PEE-WEE'S SUSPECT "COMMUNITY" INVOLVEMENT

By Juan Montoya
Our household (as I suspect yours as well) has been inundated with slick ad-agency mail outs lauding Eduardo "Pee-Wee" Rodriguez's "open mind" and "positive approach."
He wants you to vote for him for the position of trustee with the Texas Southmost College.
Don't. Vote for the other guy (Trey Mendez).
We have been skeptical of his claims that he is a respecter of the public's right to know because of his disdain for freedom of the press and other niceties granted the people under the First Amendment.
And we have questioned his right to bar press coverage of public meetings at the PUB based on whether he knows the person, or who they know. In King Eddie's Court, King Eddie rules.
Nonetheless, his card claims he has held several high offices with the Texas Bar Association.
A smiling Pee-Wee grins at you on the front piece, while on the back of the card lists his involvement with his community.
Yet, there is nothing there that tells of how - in the course of helping his "community" - he has often found the time to simultaneously feather his own nest.
We all remember the PUB brouhaha in 2007 when the so-called "insurgents" - Pat Ahumada, Robert Sanchez, the late Dr. Joe Zavaletta and Cris Valadez - attempted to fire Pee-Wee as PUB counsel. The agenda had been prepared weeks in advance and contained an item to hire Jon Schmid as the new board counsel.
Valadez was at the tail end of his appointment to the board. He has been appointed by the city commission on Oct. 7, 2003, but was not sworn into office until the PUB board meeting of Nov. 10, 2003.
By his reckoning - and that of then-city attorney Jim Goza and in-house PUB counsel Jon Schmid - his term didn't expire until Nov. 10.
Likewise, his replacement - Emmanuel Vasquez - was appointed Oct. 2, 2007, but had not been sworn in before the Oct. 18 meeting.
That is, until someone saw the item placed on the agenda for the Oct. 18 meeting. The item dealing with replacing the utility's counsel was to be discussed and action taken on the item. Pee-Wee was to be replaced by Schmid.
When the board met on Oct. 18, rather than give the members a quorum, three board members - Al Viullarreal, Robert Guerra, and the unsworn Vasquez walked out of the meeting, that move apparently orchestrated by former mayor Eddie Trevino, Vasquez's attorney.
Apparently, PUB officials (at Pee-Wee's advice as PUB counsel?) administered the oath to Vasquez in an upstairs room at the PUB castle when it is usually done in the board's meeting room.
A court later ruled that the board's votes on the Oct. 18 meeting were invalid, thereby reinstating Pee-Wee as counsel.
Oh, yeah. That Pee-Wee sure fights for the people. Right?
We are not in the habit of endorsing candidates, but this man is not our idea of someone who will defend our rights. Imagine him defending academic freedom. We can't. Keep him out. We're with Trey.