Donna reassigns city manager, names interim

Carlos Yerena

DONNA — Just four months after a split city council sought to fire him, officials here have instead reassigned City Manager Carlos Yerena and named his temporary replacement.

The Donna City Council’s decision to reassign Yerena as director of the Donna-Rio Bravo International Bridge was unanimous Tuesday evening.

Yerena — who over the last five years has been suspended, terminated, or asked to step down, then reappointed multiple times — will now fully spend his time overseeing the pending commercial expansion project at the bridge.

But the reassignment comes with a pay cut from his current $245,336, Donna Mayor David Moreno said after the meeting adjourned.

“It’ll be lower than where he’s at now,” Moreno said.

This isn’t the first time Donna’s elected officials have ousted the city manager from his position.

In August, a faction of the city council sought to remove not only Yerena, but then City Attorney Robert J. Salinas.

That effort led to litigation, including a temporary restraining order, to try to protect their jobs. At the time, Moreno was the only member of the council who opposed getting rid of either man.

Ultimately, however, when the TRO expired, the council fired Salinas, but kept Yerena on.

But on Tuesday, the council was united in reassigning Yerena.

“We agreed that the city needed to take a different direction. There’s some things that I think we were missing here in the city as far as structure and so forth,” Moreno said.

“We … reassigned him to the bridge because that’s a very important project and he’s been on that project since the onset of it,” he said.

Yerena will now be tasked with overseeing the major infrastructure project that has been one of his top goals for years, even through the upheaval and instability that has consistently marked the council.

For his part, Yerena saw the move as a positive — one that will allow him to fully focus on what has become a bit of a pet project.

“From my perspective, now comes the hard part. Now that we have the money, now you gotta build it. So somebody has to have the time available to oversee that,” Yerena said.

“And I welcome that opportunity. I think the bridge is the future of Donna. And … the funding that’s gonna come from there will be able to be utilized in quality of life projects for our people,” he said.

Yerena spoke of the mammoth task it’s been to get the bridge expansion project to where it is today, on the cusp of being put out to bid for construction.

The project has required changes in state legislation, and has undergone several different evolutions in potential funding mechanisms.

“When I came in … there was a constitutional prohibition in the Texas law that basically did not allow us to sell bonds and then construct something and donate it to the federal government,” Yerena said.

Donna lobbied the Texas Legislature to change the law, which it did.

“Once we were able to change that, now the big task was getting the money. The money was a big deal for us because we’re not McAllen. The project that we’re about to embark on is about the same size as the McAllen project, but look at our city compared to theirs.”

Initially, the city hoped to pay for the expansion via a public/private partnership, but that didn’t pan out.

Over the past year, the proposed funding mechanisms for the project have subsequently shifted from high interest revenue bonds to a voter-approved issuance of general obligation bonds at a much lower interest to — finally — a low interest loan from the Texas State Infrastructure Bank.

Yerena said he expects the project to go out for construction bids sometime next spring.

In the meantime, over at Donna City Hall, Jorge Peña will serve as his temporary replacement until a new and permanent city manager can be found.

Peña comes to Donna from Hidalgo County Precinct 1, where he currently serves as the assistant chief administrator for Commissioner David Fuentes.

Peña was enthusiastic about the chance to work for the city of Donna.

“It’s an opportunity to come and do good things in Donna,” Peña said.

The interim city manager already has some familiarity with the city, too.

As part of his work with Precinct 1, Peña has been overseeing the construction of a massive hike-and-bike trail that will connect the Mid-Valley from Weslaco through Donna and into Precinct 2.

As a registered nurse, licensed paramedic and self-described “entrepreneur,” Peña has also run what he called a “9-1-1 company” in Donna in the past.

When Peña saw Tuesday’s meeting agenda and saw that the city would be entertaining the appointment of an interim city manager, he reached out and put his name in.

Peña said he looks forward to guiding Donna through its pending projects and helping the city find a new administrator.

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