6 finalists named for San Benito city manager position

SAN BENITO - Six people have been named finalists for the vacant city manager job.

The City Commission discussed the 22 applicants in executive session for a little more than an hour.

Mayor Pro Tem Victor Garza motioned that candidates Fabio E. Angell, Eliud Garcia, Edward Gil de Rubio, K.M. Hubert, Manuel Lara and Victor C. Peña be interviewed for the position.

The motion passed unanimously.

Angell is a current Pharr downtown manager and a former urban planner for Edinburg. Angell's salary was not included in his resume packet.

Garcia worked as assistant city manager for San Benito from September 1999 to February 2001 and as interim city manager for three months afterward. While here, he earned $45,000.

Gil de Rubio is a former county manager for Sullivan County, N.H. De Rubio has experience as a municipal manager for Northfield, Vt., with a salary of $103,000.

Hubert is a former city manager for Balch Springs, west of Dallas, where he earned $84,133.

Lara has been the city manager of Mathis, near Corpus Christi, for 10 years. At Mathis, Lara's salary is $78,000, and his education is in drafting and engineering.

Peña is a former interim city manager for Huntsville. His salary there was $103,012.78.

In other city matters, the commission denied a rezoning request for 11.6 acres of land off of Farm-to-Market 509 from agriculture to commercial.

This is the second time the commission denied the request of Dolores Miranda, who has said she wants to open a transmigrante business.

City officials said the area is included in the city's land use study. Until then, city officials said, both staff and the Planning & Zoning board recommended a denial.

Previously, nearby residents pleaded that the request be denied because the narrow road would be a safety hazard.

Miranda, during public comment, claimed to have connections with Gov. Rick Perry and to be a relative of José Natividad González Parás, the governor of Nuevo León, Mexico. She said she would use her connections to get help in rezoning her current agriculture property into commercial.