ERNIE HERNANDEZ GOES TO THE DOGS: HE'S AT IT AGAIN, MA

By Juan Montoya

Like a recurring bad novela, Cameron County Precinct 2 Commissioner Ernie Hernandez is making a move to advance his daughter Erin's political prospects at the expense of poor families in the county's forgotten extreme east side.

Just as he did last month when he pulled his longtime support at the last moment and folded to the vocal anti-toll road crowd against the Westside Parkway, Ernie is now sniffing at the potential political benefits that he could accrue if he appears to be in support for an animal shelter from the animal-rights crowd.

Now he's proposing to change the allocation of the some $1 million from the $23.6 million bond issuance approved by the county commissioners last year.

He is proposing to give up his $500,00 allocated for an Olmito Community Center and have Pct. 1 Commissioner Sofie Benavides give up the rest from her $1.4 million allocation for the Pete Benavides Park and Browne Road Social Center improvements.

That center – the cornerstone of years of service from the late commissioner and his widow Sofia to the Southmost community – has been an ongoing project pushed by the entire commissioners court. But now, as Ernie hears the drumbeat and smells the potential votes that could help his daughter Erin get elected to the coveted Justice of the Peace 2-2 position once held by the late Tony Torres, he is attempting to become the darling of the doggie crowd by forcing the court to send money their way.

"Just as he did on the Westside Parkway, he is now trying to do the same to curry the support of the animal rights groups in Cameron County to gather sympathy for his daughter's election," said a courthouse watcher."

Observers say that during the Parkway debate, Ernie's abstained from an initial vote and left he voting stand at 5-5. One of those voting for the Parkway project was Benavides, who said the opposition had plenty of time to object to the project but waited until the last minute, when the yes or no vote would decide its facte, to come out against it.

After leaving the decision at a stalemate, dozens of calls to Hernandez and Benavides from anti-Parkway activists flooded the precinct office phone lines. Then, at the next meeting, not only did Hernandez vote against it, he also got the support of Stealth Mayor Tony Martinez and made his brownie points by going against it.

"The city had supported the project all along until the vocal opposition made Ernie and Martinez back down," said a county official who attended the raucous meeting. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on studies, bike trials, walkways, landscaping, you name it, everything the opposition wanted was included in the project only to have Ernie back down when he saw potential political fallout from it. The residents complained about potential noise hazards, but, hell, they used to have a freight train pass by there every day and never raised an objection.

That was Hernandez at his political pandering best."

Now, all of a sudden, Hernandez wants Benavides to give up on delivering on her promises to the forgotten neighborhoods of the county's extreme east side neighborhoods and give up the money to construct a $1 million shelter for stray dogs.

That idea is not sitting well with even with some of his longtime political supporters. One woman who has helped the Hernandezs in their past forays into the governmental coffers said this was the limit for her.

"I don't care what you say about me after I say this," she said. "If you looked at the people that Hernandez brought to put pressure on the commissioners, they were pretty much white, middle age, middle class people who want a better animal shelter for the dogs. Ernie is willing to take the money for poor, Mexican kids in the east side barrios of Southmost and give it to them to make points for his daughter. That was the limit for me. I hope Sofia and the commisisoners don't give in to him."