Harlingen mayor rebuts public accusation, cites city attorney opinion that consultant hire did not violate nepotism rules

Mayor Norma Sepulveda used the citizen-communication portion of the meeting to publicly rebut accusations from a prior meeting that she had helped a relative get hired by Harlingen Water Works.

"The man that he referred to is not my uncle," Sepulveda said, adding that the former commissioner who made the accusation "deliberately lied." She told the commission and the public that Harlingen Water Works is a legally separate entity with its own board of trustees and is not taxpayer-funded in the same way the city is. "While I am a member of the board I'm a non-voting member just like everyone else here on the commission," she said.

Sepulveda said the person at issue, Roy Rodriguez, was hired by the Water Works board as a consultant and later served in an expanded interim role; she said he was not a W-2 employee of the water utility. She also clarified their family relationship: "He is actually my husband's uncle and not mine." She said the former commissioner who raised the accusation knew the facts.

To settle the matter formally, Sepulveda said she asked City Attorney Mark Sasse for a legal opinion. "In short, he basically said that Roy Rodriguez is a contractor, a consultant, not a W-2 employee, works for Harlingen Water Works as a consultant, no blood relationship to myself," she said. She added that under the Texas Government Code and the city charter the relationship did not fall into prohibited degrees of affinity and that no state or local nepotism law was violated.

Sepulveda said she is speaking out because she believes the public forum should not be used to make false criminal accusations against officials. "The former commissioner has the right to stand at this podium as does anyone else and lie," she said, but added that false public accusations that amount to defamation cross a line.

Speakers on record for this item included Mayor Norma Sepulveda and a reference to City Attorney Mark Sasse; the mayor said the legal opinion was prepared by the city attorney and that Harlingen Water Works' board independently hired the consultant.

What happens next: Sepulveda requested and received the attorney's legal determination on the matter and placed the findings on the public record during the meeting.

This article uses only statements made on the record during the Harlingen City Commission meeting.