"MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES..."

By Juan Montoya

On a day when supporters of Brownsvilll Mayor Pat Ahumada were rejoicing and praising the judicial system for his acquittal on three felony charges related to his deposit of a $26,000 check issued by the city to a vendor in his personal account, down the hallway a judge was deciding whether the notorious case of a man who is accused of murdering his three children would be heard in Cameron County.

And outside in the city, residents learned that the unemployment rate in the city was second highest only to Hidalgo County in comparison with the rest of the state and nation.

A state jury found Ahumada innocent of theft, abuse of official capacity, and misapplication of fiduciary property. His acquittal means that he can now move forward to complete his mayoral term. But the mayor is destined to limp along for the remainder of his term with a deeply divided commission.

The question of just how the check came into Ahumada's possession was never fully explained. No one explained to the people how the check got from the finance department, into Ahumada's mail and personal papers, and then into his hands.

After being a city since 1848, can it be possible that a simple city function like paying a vendor for services rendered can escalate into a debacle that threatened to topple a duly elected public official? Is this yet another function that City Manager Charlie Cabler is still "fine-tuning?"

That a simple function like paying your suppliers could reach the point where a jury could remove a person elected by the people from office for a "mistake" is simply frightening.

Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos is going to take a hit on this one, and Ahumada made sure he got in his digs about the DA's inability to prosecute anyone for the $21 million missing from the Brownsville Navigation District's rial-truck Bridge to Nowhere.

In that case, Villalobos negotiated a settlement with Dannenbaum Engineering that left his office with a $1 million payoff and the BDN taxpayers high and dry.

Mando did not have a good day.

And, should Rubio be sent out of the city for a trial, it'll be because of prosecutorial mistakes made during the first trial that got a conviction only for it to be overturned by a court of appeals.

Rubio wail probably be tried elsewhere because his lawyers will argue that the massive pre-trial publicity and revulsion in the case means that he cannot possibly get a fair trial.

Mando has steadfastly refused to seek a life without parole sentence insisting instead to opt for the sexier death penalty in the case. Either way, there's nothing that is going to bring back the children who were murdered, and then decapitated with knifes, allegedly by Rubio and his wife.

Can there possibly be a happy ending to this tragedy?

The defense attorneys wail continue to be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the taxpayers of the county, as will the prosecutors under Mando. Inevitably, the case will drag on and on, even if they secure a conviction.

Or how about the tragedy facing the jobless in the city?

Texas officials were giddy with delight to announce that the state's 8.2 percent unemployment rate was lower than the national percentage of 9.7 percent.

Only the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission rate of 12.2 was higher than Brownsville's 11.5, a small consolation for many who have been seeking work without success.

"It means that I'll probably have to leave the Valley to look for work somewhere else," said a job applicant at the Workforce Center on Old Alice Road. "That means the kids won't have the supervision they need and I won't be around to make sure everything running smoothly."

It was a day of jubilation for Ahumada, a continuing drag on the taxpayers because of Rubio, and a bleak future for those who try to find a job in the city.