Carrizo Springs city manager Azalia Garcia was fired in a 3-2 council vote, and even she says she does not know why. Garcia, who had led the South Texas city for nearly three years, left the meeting immediately after the vote, telling reporters afterward, “I'm disappointed.”
The termination unfolded with almost no warning, according to KABB, which reported that Garcia was in the middle of building the council's own meeting agenda when a request for her firing and replacement landed on it. She received two separate agenda item requests on August 31, one of them submitted by council member Anika Santana seeking to terminate the city manager's contract. Santana said at the time that she would discuss the termination at a later date, per the same report.
Garcia said she had not been approached about any performance or work issues before the vote, and that the council members who supported her termination refused to give just cause when she pressed them. “I asked the council to identify its concerns,” she said, according to the station's account, adding that she received no warning or reason for the firing. Carrizo Springs has not responded to the outlet's request for more information about the decision.
Public Comments Turn Sharp Before the Vote
Community members packed the meeting to support Garcia, with several praising her dedication to her hometown. One community member told the council that a personality conflict or disagreement should not automatically justify removing a city manager who was producing measurable results, while another described the council's conduct as dirty behavior, according to KABB's reporting.
The friction was not entirely new. Municipal meeting minutes from February show a resident had already raised concerns that city employees felt harassed under Garcia's administration, with council members at the time encouraging staff to raise issues directly, according to City of Carrizo Springs records. Garcia had been appointed to the position in December 2023, according to management transition records tracked by the Texas City Management Association.
Water Crisis and Grant Work Cited by Supporters
Supporters pointed to Garcia's record managing the city's water system as evidence of her effectiveness. During her tenure in 2024, she worked with the Water Finance Exchange to secure grant funding and implement digital planning tools aimed at reducing high rates of municipal water loss, according to the organization's own account of the initiative.
That work came under a harsh spotlight just weeks before her firing. In August, severe flooding wrecked pumps, panels, and chlorinators at the Carrizo Springs water plant, forcing emergency boil-water restrictions before repairs were completed, as Hoodline previously reported. Garcia's administration was overseeing that recovery in the immediate run-up to the council's vote to remove her.
A Familiar Face Steps Into City Hall
In Garcia's place, the council immediately instated Frank Ponce Sr., a former Dimmit County Judge, as interim city manager, with a suggested starting salary of $80,000. Ponce is a licensed Texas attorney who has practiced law since 1982 and ran in the Democratic primary runoff for county judge earlier this year, according to Ballotpedia. He holds a law degree from Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law and maintains an active private law practice on East Nopal Street in Carrizo Springs, per State Bar of Texas records.
Ponce's ties to Carrizo Springs city government run deeper than his own judgeship. He previously served as co-counsel in a wrongful death lawsuit that resulted in a $33 million verdict in 2019, stemming from the 2013 fatal highway crash of former Carrizo Springs City Manager Ramiro Munoz, according to a PR Newswire release from that case.
Open Meetings Law and Unanswered Questions
Texas law allows city councils to deliberate personnel matters, including a city manager's employment, behind closed doors, but any final vote must happen in open session. Under Section 551.074 of the Texas Government Code, that procedural framework is what permitted the council to debate Garcia's contract privately while still requiring the public 3-2 vote that ended her tenure, per guidance published by the Office of the Texas Attorney General. Separately, state law under Section 551.007 guarantees residents the right to address local governing bodies on specific agenda items, which is why community members were able to speak out during the meeting where Garcia's termination was decided.
What triggered the council majority's decision remains unclear, and Garcia's own account is that no cause was ever offered to her. Carrizo Springs sits in Dimmit County, a rural South Texas region where municipal budgets lean heavily on the Eagle Ford Shale energy sector, according to the San Antonio Express-News, a backdrop that has long shaped how tightly the city manages its infrastructure spending. For now, city hall answers to Ponce, while Garcia's exit leaves residents and even the former manager herself without a clear explanation for how her nearly three-year tenure came to such an abrupt end.
