CASCOS DERAILS RAISES, WILL IT COME BACK TO HAUNT HIM?

By Juan Montoya
When Horacio Zamora unexpectedly lost his race for Pct. 1 Constable, his allies on the Cameron County Commissioners Court were in a quandary.
What to do with the likable Zamora who was suddenly out of a job?
In the past, when a law enforcement officer was out of a job or when his boss lost and he had no other place to go, the repository was the Parks Ranger Department keeping an eye on the Island and Isla Blanca Park.
But, alas, at Zamora's urging that he could do the Pct. 1 constable's job and keep an eye on the Island at the same time, the court had disbanded the parks ranger department. What to do now?
By a series of maneuvers that involved resurrecting the parks ranger department, advertising for the slot, and – when Zamora did not meet the requirements for the position – readvertising ith lower educational requirements, it became clear that Zamora was heir apparent for the job.
After all the maneuvering, Zamora – even though less qualified than the rest of the applicants – was chosen as the new chief of the rangers, put in charge of the token ranger force, and given a $52,000 salary, more than he earned as a constable before he lost the election.
On the other hand, when Abelardo Gomez beat Pete Avila for Constable of Pct. 1, he not only inherited a much larger force, but was also put in charge of the security of the courts and the courthouse and supervised a force that nears 30 deputies and bailiffs. His salary? How about $45,000, $7,000 less than Zamora whose only heavy period is when Spring Break comes around. The rest of the time he and his deputies spend protecting endangered turtles and harassing beach goers over glass containers.
At Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos' urging, the nine-person salary grievance board decided not to give Gomez a raise despite his additional duties and having to supervise triple the personnel that Zamora has under him.
The rationale was that Gomez knew what the salary was before he ran for office. Yet, that rationale hasn't held in the past, since just last year that same court gave District Clerk Aurora de la Garza and County Clerk Joe Rivera a $2,000 raise, ostensibly part of Pct. 4 commissioner Dan Sanchez's salary. However, it was discovered a mite late that it is against state law to take from an elected official's salary to give to another.
Then there's Sheriff's Tale.
At the committee's hearing, Sheriff Omar Lucio pointed out his  accomplishments during the 13 years he has been in office, his negotiating with the federal government for higher renumeration to the county from the keeping of federal inmates and the growing a $6 million drug forfeiture surplus.
"He also presented statistics showing his $95,700 salary lags behind the salaries of police chiefs in Brownsville, Harlingen and McAllen, as well as the Hidalgo County sheriff, who brings in $140,000 annually.
Lucio also pointed out the disproportion between the number of employees he manages and his salary."
In ht past, Lucio has shown irritation at having non-department heads such as David Garcia, the assistant county administrator to Pete Sepulveda draw more ($115,000) and before he was cut off from double dipping into the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority (and additional $75,000), close to $200,000 a year with a minuscule number of personnel directly under him.
Despite the fact that these men presented their cases before the committee, the vote was 8-1 against the increases after Cascos gave the members a session in private where he said he "only provided statistics and clarified statements by those grieving" before stepping out and allowing the members to make their decision.
Neither Lucio nor Gomez were happy that Cascos had taken it upon himself to influence the committee members, Cascos' protestations notwithstanding.
“They were selected and that’s how they voted,” Lucio said.

Gomez [pointed out that although Cascos, a CPA, uses his position as a side job, those who had made law enforcement a career did not count on any other source of income and that they expected to be paid according to the increase in their duties.

"As a person's responsibilities grow, it is expected that his salary will also increase," he said later. "Maybe I should lose an election and have a department be reopened for me so I can get a raise."
Or maybe, with the county judge's election up just around the turn of the year, these two men's considerable constituencies might just turn against Cascos.