City Secretary’s Disqualification of Eagle Pass Mayor’s Application for Re-Election Raises Legal Issues Regarding Term Limits
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2021
The City of Eagle Pass, Texas political leaders and citizens were stunned on Friday, January 15, 2021 when City Secretary Imelda B. Rodriguez advised incumbent Mayor Luis E. Sifuentes that his application for re-election in the May 1, 2021 City Officers Election was disqualified due to Section 3-1(b) of the City Charter which states that “no person shall be elected for more than two (2) consecutive four-year terms,” raising a legal controversy over the interpretation and intent of the term limits provision in the City Charter.
According to Section 3-1(a), “The City Council. The legislative and governing body of the City of Eagle Pass shall be the City Council, which shall be composed of the Mayor and four (4) Council Members, which shall be numbered Places one through four (1-4).”
The following Section 3-1(b) expressly states “Election and Term. The City Council shall be elected from the city at large for a term of four (4) years. At the general election of May 2011, Council Members for Places 1 and 3, shall run for a term of three (3) years. In the general election of May 2012, the Mayor and Council Members for Places 2 and 4, shall run for a term of four (4) years. Thereafter, elections shall be held every two (2) years and each Council Member shall be elected for a term of four (4) years. No person shall be elected for more than two (2) consecutive four-year terms.”
Mayor Sifuentes was elected in 2013 to serve a four-year term as Council Member Place 4 and subsequently re-elected in 2017 to another four-year term as Council Member Place 4. However, former Mayor Ramsey English Cantu resigned in order to run for the vacant State Representative, District 74 seat in the Texas Democratic Party Primary Election of March 1, 2020, causing the City of Eagle Pass to call for and hold a Special City Officers Election on February 1, 2020. Since then Council Member Place 4 Luis E. Sifuentes and Council Member Place 2 Rudy Villalpando registered to run for Mayor in the Special City Officers Election of February 1, 2020, thus City Council Member Places 2 and 4 became open and were placed on the February 1 ballot, too.
Council Member Sifuentes bested Council Member Villalpando in a close race for Mayor and was sworn-in as Mayor for the unexpired term of former Mayor Ramsey English Cantu, which expires on May 1, 2021. Thus, Mayor Sifuentes registered on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, to seek re-election to a full four-year term as Mayor in the upcoming May 1 election.
The legal dispute arises whether City Secretary Imelda B. Rodriguez’s interpretation of Section 3-1(b) disqualifies Mayor Sifuentes from seeking re-election as Mayor because he has previously been elected as Council Member Place 4 on two previous elections for four-year terms each or whether Section 3-1(b)’s legislative intent when passed allows a person to be elected to two four-year terms as a Council Member and to two four-year terms as Mayor. A plain reading of Section 3-1(b) is broad and vague and can be interpreted either way depending on each person’s interpretation of it. This is what the legal dispute is all about.
Mayor Sifuentes posted on Friday, January 15, 2021, on his Facebook Page the following: “I don’t believe that the City Secretary’s decision is consistent with the intent of the Charter when it was voted on. As such, I have talked to an attorney and we are not going to back down and we are going to take whatever recourse we can to make sure that we can fight this and be serving as your Mayor for the next four years. This is a technical legality and I am sure that once we are done with this, we will be able to move forward to keep Eagle Pass moving forward and fighting this pandemic.”
Unless the City Secretary, advised by the City Attorney, withdraws its objection to Mayor Sifuentes being disqualified to seek re-election for another four-year term, the City Secretary’s interpretation regarding Section 3-1(b) of the City Charter will in all likelihood be legally challenged in a court at law either in state or federal court by Mayor Sifuentes and his legal representative.
Currently, the City of Eagle Pass has opened the registration of candidates for the positions of Mayor and Council Member Places 2 and 4 as of January 13, 2021 until February 13, 2021. As of the publication of this article, Mayor Sifuentes and City Councilman Place 4 Rolando Salinas have registered as candidates for the position of Mayor.
As a result of the legal controversy that has been raised, some political observers in the community have commented that there might be other candidates who may register to run for Mayor or City Council Places 2 and 4 in the May 1 City Officers Election, providing an opportunity for interested persons desiring to provide their leadership, talent, and experience in guiding the City of Eagle Pass during the extraordinary times in which it is currently facing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession, U.S.-Mexico border non-essential travel restrictions, and high unemployment situation.
Regardless of the outcome of the legal controversy, the field for political leadership in the community has suddenly been opened by the extraordinary times facing the City of Eagle Pass and its citizens.
