AT CAMERON PARK, ERNIE, SYLVIA GET BACKBITTEN

By Juan Montoya

We have now confirmed from at least three sources who attended a meeting requested by Cameron County Pct. 2 incumbent commissioner Ernie Hernandez and county clerk candidate Sylvia Garza-Perez that both candidates 0 especially Hernandez – received a dressing down for their lack of service to that colonia.
Cameron Park is the largest colonia in Cameron County and former county judge Gilbert Hinojosa used to say tat it was larger than some towns such as Olmito.
Well, the natives are not happy with the commissioner and they let him have an earful,
Hernandez was introduced to the community group by Garza-Perez and he son heard enough about the autocratic way that the director of El Centro Cultural Cameron Park was running the show in effect elimintaed any community input. In fact, director Martha Kramer, said to be related to county judge Carlos Cascos.
However, that was not the end of it. He promised that he would bring lighting to the colonia and  that he would personally see to it that the center was open to community events again.
In fact, Ernie promised more than that when residents complained of Cascos' indifference to the center director's actions. He said he had the gonads to take on Cascos and open the center to the public.
"Yo tengo los guevos," he told them.
But of course he does. After all, in the Thanksgiving and Christmas before the 2012 primary election when his daughter Erin Hernandez Garcia was campaigning for justice of the peace, he staged to "giveaways" of turkey dinners and presents for the kiddos of the colonia with Erin wearing and her campaign minions wearing their "Vote for Erin" T-shirts. Erin even handed out presents and helped serve the plates. Since then, Cameron Park has seen very little of either one of them.  
"How long have you held the office of commissioner?" one participant asked Hernandez.
"About three years," stammered Ernie.
"And in all that time you haven' been here to ask what the colonia needed?" they pressed.
There were other other services that colonia residents demanded Hernandez do something about. They say that packs of dogs roam the dark streets and that some residents keep more than half a dozen of the beasts in unsecured yards.
"If they get out of the yards they could kill someone passing by in the street," one said. Where were the animal control crews, they asked Hernandez.   
A colonia resident said that the last time a commissioner promised to bring street lights was when John Wood was in office and that he not only did not bring in the lights for the streets but that he could not figure out a way to divide the costs among the residents there.
Colonia President Gloria Moreno said that Hernandez had done nothing about making the center accessible to residents again and that the people wanted Kramer out as a start.
"You can start with that," she told Hernandez.
"I think that they wished they had never come to talk to us," she recalled today. "Why after three years in office did he choose to come ask us what we need when we have just over a week before early voting begins?"