Police chief sues Rio Grande City, claims the City Commission violated the Texas Open Meetings Act

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Police Chief Noe Castillo filed a lawsuit against Rio Grande City on Friday, claiming the City Commission violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The City Commission met on Nov. 12 to discuss “personnel matters.” Less than 24 hours later, the city manager suspended Castillo for gross misconduct.

Castillo responded with a lawsuit, which claims the city failed to “provide adequate notice of discussions or deliberations regarding Castillo’s employment.”

The lawsuit asks state District Judge Jose Luis Garza to void the suspension and stop the City Commission from discussing Castillo behind closed doors.

“Now they’re afforded transparency,” said attorney Jay Peña of Rio Grande City, who represents Castillo. “And I think that’s what the public needs too.”

Castillo serves on the Rio Grande City Grulla school board.

In 2022, when he ran for re-election, Castillo defeated local businessman Ediel Barrera by fewer than 300 votes.

Two years later, Barrera won a seat on the Rio Grande City Commission — and became Castillo’s boss.

Barrera campaigned with Mayor Gilberto Falcon and Commissioner Eudolio “Nune” Barrera III. They promised to bring “Independent Leadership” to Rio Grande City.

“It’s no secret that Mr. Castillo was a target of the Independent Leaders campaign,” Peña said.

In September, four months after they won, Castillo received a reprimand for allegedly failing to follow Rio Grande City’s personnel policies.

Rumors circulated that Castillo would be fired.

On Nov. 12, the City Commission discussed “personnel matters” in executive session, a part of the meeting that isn’t public.

“We discussed some items and took some action regarding personnel matters during executive session,” Falcon said when the City Commission returned to public session. “I ask that we make a motion to approve those items as discussed and approved in executive session.”

The motion passed 3-0.

“And the personnel matters will be addressed by our city manager,” Falcon said.

Less than 24 hours later, City Manager Gilberto Millan Jr. suspended Castillo.

Millan presented Castillo with a letter dated Nov. 12 that accused him of “gross misconduct.”

Castillo served as the de facto city manager from November 2020 to June 2024. During that period, Millan said Rio Grande City could not account for nearly $1 million worth of water.

“You’re the administrator,” Millan said. “You’re supposed to know what’s going on with all the departments — and fix it.”

Peña disagreed.

“How, exactly, can you attribute that to Mr. Castillo?” Peña said. “Especially where the issue has never come up before.”

Peña said the City Commission just wanted to find a reason to fire Castillo.

“What they did was: They found some type of deficiency in the engineering of the public works system throughout the city,” Peña said. “And they found a way to try to attribute that deficiency to my client.”

Falcon, though, said that politics wasn’t a factor in the investigation.

Rio Grande City can’t account for about 40% of the water that moves through the utility system, Falcon said. After conducting an initial inquiry, the city discovered problems with several large water accounts, including South Texas College and the Starr County Sheriff’s Office.

“To the point where my personal water bill was higher than some of those entities,” Falcon said.

Rio Grande City determined that faulty water meters caused the problem.

“We don’t know if they were faulty themselves or they were not properly calibrated,” Falcon said.

It’s not clear who knew about the problem and why Rio Grande City didn’t fix the faulty water meters.

Falcon said large accounts that didn’t receive proper bills accounted for 15% to 20% of the missing water.

“Once the investigation is complete all the evidence is going to be presented to him to justify the suspension,” Falcon said. “And possibly his termination.”