CAPTAIN BOB GOES BALLISTIC OVER $5 MILLION DEBT, NEW TAXES

"I've had a lot of friends call me up and tell me we have to do something about this," he said during a lull in the storm. There's a groundswell out there against this commission. We'll see what happens in the near future. Cortez, mi huachinango!" Capt. Bob Sanchez

By Juan Montoya

The cooks in the back of the kitchen of the Captain Bob's Restaurant on Boca Chica knew something was not kosher when the glass door slammed and Robert Sanchez (Capt. Bob) stormed in the place.
"Now I've seen it all!" he yelled at Cortez, his circumspect administrator. "(Mayor Tony) Martinez and the new guys come in to office at the city commission and the first thing they do is to issue more than $5 million in COs (certificates of obligation). Now they say they want to raise city property taxes by 6 percent! Can you believe it."
Cortez, who has developed a Teflon-like quality when he sees the Captain in a foul mood, smoothly moved over the chair behind the large wooden desk near the kitchen door and moved his head sideways making disapproving noises.
"Que esperas, Roberto?" he said. "Son politicos."
That usually worked before, but now Cortez could see that the Captain was mortified beyond the usual soft nothings.
"If they had told us during the campaign that they were going to issue millions in debt and raise taxes, do you think that anyone would have voted for them?," Sanchez exploded, standing up behind the desk. "I bet you a shrimp plate they wouldn't have dared. Now they're in and we've got to put up with them for another four years. Four years! Can you believe it? No tienen verguenza!"
Sanchez, who was once the chairman of the Public Utilities Board and ran for the city commission before said he has been contacted by many people who saw Martinez signs in his restaurants (he also allowed Pat Ahumada to put signs there) tell him they're hugely disappointed in the mayor's performance in the first 100 days.
"They are calling him the Stealth Mayor because they say he is nowhere to be found," Sanchez raved. "At least Pat was out there even if it was saving some poor stray from the streets. "Martinez is Missing In Action."
When he's in this condition, people who know Robert know that he has threatened in the past to launch his candidacy for city commission again. Although he had promised his parents that his political life was over, the news coming from the commission and their plans to burden the city with yet more taxes is pushing him close to the edge.
"I've had a lot of friends call me up and tell me we have to do something about this," he said during a lull in the storm. There's a groundswell out there against this commission. We'll see what happens in the near future. Cortez, mi huachinango!"
In the kitchen, the cook smiled and removed a nice red fish from the cooler. The storm had abated for now.