The La Joya City Council fired police Chief Adolfo Arriaga on Friday, apparently concerned he didn’t meet unspecified city “standards.”

After meeting with City Attorney Roberto Jackson on Friday afternoon, the City Council voted 3-2 to fire Arriaga effective immediately. He will not receive a severance package.

Mayor Isidro Casanova, City Councilman Roger Hernandez and City Councilwoman Laura Mendiola Macias voted for the motion. City Councilwoman Mary Salinas and City Councilman Rey Acosta opposed it.

“There are certain standards that we have here. We felt he wasn’t living up to those standards,” Jackson said. “Not one specific incident, just a plethora of incidents accumulated and we felt it’s in the city’s best interest, the community’s best interest to move on.”

Jackson declined to provide any details about specific incidents that didn’t meet city standards.

“We can discuss that if he wants to contest it in the form of litigation. We can spell it out for him. But we’re just trying to move forward in a friendly way,” Jackson said. “Just ask him to move on. And we’re going to move on. But, if he wants to pursue his rights under the contract, then we have a right to defend ourselves. At that time we’ll be able to be more detailed, more specific as to what’s going on.”

Neither the mayor nor City Councilwoman Mary Salinas would comment on the decision.

Arriaga, who attended the meeting, said he would take legal action against La Joya for terminating him without a good reason.

“I’m going to move forward with litigation,” Arriaga said.

The City Council approved a two-year employment contract with Arriaga in October. The contract allows La Joya to terminate Arriaga for “good cause,” which includes negligence, misconduct and other bad behavior.

In December, however, Casanova defeated Mayor Jose A. “Fito” Salinas and his supporters — including Arriaga’s wife, Dalia, who ran against Mendiola Macias for City Council — during a contentious run-off election.

Under the Casanova administration, La Joya created a new position, emergency management coordinator, and hired former police Chief Ramon Gonzalez to fill it.

In December 2017, when Mayor Salinas controlled the City Council, then-City Administrator Mike Alaniz fired Gonzalez without explanation. La Joya promoted Arriaga, a sergeant, to replace him.

Gonzalez and other police officers said Arriaga wasn’t qualified for the job.

Arriaga had less than six years of law enforcement experience when he became police chief, according to Texas Commission on Law Enforcement records.

Some coworkers mocked Arriaga behind his back, calling him “McNugget” because he had worked at McDonald’s. A coworker accused Arriaga of dishonesty, which sparked an internal investigation.

Gonzalez, meanwhile, took a job in Alton. He applied for the emergency management coordinator position after Casanova won the December 2019 run-off election.

On April 22, the city informed Arriaga that Gonzalez would be his new supervisor. La Joya took away Arriaga’s city-owned truck, a Ford F-150, and gave the truck to Gonzalez.

The city also reprimanded Arriaga twice that day, accusing him of failing to properly manage overtime for police officers and participating in a drive-by birthday parade without permission.

Arriaga disagreed with both reprimands and filed a lengthy rebuttal.

La Joya fired him on Friday, about two months after the reprimands. Gonzalez will serve as interim police chief.