Willacy County Navigation District plans to audit Port Mansfield leases

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The Willacy County Navigation District may audit roughly 150 leases in Port Mansfield amid concerns about conflicts of interest.

Questions about the leases simmered throughout 2024 — and exploded during the November election cycle. To address the concerns, Commissioner Alberto Treviño suggested an external audit.

“This audit, specifically for the lease agreements, is making sure that everyone is paying their fair share,” Treviño said.

The navigation district owns Port Mansfield, a tiny fishing town on the Laguna Madre.

Anyone who wants to build a home or start a business in Port Mansfield must lease property from the navigation district.

How much they pay depends on where the property is located. People who lease property on the waterfront or the harbor are supposed to pay a premium.

In 2024, when six candidates ran for two seats on the navigation district board, questions surfaced about whether board members had received special treatment or sweetheart deals.

Port Director Ron Mills reviewed the allegations.

Some, including an allegation leveled against former board Chairman Chad Kinney, simply didn’t hold water, Mills said. Concerns about a subdivision, though, prompted additional questions.

“There were some questions that came up,” Mills said. “So I’m like: ‘Alright, that’s valid.’”

During a meeting in November, the navigation district board authorized Mills to start the process.

“I was asked to pursue the idea of having a third-party auditor review all the lease files,” Mills said during the meeting on Nov. 13. “Which I am totally and completely onboard with. I think it’s a great idea.”

Mills said he wanted the auditor to review all 800-odd leases for property in Port Mansfield.

“I know of at least three that I believe are not correct,” Mills said. “That needs to be verified by somebody else, but I believe they’re not currently correct.”

An external auditor reviews the navigation district’s financial statements every year, Treviño said, but the audit doesn’t focus on leases.

“We are human. It might have been that somebody missed something,” Treviño said. “And that’s why they put that eraser on that pencil. We’re going to correct it. We’re going to fix it. We’re going to move forward.”

The board directed Mills to solicit quotes or bids from auditors.

In December, however, Mills asked the board for additional instructions.

Mills said he’d spoken with Carr, Riggs & Ingram, the navigation district’s auditor.

The audit could cost $150,000 or more, Mills said, depending on what, exactly, the navigation district wanted auditors to review.

“Right now it’s too vague. If we just say: ‘Hey, do an audit on these files.’ What does that look like?” Mills said during the meeting on Dec. 11. “They want us to put together something that says: What are we looking for in this audit?”

Mills suggested the board narrow the audit to leases of waterfront and harbor-front property. That would limit the audit to roughly 150 of the navigation district’s 800-odd leases.

Members of the board agreed to limit the scope of the audit, but they directed Mills to make sure the audit covered rates and property descriptions.

“That way we make sure that the property people are using, they actually own,” said board Chairman Eric Kennedy.

In an interview, Mills said the audit would involve a two-step process.

“We’ll do an in-house review just to see what our numbers look like, make sure everything looks relatively normal,” Mills said. “And then we’ll turn it over to whoever we bid it out with and let that company do a detailed dig.”

The navigation district may start accepting proposals from auditors in January or February.