Downey adds fifth Mexican sister city

Mayor Mario Trujillo visits Guadalajara, Mexico, a Downey sister city, in 2022. The City Council voted Tuesday to make El Grullo, Jalisco, Mexico Downey’s seventh sister city.

DOWNEY — A vote to establish a relationship with the city of El Grullo, Jalisco Mexico, unanimously passed Tuesday but raised questions about the current state of Downey’s sister city program.

The addition came at the request of Downey Sister Cities, a nonprofit organization that works independently of the city and makes recommendations to the city council on what international cities Downey should engage with.

The decision didn’t come easy for the city council, who voiced concerns that Downey hadn’t done much of anything with its current sister cities.

Downey has six sister cities, including Guadalajara, Mexico; Valle of San Quinten, Mexico; Alajuela, Costa Rica; Ensenada, Mexico; Fresnillo, Mexico; and Roscommon, Ireland.

Posed with adding a seventh partnership on Tuesday, councilmembers expressed concerns over the current lack of activity.

“I know there hasn’t been a tremendous amount of movement with the six sister cities that we currently have,” said Councilwoman Claudia Frometa. “I know we welcomed the mayor of Guadalajara [in 2022]… I’m wondering if we are involved in fostering and continuing to develop the ties that we have with the current sister cities, and what is our intent?”

Mayor Mario Trujillo said that it “doesn’t seem like these relationships are a priority for us.”

“We have so much going on here in our city that establishing new sister city relationships, I’ll be honest, has not been my priority,” said Trujillo.

According to Assistant City Manager Vaniah De Rojas, the organization used to meet at Golden Park monthly but has not done so in several months. It is unclear where their membership currently stands.

The organization’s most recent Facebook post, dated July 22, 2022, states that the account has been closed.

Trujillo did mention, however, that he knew of some delegation and travel that had occurred “at least once a year,” especially in connection with Jalisco.

“They are having these exchanges, we’re just not privy to them because they don’t report to us,” said Trujillo.

The Sister City concept was developed in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.