HEAR THAT GNAWING? THEY'RE AT IT AGAIN, MA!

By Juan Montoya
Just when you think Ernie Hernandez, his family, and his political allies have taken a respite from salivating after the public treasury, there is that annoying gnawing sound that lets you know the meeses are at it again.
Those of us who know and love Ernie remember his past peccadilloes stretching back to his years as a city commissioner: More than one tow truck in the city rotation like anyone else, his working the vending machines in the city – and now the county – and his alleged efforts to get his kin on the public payroll.
In each case, the public could see the machinations of Ernie, his daughter Erin, now a justice of the peace, and even his wife Norma.
The most recent disclosures that indicate that when our Erie was worn in as Pct. 2 county commissioner, the vending machine business went under daughter Erin's name. But now that Erin is a justice of the peace, the vending machine company is under his wife Norma's name. Of course, knowing Ernie, no one is fooled by this shell game. The public's money invariably ends in his or his family's pockets.
The newest twist involves Erin and Constable Abel Gomez, who ran in tandem in last year's Democratic primary and subsequent runoff, and several other countywide public office holders.
For as long as anyone sitting on the commissioners court can remember,Flood, Public Official Bonds and Law Enforcement life insurance has been awarded – after Requests For Proposals were issued, evaluated and awarded – to Johnny Cavazos Insurance. Following Cavazos death last October, his widow notified the county on Oct. 12, that she was closing the office and that she would no longer be servicing the policies after Oct. 31. The RFP which gave Cavazos the contract for insurance would have expired August 22, 2013. She told the court that the policies had been issued by Western Casualty Insirance and they could go there for inquiries.
On Nov. 5, Cavazos' longtime associate Sandra Tamez offered to continue providing the service.
Mrs. Cavazos notice and Tamez's offer forced the county to issue RFPs for the service which were sent out, received, and evaluated with the recommendation that the polices be awarded  to Tamez's Legacy Insurance during the court's Dec. 6, 2012 meeting. The motion passed unanimously, including Ernie himself voting to approve the contract. The county pays for the bonds of all its elected officials.
But that window of opportunity – between Oct. 31 and Dec. 6 when Legacy's RFP was approved – was not to be wasted. Hear the gnawing?
Newly-voted Justice of the Peace 2-2 Erin Hernandez Garcia (Ernie and Norma's daughter) took office to fulfill the unexpired term of Tony Torres on November 30. Instead of turning toward Tamez's Legacy Insurance, she turned to another vendor. Shazzam! Shazzam! Shazzam! Wouldn't you know it? That vendor turned out to be none other than her brother, owner of CNA Surety, with its agent of record Ernie J. Hernandez, doing business out of 1425 FM 802, Ste. R, in Brownsville. In case you missed the connection, that's the commissioner's son and the justice of the peace's brother. What conflict of interest, say you?
Curiously, 11 out of the 16 elected officials ranging from DA Luis Saenz to precinct constables went with Legacy when they signed their bonds.
As George Washington Plunkitt, a old-time political boss in the Tweed Ring in New York wrote in “I Seen My Opportunities and I Took ’Em: An Old-Time Pol Preaches Honest Graft," instead of doing business with the trusted aide of the county's longtime vendor, Erin reached out to do right by her family. It wasn't much, really, just a $50 premium for a bond amount of no more than $5,000 in coverage for her office.
Perception has never mattered much to the Hernandez's and this was no different.
But when Gomez took office at the beginning of the year, instead of going to Legacy, to whom the court (and his friend Ernie) had awarded the contract through the RFP process, he also went to CNA Surety – Ernie J. Hernandez again – when he signed his bond. A constable's bond covers a much lesser figure – not less than $500 and not more than $1,500 – and the county paid Hernandez's CNA an additional $177.50.
We're not sure if the constable was aware that the county was under contract with Legacy Insurance since the Dec. 6 contract award, but it caused an auditor to request a purchase order from Abel's secretary and the amount was paid without a P.O. The bond was signed by Ernie J. Hernandez almost a week after Legacy was named as the county's public officials bond insurance.
Former Cameron County Judge Tony Garza once said that the appearance of corruption is much worse than corruption itself because it made the public suspicious of its public officials. Perhaps this is the case here. Nonetheless, Ernie and his folk have been very successful at generating this kind of wary scrutiny up to now. Whichever way one looks at it, when a blood relative and political ally of a vendor ignore the wishes of the court, what good, really, is the whole purchasing process?
Since politiqueras allied with the Hernandez machine are already under the scrutiny of the Texas Attorney General, the commissioner's involvement in the apparently illegal hiring of his brother-in-law through the Civil Service process, we thought that they would at least try to stay out of the public's eye and eliminate any suspicion that they were attempting to get their hands in the public treasury. Curses, foiled again.