PREMONT, Texas — One of the newly elected Premont City Councilman said he’s not trying to micromanage the city, but is simply responding to citizen's concerns. Tomorrow, the City Council will hold a meeting that will discuss some of the actions taken by Councilman Ricardo Rubio.
The folks in Premont are still recovering from the ice storm that knocked the power out to their homes and water system for days. But things have heated up on social media between Mayor Priscilla Vargas and City Councilman Ric Rubio.
"I think it’s a difference of opinion on how to get things done in our city," Rubio said.
"Our current administration has certain guidelines and protocols they want to follow and they don’t want to step outside that box. My idea is, let’s step outside that box and get things solved and then later on set guidelines and set proposals and set protocols that way we can start moving forward."
Rubio tells 3News that since that ice storm hit, residents have been pointing out to him various city water leaks around town. Some of those city lines have supposedly been running free for nearly 20 years.
Residents told him they had reported them to the City but nothing was ever done.
"I’m not trying to make them look bad; I’m just trying to make them aware that we still have problems in Premont and it’s not just this administration," Rubio said. "It’s many past administrations who overlooked problems and didn’t take any concern and that we’re losing a lot of money and a lot of revenue because we’re not fixing the problems.”
In a back-and-forth Facebook post with Rubio, Mayor Priscilla Vargas indicated that the complaints about leaking water pipes came at a time when the City was recovering from the ice storm.
In the post, the mayor said "this matter should have and would have been addressed once the matters within the city were corrected, however, that’s not the route that this incident happened.”
We tried to contact Mayor Vargas about her statements and whether Rubio had circumvented City protocol. We called City Hall at 10 a.m. and have yet to receive a call back.
Taking a look at the City Council agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting in Premont, it appears that Ric Rubio will be the subject of several discussion items during executive session.
Rubio maintains that he has not been trying to micromanage city departments but merely pointing out problems the city needs to address.
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
More from 3News on KIIITV.com:
- COVID-19 vaccine in the Coastal Bend: Everything you need to know
- LIST: Where water boil notices have been lifted in the Coastal Bend
- H-E-B limiting purchases of certain products to help restore supply after winter storm
- 'Assembly Required': Corpus Christi native stars next to Tim Allen and Richard Karn in new History Channel show