pauper benefits as such?
McDonald also said he believes council members should be paid more.
“I believe we should be paying our council members $500 for every meeting he or she attends. Right now, we’re paying him or her $100 a meeting with a max of two meetings a month. He or she has many more appearances than two a month,” McDonald said. “Currently, (the) rightful comparison in the county is the county commission, who makes $75,000 a year. That’s $6,250 a month with our councilperson making $200 a month,” he added.
“How do we ever expect to get high-quality candidates to run for office with pauper benefits as such? I believe we easily have a great surplus in the city of Del Rio’s budget to afford such (increased) pay accommodations,” McDonald said.
A timer sounded, letting the mayor, council and audience know that McDonald had reached his three-minute limit to speak.
As he attempted to go on, both City Secretary Mari Acosta and Mayor Al Arreola interrupted him, with Arreola saying, “Your three minutes is over. I’m sorry. I wish I could let you go (on), but there’s a three-minute limit.”
McDonald asked if there were more speakers on the list to address the council, and Arreola said there were.
McDonald provided the 830 Times with a written copy of his presentation.
McDonald, in the remainder of his presentation, said he also believed the city charter should be changed to alter the current requirement for election to the council from 50 percent plus one to 40 percent plus one.
“Currently we’ve had elections where the candidate with the most votes had 40 percent plus one, with the closest candidate having only 25 percent of the votes,” McDonald wrote.
He argued that Del Rio historically has a low voter turnout, even for regular elections, and an even lower turnout for runoff elections.
McDonald also criticized the “changing the early voting locations.”
Finally, McDonald wrote he understands the city is planning a new park to honor area veterans. He said although he is in favor of honoring veterans, noting his father and two brothers served in the military, he believes the city should first construct public restrooms in Del Rio Lions Memorial Park on the city’s north side, an issue he previously addressed during a council meeting in April.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
