Harlingen — During citizen communication at the Nov. 13 joint meeting, resident Diana Garcia Padilla told the Harlingen City Commission and Planning and Zoning Commission she opposes proposed city work on a waterway channel that she says would take additional private land and benefit a single developer.

"My name is Diana Padilla, and I live at 19741 Morris Road. I have 75 acres in organic farm in Harlingen," Padilla said in public comment. She said the dispute began when "Mister Leonard Simmons took part in a decision to transfer easement rights over our property to the city based on a 1912 law that created a regional blanket easement for the irrigation rights." Padilla alleged the transfer allowed the developer to avoid building a detention pond and to profit from selling lots while her family lost land and value.

Padilla named former city engineer Andy Vixto as the designer of the subdivision now owned by Choice Developers, and she said Mayor Boswell has a family tie to the developer. She said the city attorney, Mark Saussi, and city staff have sought access to the property to widen the waterway; she called those access claims and the city's assertion that the area floods "false," saying she has documentation from neighbors showing the property is on higher ground. She said surveyors were temporarily allowed on the land and that the property owners have asked the city to wait for a court decision on the easement's legality. Padilla also said a $40,000 allocation for widening the waterway would "only benefit Mister Simmons."

Padilla said she and neighbors attended a court hearing for an injunction and temporary restraining order; she warned the city that if it proceeds and the owners later prevail they may need to pursue a condemnation claim or litigation.

The statement raised allegations of a conflict of interest and questioned the immediate need for work the city had described as flood mitigation. No formal staff response or vote followed the public comment at the meeting; the matter remains unresolved and was not the subject of a separate agenda item at the Nov. 13 session.