LINDA AND ERIN'S WEDDING-BELLS GRAVY CATFIGHT

Justice of the Peace - Marriage License Report

Office of Joe G. Rivera

County Clerk

Cameron County, Texas

Justice of the Peace                                        2012             2013
Cascos, Carlos County Judge                         7                      2

Ochoa, Bennie III, Pct. 1                               102                   38

Salazar, Linda, Pct. 2 PL. 1                         584                    237

Hodge, Kip Van Johnson Pct. 2 PL. 2        387                    N/A

Garcia, Erin H., Pct. 2 PL. 2                         25                    145

Flores, Manuel Jr., Pct. 3 PL. 1                         31                   50

Sanchez, Julian Jr., Pct. 3 PL. 1                          43                  N/A

Garza, David, Pct. 3 PL. 2                                102                  58

Mendoza, Juan Jr., Pct. 4                                  119                  40

Gonzales, Sally, Pct 5 PL. 1                              122                   65

Cano, Eloy Jr., Pct. 5 PL. 2                                98                    39

Trejo, Mike, Pct. 5 PL. 3                                  N/A                   13

Gonzales, Adam, Pct. 7 PL. 1                             40                   N/A

TOTAL                                                          1,660                 687

By Juan Montoya
Take a gander at the numbers above released by the office of Cameron County Clerk Joe Rivera.
What jumps at you almost immediately is the fact that of the 1,660 weddings performed in 2012 by the 11 justices of the peace in Cameron County last year, 584 – more than one-third, actually 35.18 percent – were performed by one judge; Linda Salazar.
Now, the county judge can also perform weddings, but they are far and in between and wew understand Cascos doesn't charge his friends.
But if you take a look at the statistics for this year, 2013, you can see that Linda is at the head of the pack maintaining a blistering 34 percent pace with 337 weddings of the 687 reported so far.
Now, do the math.
For 2012, At an average of $200 a shot per wedding (584) that goes directly to the pocket of the particular JP who performs the weddings, that means that Linda pocketed a cool $110,000 last year on wedding ceremonies alone. This is being conservative because we are giving her credit for performing, say 34, perfunctory complimentary ceremonies for political friends or relatives of friends of friends.
At the pace she is going today, she has racked up at least $47,000 for the 237 weddings on record so far.
Her closest competitor last year was – believe it or not chingado calladito – Kip Van Johnson Hodge, who served as interim JP until Erin Garcia Hernandez won election for that office in a runoff with Yolanda Begum. Our little Kip performed 387 weddings last year before Erin took over in December. That amounted to $77,400 and we know that dour Hodge is loath to give up anything for free.
But his successor – Erin Garcia Hernandez – is proving to be a quick study and Linda must feel hear the wedding bells ringing behind her. While Linda's 237 has her far ahead of the pack for 2013, Erin isn't lagging far behind with 145 so far. That's a cool $29,000 for little Erin. And guess what? That equals exactly to 21 percent of the weddings in the county, the same percentage that Kip was making in 2012 before he had to leave. Who needs a law degree for this, anyway?
There are many ways to play the Wedding Bells Game, and Linda is a star at it. We remember getting a photo of one of her clerks who she had posted in the corridor next to the County Clerk's window to steer couples to her office. Now we understand that Erin is being shortchanged in her share of $200 nuptial gravy. Anyone want to bet who wins at the end of the year? I got $200 on Linda.
Someone told us that JPs prefer to be paid in cash so they won't leave a paper trail for the IRS to sniff around. We wonder, in addition to the $40,000-some that the JPs pick up as salary, do they also report the income from the weddings on their annual income tax reports?