PEDO EN EL EJIDO: JOE DITCHES LETTY PEREZ, SYLVIA IN

By Juan Montoya
Word has reached us that the three-decades long working relationship between Cameron County Clerk (and Democratic Party county judge nominee in November) and his administrative assistant Letty Perez has come to an unamicable end.
Perez, who publicly expressed her disappointment when her boss Rivera did not back her to run for the position he was leaving when he chose to run for the county judge in the primary, then supported Arnold Flores for county clerk.
Rivera, who had reached an agreement with Sylvia Garza-Perez to switch from her bid for county judge and run for county clerk instead, then threw his support behind her instead of his longtime employee and confidante.
Now, most Cameron County politicians expect a certain sense of loyalty to their decisions from their underlings, and apparently the fact that Perez was backing the opponent of his candidate did not sit well with Joe.
That led to a strained relationship between Perez and  Rivera which culminated in Perez taking family leave and then  upon returning – also taking vacations, only yo find out she no longer was employed with the county.
At yesterday' s meeting of the Cameron County Commissioners Court, Joe presented employee Jose Tovar with a service resolution for his work on the county's investment program. Many people took if for granted that Sandra Sanchez, on Joe's left, would be present, as well as Tovar, the award receiver.
Sanchez, by the way, is the daughter of Gloria Moreno, a longtime influential political activist in Cameron Park.
But what people were asking themselves was why Garza-Perez was asked to pose with the resolution award with Rivera. Our sources tell us that – a la Ernie Hernandez and John Wood – Garza-Perez will soon be on the county clerk office payroll. When Wood lost in his race for county judge and Hernandez won the Democratic Party nomination, Pct. 2's administrative asst. Carlos Cisneros resigned due to a altercation with his wife in S. Padre Island. Wood then had Hernandez serve in that capacity pending his installment as Pct. 2 commissioner.
If so, now we know why she was there, then.
We are not Cassandras, mind you, but when you're a candidate to countywide office, the last thing you want to do is make people mad. Letty Perez is a woman of not inconsiderable political clout in Los Fresnos, and a woman scorned is not something to take lightly.
We have also heard rumblings that Perez will file a Texas Workforce complaint against her former boss making allegations that border on the criminal. This is definitely not the time to irk someone who may stand in the way of the critical vote getting needed to be elected for public office.
The rupture, coming as it is just a little over a month before the November election, is just plain bad timing.