CARLOS GARCIA: CHRONICLE OF A "FIX" FORETOLD AS PORT POLICE CHIEF

By Juan Montoya
As we first reported here Oct. 18, Brownsville Chief of Police Carlos Garcia was a shoo-in for Port of Brownsville's director of security.
It didn;t matter that there were 25 other candidates for the position, the scuttlebutt at the port indicated that Garcia had the inside track on the plum position even before the application period had elapsed.
And, as was the case when we initially reported the item, Garcia had not told the city commissioners or city manager that he had applied for the position. Now we find out that he has not told the port administration and board whether he will take the position at the Gilded ditch.
At $107,966 (plus benefits), Garcia is the third-highest paid city employee only behind City manager Charlie Cabler at $159,120 (an ex-cop himself) and Assistant City Manager for Finance Pete Gonzales, at $115,696.

As the finalist for the position of Chief of Police with the Brownsville Navigation District, he will oversee seven police officers and handle matters of Homeland Security. Is this a step up?

Not really.

The position of chief over at the Ditch is a Professional Employee 3 (PE3). The minimum salary is $52,743.60 and the maximum is $92,301.30, to be negotiated withe the eventual candidate selected.

Now, unless BND chairman John Reed single-handedly (and arbitrarily) ups the ante and raises the salary to match his buddy's current take, it will definitely mean a step down in salary for Garcia of almost $15,000.

There are some perks, however.

While Garcia was responsible for about 250 police officers in a city of almost 200,000, he will now be the head of a formidable seven-officer force and ride herd on a dwindling port force that has steadily decreased from a high of almost 6,000 workers in the different port leasees to a number estimated to hover between 2,000 to 3,000.

Va a ser papita, bro Chale!

This is not much different from the pattern set by former BPD chief Ben (Benigno) Reyna. Reyna – through the good offices of former U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz – was named head of the U.S. Marshal's Service after a non-descript stint in Browntown. He later was jettisoned from the Marshal's Service after he performed dismally in the protection of federal judges, notably in the case of a Chicago federal judge whose relatives were threatened by criminals.

After that dismal performance, there was a little space made for Reyna at Juliet Garcia's UTB-TSC and a spot was created for him as Special Assistant to the Provost for Federal Relations at a respectable $108,233 plus benefits. Talk about rewarding failure!

Someone said that the City of Los Fresnos and La Feria actually had a bigger population than the port. At Los Fresnos, the salary range is from $30,000 to $40,000 when the town isn't broke.

Garcia leaves his position for the safety of the port when his department has come under scrutiny after it failed to report that Zetas had been shooting it out by the airport, that an excessive force complaint has been filed against it and its administrators for allowing the shooting of a mentally impaired man after officers staked out his house and charged with guns blazing and killed hi.

Come to think of it, the most that Garcia will face out there may be a disgruntled shrimper, although they can be pretty tough cookies.