Leno Hernandez highlights decades of city experience in Del Rio campaign

Leno Hernandez is asking Del Rio voters to judge him by the places they already know: the Civic Center, the Paul Poag Theatre and the city offices that keep those buildings running. As the City of Del Rio’s Civic Facilities Manager, Hernandez has built a campaign around nearly three decades inside municipal government, arguing that the city’s day-to-day work should be tested against his record in the rooms where residents actually feel city service.

Hernandez says he has worked for the city for more than 28 years, starting “at the very bottom as a contract laborer” before moving through technical work and into leadership. He says that path gave him a front-row view of how city government operates, including the first video recordings of City Council meetings, a project that helped shape how residents follow public decisions. His résumé also reaches into the back office that often determines whether city services run smoothly. At the Paul Poag Theatre, where he became director in 2004, Hernandez says he learned the budget and purchasing processes that affect how quickly projects move and how carefully public money is spent.

That experience now overlaps with some of the city’s most visible facilities work. The Civic Facilities Department handles city-owned buildings used by the public, including the Civic Center, the Paul Poag Theatre and the San Felipe Springs Multipurpose Facility. The City of Del Rio also issued bids in 2026 for Phase III of the Paul Poag Theatre rehabilitation project at 746 South Main Street, keeping one of Hernandez’s signature venues at the center of the city’s capital planning.

Hernandez’s public profile has long mixed operations with community work. In 2023, Mayor Al Arreola presented him with a certificate of recognition and said Hernandez had been “behind the scenes bringing in entertainers” for Del Rio’s Fourth of July events for the past 12 years. That same recognition said Hernandez was born and raised at Laughlin Air Force Base and attended Southwest Texas Junior College. He has also served as interim Civic Center director, interim Main Street and economic development director, public information officer and emergency management support, while volunteering with nonprofits, civic groups and the Convention and Visitors Bureau board.

Hernandez is running for Del Rio City Council District 2 in the May 2 general election, where he faces David Scarbo. The race is part of a crowded city election season that drew seven council candidates and six mayoral hopefuls. In a city that recently said it secured $17 million in state funding for water infrastructure, including work tied to the San Felipe East Springs Containment Wall and Water Treatment Plant expansion, Hernandez is pitching experience as more than a résumé line. He is presenting it as proof that he already knows how Del Rio’s public machinery works, and where it slows down.