City Backs Off Questionable Contract, Potential Ethics Violations Identified
The Mission City Council voted to remove a controversial consulting contract from the agenda at its October 14 meeting, after a member of the public cited unnecessary cost and questioned the redundancy of work done by city employees. Further scrutiny by the Progress Times of the proposed business deal found ethics violations may have occurred.
A suggested $81,000 contract with KM International for public relations and communications and media relations consulting services first appeared at the September 23 meeting. This week, the city’s media relations department which has four full-time employees requested a budget amendment of $81,000 to cover an $89,000 contract expense for KM International, according to the agenda packet.
McAllen-based KM International has two managing partners: Miguel Robledo and Karina Cardoza. Robledo received payments for political campaign consulting work from Mayor Norie Garza and Councilwoman Marissa Gerlach: Garza paid Robledo $12,000 for her mayoral run in 2022 and Gerlach paid him $10,000 for campaign consulting last year.
Mission resident Karen Prewitt spoke out against the contract in September and this week appealed to the council to deny the contract, noting that the city has a fully staffed media department with four employees.
“I spoke last meeting about seeing evidence of the public relations and communications that the media relations service provided last year to warrant remaining on contract, and I realize that $81,000 is a minor amount compared to the millions of dollars the city deals with,” Prewitt stated. “However, the median income according to Google for Mission residents is $56,421 in 2022, and so $81,000 is one and half times that amount.
“So, I am requesting that, I urge the city council members to deny this item if the evidence was not produced that you feel is worth the $81,000,” Prewitt told the council.
In her September remarks, Prewitt asked to see work produced by KM International over the last year for the city. Prewitt told the Progress Times this week that she has not received any information.
While Prewitt was the sole public speaker on the renewing the KM International contract, she said she’s not alone.
“I did receive a lot of support from other community members who contacted me and thanked me for speaking up about this,” Prewitt said.
After Prewitt’s comments, city manager Mike Perez asked the council to remove the KM International contract from the agenda, eliminating it from further consideration. Perez’s request was approved unanimously; Councilwoman Jessica Ortega left the meeting early and was absent for this vote.
Neither Garza nor Gerlach have a conflict disclosure form available on the city website in connection with Robledo’s prospective contract. City secretary Anna Carrillo also announces conflict disclosure forms filed with her department at the start of each meeting, but nothing was announced for either Garza or Gerlach at the September or October meetings.
Developed by the Texas Ethics Commission, conflict disclosure forms are required by state law, specifically Section 176.003 of the Local Government Code, which requires public servants who decide to recommend, select or contract with a vendor to declare if they have a business relationship with that vendor. Further, Section 176.009 of the same code requires a city that maintains a website to provide conflict disclosure information online.
The most recent conflict disclosure form available on the city website is for Mayor Pro-Tem Ruben Plata, filed on June 10, 2024 for real property he owns in connection with the litigation between the city and Black Diamond Developers, LP and CCC Operations, LLC.
Carrillo has also announced the receipt of Plata’s disclosure form at the start of the city council meetings on September 23 and October 14, but did not announce a similar filing for Gerlach or Garza, which would have revealed Robledo’s work for their political campaigns.
Robledo also failed to file a conflict disclosure form as required by Section 176.006 which instructs prospective vendors to acknowledge if they have any kind of employment or business relationship with a local government officer.
Failure to file a conflict disclosure form is a Class C misdemeanor in Texas for officials and vendors, and the city can reprimand or terminate an employee who knowingly fails to comply with this state law.
KM International had a contract with the city that ran from September 2023 through September 2024 and provided services such as writing remarks for the State of the City event, marketing, outreach, and communications. While that contract is now expired, the city website does not offer a conflict disclosure form from Garza on KM International at the time of that contract’s approval last year.
Gerlach was voted in at a special election held in December 2023.
Perez told the Progress Times that the city’s media relations director Kenia Gomez requested the $81,000 budget amendment for KM International as part of his new policy for placing items on the council meeting agenda for consideration.
“What I require now is the agenda packet has to show how the request is going to be paid for,” Perez said. “If there isn’t enough money in the budget and you need a budget amendment, that request needs to be on that same agenda or immediately on the next one, otherwise you might get a project authorized, but no (official) action to fund it.”
Unlike the first attempt in September to award a second contract to KM International, the October 14 agenda packet shows Gomez’s request for the $81,000 budget amendment was denied by the finance and purchasing departments, and not recommended for approval.
A second item tabled at the September meeting and brought back to life this week was a contract with Civic Plus for the design of a new city website, at a cost of $42,750 for design and implementation fees.
While everyone appeared to agree on the need for a new city website, details were scarce: the city’s media relations department, which requested the contract with Civic Plus, was unable to answer Plata’s questions regarding the age of the current system software and the timing of the last update.
Carrillo, a long-time city employee, tried to salvage the discussion, telling the council that to her recollection, MPC Studios last conducted maintenance on the website about 15 years ago. MPC Studios notified the city that it needs to move to a new site as the current system is no longer supported, she said.
*Editor’s Note
This article has been updated to reflect the contract amount for the Civic Plus contract. The correct amount is $23,750. While the $19,000 implementation fee is listed separately, it is included in the total contract cost. The Progress Times regrets the error.
