Council members discussed limiting city administrator search to male candidates in open session
MARFA — Council members Raul Lara, Eddie Pallarez and Mark Morrison came under fire this week following an exchange they had about limiting the search for a new city administrator to male candidates in the open session of a City Council meeting last Thursday.
Council Member Travis Acreman called for their resignations in the days following, as did many citizens at a subsequent City Council meeting on Tuesday.
The Big Bend Sentinel was not present at the Thursday meeting but obtained the official recording. Council Member Mark Cash was not present. About eight minutes into the meeting, in which the primary topic of discussion was the hiring of a new city administrator — previously called the city manager — Mayor Manny Baeza and Interim City Administrator Kelly Perez left the room to print off missing resumes. No one was sitting in the audience.
After some brief back and forth about the candidates, Pallarez whispers to fellow council members — seemingly forgetting the public meeting is being recorded as is typical — “Guys, I’m looking at males. I’m looking at males,” Pallarez says, laughing and adding, “Shhhh.”
“I didn’t hear nothin’,” Morrison jokes. “I’m just drinking my water here.”
“Because with all these women here,” Lara remarks, later confirming with The Sentinel that he was referring to the central office staff at City Hall.
“But I ain’t saying you’re wrong,” Morrison said, which was then met with more laughter by Pallarez. “Ain’t disagreeing.”
“Absolutely,” replies Lara.
“Just between us men,” Pallarez says.
“And we have to make them understand how our government works,” Lara says before the mayor re-enters the room and proceedings get underway. (Lara was likely referring to the situation with the previous City Manager Andrea Walter who was let go after around a month on the job, with one of the reasons cited by council members being a miscommunication between council and her about who was the chief executive officer of the city –– the city manager or the mayor and City Council.)
There are not currently any women sitting on Marfa’s City Council.
Acreman, who notified The Sentinel about the discriminatory offhand exchange on Thursday, said he was “really distressed by the attitude” fellow council members demonstrated about female candidates.
“I think that my fellow council members’ sentiment demeans and disrespects hard working women,” Acreman said. “Unfortunately for me, there is no apology that can unring this bell, because any action that this council takes from now on is going to be tainted by this gleeful admission of bias, and the only avenue I see is that the council members should resign and step aside and make way for new leadership.”
Acreman called on Mayor Baeza, as the city’s top official, to ask for Lara, Pallarez and Morrison’s resignations from City Council. Baeza did not respond to a request for comment from The Sentinel and did not address the issue at Tuesday night’s meeting, where he was largely absent from proceedings.
When reached for comment Tuesday morning, Lara initially claimed that he had only “overheard” and had not participated in the discussion about narrowing the focus to only male candidates. “That was a conversation that Mark and Eddie were having,” he said.
He stated that because there have been primarily female city administrators in the past, “maybe a man would work better, I don’t know.”
Lara later admitted to his part in the conversation but said the decision on how to move forward is currently in the hiring committee’s hands. The hiring committee, which was set to assess and narrow down a list of finalists, is made up of Mayor Baeza and council members Morrison and Acreman.
“It was just a conversation that we were having, I guess out loud, but it’ll be up to them to decide who makes the cut and who doesn’t,” Lara said.
Morrison told The Sentinel that the discussion “was wrong” and he does not intend to discriminate against any candidates.
“Joking around like that is never appropriate. I shouldn’t have done that,” Morrison said. “Even behind closed doors, [you] shouldn’t joke around like that.”
“Of course we’re not going to be limiting our search to male candidates,” he added. “Or I’m certainly not. I’m looking for a qualified candidate — doesn’t matter male, female, young or old.”
Morrison said he is willing to recuse himself from the city administrator hiring committee if called upon to do so. “If that’s what Council and the city wants and prefers, I’m happy to do that because of my inappropriate comments,” he said.
Pallarez told The Sentinel that there were simply more male candidates presented — of the 10 candidates the mayor sent council members to consider, nine are male. The one woman is on his “short list” of five candidates, he said.
“I know what I said and I know what type of applicants we got,” Pallarez said. “They could take it for whatever they want to take it for, jokingly and not jokingly, or whatever. We got nine out of 10.”
“Acreman is just throwing spaghetti on the wall hoping that something sticks,” he added. “He’s an idiot. All he’s trying to do is make room on the council for his husband, Tony [Georges].” (Acreman recently accused fellow council members and the mayor of firing Walter for being a “whistleblower,” which they denied.)
Pallarez said that he has “nothing against females” and was more eager to hire Walter than any other council member because of her qualifications and managerial potential. “I am no male chauvinist pig,” Pallarez said.
Editors Note: This story has been updated to include additional input from Council Member Pallarez and from Tuesday night’s city council meeting.