Faced with suspension or termination, Progreso city manager announces his retirement

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Faced with the prospect of being suspended or fired, Progreso City Manager Alfredo Espinosa announced his retirement Wednesday after more than two decades at City Hall.

Espinosa sent an email to Mayor Hugo Gamboa on Wednesday morning, announcing that Dec. 31 would be his last day.

“I’m going to be 65 in about two weeks,” Espinosa said. “And that’s always been the plan: To get to 65 and that’s it.”

Espinosa sent the email just eight minutes before Progreso posted a meeting agenda for Saturday that included: “Discussion, consideration and (sic) of the City Manager resignation and or suspension of City Manager or Notice of Termination to the City Manager, Alfredo Espinosa.”

Along with his retirement, suspension or termination, the agenda included the appointment of an interim city manager.

Espinosa said the agenda had no influence on his decision.

“From the very beginning, the mayor, when he came in, I told him I was going to turn 65 in December,” Espinosa said. “And that was it.”

Espinosa, a soft-spoken accountant, attended elementary school in Progreso, graduated from Weslaco High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1985, the Progreso Independent School District hired Espinosa to handle accounting.

Espinosa left Progreso ISD in 1987 and moved to Eugene, Oregon, where he worked as an accountant for a janitorial company.

In 1993, he returned to Progreso and became a self-employed accountant.

The city of Progreso hired Espinosa as the city manager in 2001, according to a job application released under the Texas Public Information Act.

“I didn’t have a job at the time,” Espinosa said. “I applied and, you know, just got lucky.”

The job paid $10 per hour, Espinosa said. At the time, Progreso had major financial problems.

“They would not send their deductions to the IRS,” Espinosa said.

Progreso negotiated a deal with the government, Espinosa said, and implemented a new accounting system.

During the next two decades, the city paved nearly every street in Progreso, opened a new public safety building and paid for park improvements.

Progreso also suffered through a series of scandals.

In 2002, a grand jury charged Omar L. Vela, who served on the Board of Aldermen, with illegal voting.

Vela allegedly participated in a conspiracy to allow someone without legal status in the United States to vote under another person’s name, according to documents filed with the Hidalgo County District Clerk’s Office. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor but received deferred adjudication.

The controversy attracted statewide attention but apparently didn’t hurt Vela, who became the mayor.

Vela, his father and his brother Michael pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in 2014.

They accepted more than $300,000 in bribes from people who did business with Progreso ISD and the city, according to documents filed by federal prosecutors.

Vela wasn’t the only mayor of Progreso who found himself in federal court.

Prosecutors charged Mayor Arturo Aleman, who served from 2014 to 2017, and Mayor Gerardo “Jerry” Alanis, who served from 2017 to 2024, with participating in a conspiracy that involved hundreds of pounds of cocaine.

Aleman pleaded guilty. Alanis is scheduled for trial in January.

Espinosa, who served under all three mayors, said he attempted to avoid the limelight.

“There’s enough pressure to meet payroll and bills and all that,” Espinosa said.

Espinosa, though, also had run-ins with the law.

From 2006 to 2015, he was charged with drunken driving on five different occasions. His fifth arrest resulted in a felony conviction.

Espinosa kept his job. By 2024, the city was paying him more than $100,000 a year.

In June, however, voters elected Mayor Hugo Gamboa, who promised to clean up City Hall.

Espinosa started talking about retirement.

Voters returned to the polls on Nov. 5, when Gamboa and his supporters won a majority on the City Council. Espinosa announced his retirement 15 days after the election.

“I wish the new administration well,” Espinosa said. “And anything that they need, I’ll be happy to help them.”

City Councilwoman Sandra V. Estrada, who campaigned with Gamboa, thanked Espinosa for his service to Progreso but said the community is ready for change.

“He did a good job of keeping the city going. Let’s leave it at that,” Estrada said. “And I’m sure the citizens of Progreso will be excited, just because that is what they’re looking for — they want to start new.”

The City Council may appoint an interim city manager on Saturday.