Eagle Pass Mayor Luis E. Sifuentes Files Petition for Writ of Mandamus against City Secretary and City of Eagle Pass
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2021
Eagle Pass Mayor Luis E. Sifuentes has filed a Petition for Writ of Mandamus against City Secretary Imelda B. Rodriguez and the City of Eagle Pass in the Court of Appeals for the Fourth District of Texas in San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday, February 9, 2021, requesting legal relief to issue a writ of mandamus compelling City Secretary Rodriguez and the City of Eagle Pass to find Mayor Sifuentes eligible to run for mayor of Eagle Pass, compel the City Secretary and the City to withdraw Ms. Rodriguez’s Administrative Declaration of Ineligibility concerning Mayor Sifuentes, and grant Mayor Sifuentes’ Application for a place on the ballot for the General Election scheduled on May 1, 2021.
Mayor Sifuentes was elected at a special election held on February 1, 2021 after former Mayor Ramsey English Cantu resigned to run for the position of State Representative, District 74, serving an unexpired 15 months term which will end in May 2021. Prior to being elected as Mayor, Sifuentes had been elected to one four year term and was in his second such term when he resigned under Texas “resign to run” law.
Sifuentes registered as a candidate for a full four year term on January 13, 2021 with City Secretary Imelda B. Rodriguez for the City Officers Election scheduled on May 1, 2021.
On January 15, 2021, City Secretary Rodriguez issued and notified Mayor Sifuentes an Administrative Declaration of Ineligibility that his application for Mayor in the May 1, 2021 General Election was disqualified due to the City of Eagle Pass’ two four-year term limit provision in the City Charter, which states that “No person shall be elected for more than two (2) consecutive four-year terms.”
The candidate registration period for the scheduled General Election of May 1, 2021 is from January 13 to February 12, 2021. Currently, only one candidate has registered for the position of Mayor, City Councilman Place 4 Rolando Salinas, that has not been disqualified.
Mayor Sifuentes wants the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals to grant him a writ of mandamus against City Secretary Rodriguez and the City of Eagle Pass to allow his candidate registration for the May 1, 2021 General Election be declared eligible and placed on the ballot for Mayor.
Mayor Sifuentes’ Petition for Writ of Mandamus contends that “Ms. Rodriguez and the City misconstrued the City Charter in deciding that Mayor Sifuentes cannot present his candidacy to the voters. Under a proper construction, Mayor Sifuentes is eligible to seek a four year term consecutive to his fifteen month mayoral term.”
Sifuentes’ petition contends that “Consecutive” is defined as “following each other without interruption.” Sifuentes argues that he is not disqualified as a result of being elected to two four year terms as City Councilman Place 4 because he did not complete serving his second four year term since he resigned under Texas’ “resign to run” law in order to run for Mayor in the February 1, 2021 Special General Election. Furthermore, Sifuentes argues that should he be elected to a four-year term as Mayor in the May 1, 2021 General Election does not disqualify him because he was elected to an unexpired 15 months term as Mayor in the February 1, 2020 Special Election. Thus, his election to a four term mayoral term in the May 1, 2021 General Election “follows without interruption Mayor Sifuentes’ election to a fifteen month term in that office. That election broke the sequence between his last councilman’s term and the upcoming election. It is simply the case that Mayor Sifuentes seeks a four-year term following without interruption a four-year term.”
Sifuentes contends that he is not ineligible to run for a four-year term in the May 1, 2021 General Election because “his fifteen month term as Mayor breaks the continuity between his last election as councilman and the current election.“ Sifuentes contends that he “does not seek to be elected for, in the words of the ordinance, “more than two (2) consecutive four-year terms.” He instead seeks election to a four-year term consecutive in unbroken sequence to a fifteen-month term. The term limits provision in the Eagle Pass City Charter therefore does not bar him from a place on the ballot.” Sifuentes adds that “the voters should have the opportunity to accept or reject his candidacy” for Mayor in the May 1, 2021 General Election.
The Texas Fourth Court of Appeals issued an Order on February 9, 2021 on Sifuentes’ emergency motion that City Secretary Rodriguez and the City of Eagle Pass “not to conduct a drawing for ballot positions and not to move forward with the printing and programming of ballots for the General Election be held in abeyance“ pending further order of the court on the mandamus relief sought. The Fourth Court of Appeals allowed City Secretary Rodriguez and the City of Eagle Pass to file a response to the petition by no later than Friday, February 12, 2021 at 12 p.m.
The Texas Fourth Court of Appeals will issue a final decision and order on Mayor Sifuentes’ Petition for a Writ of Mandamus sometime after 12 p.m. on Friday, February 12, 2021.
Mayor Sifuentes is represented by attorney J.D. Pauerstein of the law firm of Rosenthal, Pauerstein, Sandoloski, Agather LLP of San Antonio, Texas. The City of Eagle Pass general counsel is the law firm of Langley and Banack of San Antonio, Texas.
