The city of La Joya’s council took no action on rescinding a resolution it passed in 2017 that opposed anti-sanctuary city legislation.   In 2017 La Joya Mayor Fito Salinas proudly bragged about opposing Senate Bill 4, an immigration bill aimed at banning sanctuary cities.   Despite that stance, current City Manager Jaime Sandoval says…

The Mission City Council is considering a petition submitted by one of its police unions that calls for exclusive bargaining rights, a push that is being opposed by the city’s other vocal police union.   On Monday, council tabled a petition submitted by Mission Police Association Local 293 requesting recognition as the sole and exclusive…

La Joya’s city council accepted the resignation of alternate municipal judge Reynaldo “Rey” Cedillo Wednesday about a month after La Joya ISD approved an amendment to a policy that bars some district employees from holding public office.   That policy, originally enacted last year, originally only applied to elected public officials.   Last month’s amendment…

The Mission City Council ratified Monday the purchase of a little over $44,000 worth of firewall infrastructure meant to bolster security at city hall and the Mission Police Department in the wake of a debilitating ransomware attack.   City Manager Mike Perez said the city made the purchase based on recommendations from cybersecurity experts and…

The Agua SUD Board voted to name Place 4 Director Jose Luis Ochoa Jr. its new president at a meeting last week after Place 7 Director Adriana Villarreal opted to step down from the officer position.     Usually Agua SUD’s board reorganizes its officers in November.   Villarreal said last Monday that health concerns…

The La Joya ISD Board of Managers voted last Wednesday to make slight but substantive changes to a novel policy implemented by the district last year that prohibits some employees from holding public office.   Perhaps most significantly, that policy will now apply to appointed public officers as well as elected public officers.   The…

The city of Mission expects the fallout from a debilitating ransomware attack last month to have an impact for months.   The city said so in correspondence last Thursday seeking an attorney general’s opinion allowing it to withhold contracts with outside cybersecurity experts and legal council asked for by the Progress Times through an open…

The Texas Education Agency’s Educator Investigations Division began reviewing former La Joya ISD Rut Damaris Kazmierczak’s Texas educator certificate Friday after the Progress Times published a story about allegations that she’d inappropriately messaged a former student in 2023.       The TEA says it had previously investigated Kazmiercak in 2023, though that investigation was…

A La Joya ISD middle school teacher kept her teaching certificate and quietly resigned from the school district in 2023 after an administrative investigation found she had violated policy by sending messages and photos to a former student.     Rut Damaris Kazmierczak, a sixth grade reading teacher at J.D. Salinas Middle School, resigned in…