No-show mayor ousted from Sullivan City

SULLIVAN CITY - Officials here say the mayor stopped showing up for city meetings in October 2007.

Thursday, they voted to remove Gumaro "Maro" Flores, 73, from his office for "unexcused absences," two months before he is to run for re-election.

"It's nothing personal against Mr. Flores," said Commissioner Oscar "Coach" Salinas. "A lot of our people attend the meetings and they're always asking, ‘Where's the mayor?'"

Flores, whose son is state Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview, had been mayor of this town of 4,400 on the Starr-Hidalgo county line since it incorporated in 1997.

In 2007, however, Maro Flores' allies on the City Commission were defeated by first-time candidates Salinas and Resendo "Cheno" Benavides.

After the first three or four meetings that year - which Salinas said were contentious - the outnumbered Maro Flores stopped showing up to them in October 2007, Salinas said.

Maro Flores did not return a message or answer two calls for comment to his cell phone Thursday. According to city records, Thursday marked the 24th consecutive city meeting he had missed.

As a small "general law" city, Sullivan City in 2007 had only a mayor and two commissioners - and no attendance requirements for any officer. But in November, voters certified a new "home rule" charter.

The new charter created two new seats on the commission - slated to be filled in May's city elections - as well as a requirement that elected officials offer valid excuses for their absences or face removal after three missed meetings.

Despite Maro Flores' absenteeism, he was the first to file for re-election in February, along with a slate of four allies. He is set to face Benavides and a third mayoral candidate, Bobby Roderick, on May 9.

New city attorney Ricardo Gonzalez said the charter allows the commissioners to appoint a new mayor at their next meeting, but Benavides said he would rather wait for the voters to choose one.

Eager locals began to fill the small city fire station's common room 15 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin Thursday, but Rita Flores said the group of 30-plus regularly attends city meetings and wasn't there to see the mayor removed.

"There's not much to do," she joked.

Residents noted that in Maro Flores' absence, Salinas and Benavides have updated the city's audits, freeing up federal grant money for three new fire trucks - money that had been withheld for lack of proper accounting in the small town.