Did You Know the RGV Already Has a Mayors' Alliance? Here Is Who Sits on It, and Who Does Not
Twenty-one mayors and three county judges. That is how many signed the Rio Grande Valley Alliance Compact with Gov. Greg Abbott on Aug. 17, 2023, according to the Governor's Office. The Valley has 47 cities.
The compact is one of at least four regional bodies where Valley leaders say they speak for the region together. Three names show up again and again at the top of them: Brownsville Mayor John Cowen Jr., McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos and Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda.
That overlap is not a scandal. Regional bodies are often led by the mayors of the biggest cities. But it does raise two fair questions. Why are most Valley mayors not at these tables? And when billion-dollar industry arrives, why is there so little on the public record from the alliance that says it speaks for the region?
Here is what the record shows.
THE TRANSPORTATION BOARD
The Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization is the federally required body that plans and prioritizes transportation money for the region. Its Transportation Policy Board makes the decisions.
The MPO's website lists Cowen as chair and Villalobos as vice chair. It also lists Sepulveda as a member, along with the mayors of Pharr, Edinburg, Mission and San Benito, the Cameron County judge, a Hidalgo County commissioner, the Starr County judge, two regional mobility authorities, TxDOT and the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council.
The board's own minutes complicate the website. Minutes from October 2025 record Cowen being elected chair and McAllen City Manager Isaac Tawil, not Villalobos, being elected vice chair. Minutes from several meetings list Villalobos as McAllen's designee with a city staff member attending as his proxy.
The current board page does not list a seat for the mayors of Weslaco, Mercedes, Donna, Edcouch, Elsa or most of the Valley's smaller cities.
THE COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS
The Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council is the state-designated council of governments for Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties. It handles regional programs ranging from transit and 911 to economic development planning.
Sepulveda presided over its board as president in 2024 and into 2025, according to LRGVDC agendas. Mission Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza was later elected president.
Cowen and Villalobos have both sat on that board. Minutes from the Aug. 27, 2025 meeting list Sepulveda, Cowen, Villalobos and Hidalgo County Commissioner Ellie Torres as absent.
In 2023, the LRGVDC board named Cowen its "Immediate Past President," a title the Rio Grande Guardian noted he received even though he had never served as the council's president.
THE MAYORS' ALLIANCE
The South Texas Alliance of Cities is the group that most directly fits the description of a mayors' alliance. It was formally created in May 2023 in Harlingen, when the mayors of Brownsville, Edinburg, Harlingen and Mission signed a compact pledging unified advocacy and economic development work. Brownsville's mayor at the time was Trey Mendez. Cowen took office later that year.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg was credited with the idea. Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza served as the first chair. Cowen succeeded him in 2025.
Published descriptions of the alliance name San Antonio, Laredo, Mission, Edinburg, McAllen, Weslaco, Harlingen and Brownsville as member cities. So all three mayors in this story belong to it, Harlingen included. Mayors from smaller cities such as Palmview have attended meetings, and the group said in 2024 that it planned to recruit smaller cities.
The alliance meets quarterly. Coverage of those meetings describes discussions of water, drought, immigration policy, border perceptions, workforce, housing and state and federal advocacy. Abbott joined its McAllen meeting in September 2024, and the mayors placed a call to the White House during a Brownsville meeting that year.
Published membership lists do not name Pharr, San Benito, Mercedes, Donna, Rio Grande City, Raymondville, Port Isabel or South Padre Island. Those lists say "including," so they may not be complete. That is exactly why the alliance should publish its full membership.
THE GOVERNOR'S COMPACT AND RIOPLEX
The Rio Grande Valley Alliance Compact came out of the first RGV Economic Summit, hosted by the Rio Grande Valley Partnership at Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg. It was part of the Partnership's "One Region, One Voice" campaign. Sepulveda and Garza helped organize the event, and Cowen spoke at the press conference. Valley Business Report described the summit as largely symbolic, with no breakout sessions to reach specific agreements.
RioPlex is a branding effort, not a government body. It was created by a business-led CEO Group and adopted by the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force to market the Valley and northern Tamaulipas to investors as one region. The Rio Grande Guardian reported that Cowen was among the elected officials backing it.
WHERE IS THE RECORD ON BIG INDUSTRY?
The Valley is in the middle of an industrial buildout. NextDecade's Rio Grande LNG has said its first two phases alone would cost about $18 billion. Texas LNG is planned at the Port of Brownsville. SpaceX keeps expanding at Starbase. Data center proposals have reached Harlingen and Brownsville, where the city has paused new data centers, as The 956 Report has covered.
Each of those projects touches more than one city. They draw on the same river water, the same air shed, the same roads and the same power grid.
In the news coverage, city press releases and meeting records reviewed for this story, The 956 Report found no public position, resolution or recorded discussion by the South Texas Alliance of Cities on LNG, SpaceX or data centers. That review was not exhaustive. It is possible those conversations happened and were not reported. That is the point. If they happened, residents cannot find them.
There is a structural reason for that. The MPO and the LRGVDC are public bodies that post agendas and minutes. The alliance appears to work differently. The 956 Report could not locate a public agenda archive, minutes or a membership roster for it. Whether its quarterly meetings fall under the Texas Open Meetings Act is a question the alliance should answer directly.
This is analysis, not an accusation. Nothing here suggests any official acted improperly. It does suggest that the group built to give the Valley one voice has, so far, left little public trace on the decisions residents are most likely to feel.
SOURCES
RGVMPO Transportation Policy Board page: rgvmpo.org/committees/transportation-policy-board
RGVMPO Policy Board minutes, October 2025 and 2026 meetings: rgvmpo.org
LRGVDC board agendas, 2024 and Feb. 26, 2025; board packet with Aug. 27, 2025 minutes: lrgvdc.org
City of Brownsville news releases, 2023 and Sept. 25, 2025: brownsvilletx.gov
Texas Border Business, STAC compact and Cowen chair coverage, 2023 and May 2025
Valley Business Report, "Alliance Gives South Texas Higher Profile" and "RGV Economic Summit Promotes Unity"
City of San Antonio news release, Nov. 6, 2023
KRGV and Fox RGV coverage of STAC quarterly meetings, 2024
The Monitor (myrgv.com) and The Rider (UTRGV) coverage of the Aug. 17, 2023 RGV Economic Summit
The Texas Tribune, RioPlex coverage, July 2024
Rio Grande Guardian, RioPlex and LRGVDC coverage
San Antonio Express-News (mySA), South Texas industrial investment coverage
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