JOB COMPLETE, ZEKE SEEKS BIGGER, BETTER THINGS

By Juan Montoya

After toiling as the Community Outreach Coordinator at the Cameron County District Attorneys's Office, assuring the reinstatement of the $254,000 in funding to the Crime Victims Unit and making a place for it inside the DA's office, local businessman Ezequiel "Zeke" Silva has returned to private life.

His resignation was effective Oct. 28.

Silva has been the owner of S&M Transport since 2004 and the company employs more than 45 drivers and mechanics who make runs all over the United States.

In his letter to his boss DA Luis Saenz, Silva thanks him for "the opportunity to have worked with your office...for the last 10 months. My goal was to bring awareness to our chidlren of the Cameron County school districts as well as parents, teachers and office staff. Seeing the (office) and the DA himself getting involved in our schools has brought me great joy and I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience here. It is with mixed feelings that I advise you of my decision to resign..."

Silva said that under the former DA Armando Villalobos, the Crime Victims Unit lost $40,000 of its grant from the Texas Attorney General's Office. He said that through the efforts of CVU Educator Monica Lopez and her staff, they were able to not only restore the lost funding, but also to acquire and additional $214,000 to the program whose sole mission is to assist victims of crime.

The effort included the transferring of the CVU to the third floor of the Cameron County Administrative wing of the courthouse with the rest of the DA units.

"The move not only put the unit close to the rest of the DA's functions to allow a more fluid and efficient coordination, but also to save the taxpayers rent and utility to maintain the two offices," Silva said. "It was a hugely successful joint effort and we were proud of its success."

Silva campaigned alongside Saenz before the election for the better part of two years that culminated in a runoff election against local attorney and Port of Brownsville commissioner Carlos Masso.

Silva called it "a victory for Cameron County. He is truly an honest man who cares for the victims and will seek true justice for them. There were so many needs for Cameron County that I asked our District Attorney if there was anything I could do to help our Community(especially our next generation) so I was hired as a part time Community Outreach Coordinator for the District Attorney with the Crime Victims Unit...I was given the task to help the CVU obtain that goal by doing presentations throughout Cameron County. The presentations were with the law enforcement agencies within Cameron County."

Working together with counselors and administrators of the Brownsville Independent School District, the DA's office focused on doing presentations to young children children and teenagers. Silva credited BISD Superintendent Carl Montoya and his staff for welcoming the DA's personnel and allowing them to make their presentations focusing on Domestic Violence, Date Rape, Cyber Bullying, Bullying, the rights of a victim and the different agencies that help victims at the BISD Campuses. The DA's Office had never gone into the BISD campuses to do these types of presentations.

He thanked the public for "the overwhelming support the CVU has received from the community. The CVU is on the way to help turn the way  how young boys and girls act towards one another. Violence is not the key.

"I will always be Grateful for the opportunity to work along these beautiful women with great hearts
and compassion for the Crime Victims Unit," he said. "I am also equally grateful to my friend (our District Attorney Luis V. Saenz) for allowing me to be part of the Crime Victims Unit as the DA Community Outreach Coordinator.
"Since I resigned from my position as District Attorney Community Outreach Coordinator...I have been able to devote more time to my family and business. I will continue to give back to our community by supporting candidates that are honest people and who truly care about the people."