Mayor sues Progreso, claims the city canceled elections ‘for corrupt political power’

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Mayor Hugo Gamboa filed a lawsuit against the city of Progreso on Monday, claiming the city had canceled elections with a “blatant disregard for the City Charter and the Texas Constitution for corrupt political power.”

The lawsuit requests a temporary restraining order that would place three City Council seats on the November ballot, remove City Councilman Javier “Harvey” Morales from office and prevent Assistant City Manager Francisco “Frank” Alanis, who is under indictment on federal drug charges, from serving as the election administrator.

“It’s very unfortunate,” Gamboa said. “But it’s something that has to get done.”

The city of Progreso is governed by a City Council that consists of a mayor and five councilmen. They set the property tax rate, approve the budget and supervise the city manager.

All six members of the City Council, including the mayor, serve three-year terms, according to the city charter.

Progreso had no contested elections between November 2014 and June 2024.

During that period, city administrators lost track of Progreso’s election cycle and started operating with a five-member City Council.

Progreso didn’t address the problem until 2024, when a federal grand jury indicted Mayor Gerardo “Jerry” Alanis on federal drug charges.

Alanis resigned and — for the first time in nearly a decade — voters in Progreso headed to the polls.

They elected Hugo Gamboa, a sergeant in the Texas Army National Guard, to serve the remainder of Jerry Alanis’ term.

When the mayor’s term would end wasn’t clear, thanks to an election mix-up and poor recordkeeping at City Hall.

Alanis, the former mayor, had run unopposed for re-election in November 2020.

In 2022, the city held another election. Alanis ran again, even though he’d only served two years of his three-year term.

Similar questions surfaced about the City Council.

In November 2019, three people — Armando Cavazos, Blas Medrano and Javier “Harvey” Morales — ran for City Council, according to documents the city released under the Texas Public Information Act.

Nobody challenged them. Progreso canceled the election and held a swearing-in ceremony on Nov. 8, 2019.

They were supposed to run for re-election in November 2022. Administrators at City Hall, though, held an election for mayor and two other councilmen instead.

As a result, Cavazos, Medrano and Morales never ran for re-election.

Medrano stopped attending City Council meetings in 2019, according to meeting minutes that Progreso released under the Public Information Act. Cavazos died in December 2023.

Morales, meanwhile, remained a member of the City Council, even though his three-year term ended in November 2022.

The election mix-ups created a major problem for Progreso.

Administrators didn’t know when they needed to hold the next election or which seats needed to appear on the ballot.

When nobody could provide him with answers, Gamboa attempted to untangle the mess himself.

Gamboa concluded three City Council seats — Place 1, Place 3 and Place 5 — should appear on the November ballot. To support his argument, Gamboa provided the City Council with a three-page memo.

Other members of the City Council agreed that Progreso needed to hold an election, but they wanted more information before deciding which seats needed to appear on the ballot.

During a meeting on Aug. 12, the City Council split 3-3.

Half the City Council voted to hold an election for Place 1, Place 3 and Place 5. The other half voted against the motion.

With the City Council deadlocked, Progreso couldn’t hold an election at all.

Gamboa, City Councilwoman Sandra V. Estrada, City Councilman Raul Flores and Stephanie Alegria, a City Council candidate, filed a lawsuit on Monday to break the deadlock.

They sued the city of Progreso, all three councilmen who voted against the motion, City Manager Alfredo Espinosa and Frank Alanis, the assistant city manager.

The lawsuit requests a temporary restraining order against Progreso.

Along with forcing Progreso to hold an election, the restraining order would remove Morales from the City Council.

“The City of Progreso has no evidence that Defendant MORALES was ever elected, ran unopposed, or appointed as a Commissioner,” according to the lawsuit, which also claims that Morales was never sworn in.

In response to public information requests, however, the City Council released the ballot application Morales submitted in 2019 and minutes that documented his swearing-in ceremony.

Morales also provided CBS 4 News with photos of state District Judge Joe Ramirez administering the oath of office.

“That is me in those pictures and I do recall swearing in Harvey that year after his election,” Ramirez said in a text message. “I believe he ran unopposed if memory serves correct.”

The case is assigned to state District Judge Joel Johnson. On Tuesday afternoon, no hearing had been scheduled on the restraining order.