The South Texas Alliance of Cities launched in 2023 with the goal of fostering greater cooperation and collaboration among communities in addressing key issues.

The partnership appears to be off to a good start. The majority of the communities in the pact are in the Rio Grande Valley although it does extend to San Antonio. That city’s mayor, Ron Nirenberg, has attended some of the alliance’s quarterly meetings. The focus has been on larger cities for the most part. Meetings thus far have taken place in San Antonio, Edinburg, Mission, Weslaco and most recently, McAllen.

One offshoot – a welcome one – is the recent inclusion of smaller South Texas communities into the group. Mayors from Alice, Premont and Palmview have attended recent alliance meetings, coming away impressed and grateful for ideas that can be gleaned from larger communities.

“Just being here, I’m enjoying it, but at the same time taking ideas,” said Ricardo Villarreal, the mayor of Palmview. “I’ve been texting and emailing and writing notes that I’m sure our city is going to appreciate and our citizens are going to appreciate as well.”

Getting Attention

In late May 2023, the mayors of Brownsville, Edinburg, Harlingen and Mission signed a compact and pledged “direct unified efforts in advocacy, policy and economic development toward mutual goals that are important for the future of our communities.”

Alliance members meet quarterly in a city that is part of the group. The most recent meeting in late September in McAllen included a visit from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. McAllen, like other host cities, used the meeting to highlight its issues and aspirations. Part of the day’s activities included a visit to Quinta Mazatlán, a venue in McAllen for birding and eco-tourism.

“When you have an organization like this one, they start paying a little more attention to you now that we’re working as a region,” said McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos of the visit by the Texas governor. 

The key issues that cut across all communities are those connected to water, transportation, infrastructure and education when it pertains to producing more of a job-ready workforce. Each of these issues is costly in terms of the vast amounts of public resources it takes to make headway on any one of these topics. Resources are taken from different funding buckets be it national, state or local sources. Taking on such huge issues in tandem with other cities can often lead to faster results.

“Edinburg is one of the Valley’s fastest-growing cities,” Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr. said. “We now have over 100,000 residents, but we cannot do it alone no matter how much we grow. We need our neighboring cities and in working together to advocate for things that will help our cities and our region.”

Counting On Each Other

Knowing of each other’s strategies and approaches can make for a united front when they address the governor and other statewide officials.

“We’ve gotten to know what each one is doing in our areas,” Mission Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza said. “We know we can count on each other for help and support.”

The larger cities of the alliance are now more likely to take on those big-ticket projects in a more unified manner. Drainage, for example, is one significant issue Edinburg and McAllen have collaborated on given how those projects are connected to water districts and canals that serve both communities. 

For the smaller cities, that sort of collaboration can be inspiring as they reach to get a bit of the growth and development their larger neighbors are experiencing.

“I feel like a sponge at these meetings,” said Villarreal, the Palmview mayor. “I’m going to take a lot of the ideas that I picked up here. We’re going to continue to build and get more ideas from the big cities.”