ERNIE WANTS $0.5 MILLION OFFICE IN CAMERON PARK

By Juan Montoya
Now that the voters have decided he will no longer be in the running for commissioner of Cameron County Pct. 2 in the runoff or general election, Ernie Hernandez is showing his true colors about what he really thinks of the folks in Olmito and the animal-rights crowd who were supporting him to upgrade the county's animal shelter facilities.
Hernandez had made soothing noises about using the $500,000 his precinct received from the 2011 $23.75 million bond issue by the county to acquire real estate and construct an Olmito Community Center, among other porjects countywide, including improvements of the Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center, and $1.4 million in improvements at the Pedro "Pete" Benavides County Park and Social Service Center.
Later, when he was running for reelection, Hernandez promised the animal-rights advocates that he would use that money instead to construct and improved animal shelter in San Benito.
He did this after the county had gone out for proposals for the original projects, hired an architect and deal with the huge amount of paperwork required to make the changes.  Then, after having the county redo the bond issue to shift it to the animal shelter, he has decided that just as the Olmito community doesn't need the $500,000 for the center, neither does the animal shelter.
Then, following his indictment by a grand jury on eight counts of official misconduct, the voters turned down his bid for reelection and Alex Dominguez and Leo Lopez will face each other in the May 27 runoff election. But that hasn't deterred Hernandez from trying to manipulate his precinct's finances.
On Thursday he will ask the commissioners court to approve the "reprogramming" of the 2011 bond funds from the Olmito Community Center to build him a precinct office at Cameron Park. To make it more palatable, he is also asking that a satellite constable office be built adjacent to his office.
Now, we all know that Hernandez is scheduled to go to trial on an eight-count indictment issue by a grand jury.
The charges stem from the illegal hiring of his brother-in-law Roberto Cadriel, and inconsistencies between the testimony of the prosecution's witnesses and the three-hour testimony Hernandez gave to a grand jury investigating it. They also deal with alleged Hernandez's involvement in tampering with the testimony of witnesses and government records.

One unrelated charge deals with Hernandez allegedly attempting to have Emergency Management administrator Humberto Barrera reopen an eight-liner business that had been closed by the county.

The indictment includes two counts of official oppression, one count of misuse of official information, two counts of witness tampering, one count of tampering with a government record, one count of obstruction or retaliation, and one count of coercion by a public official.
His trial, barring a continuance, is scheduled for this May.
With the possibility that Hernandez may be gone from the picture in the next two or three months, many county observers are wondering why he would want to build an office for himself out at Cameron Park. And as far as the constable's satellite office, many say that it won't be but for three or four more years that the  City of Brownsville will have to annex the colonia and will then provide police protection there.
"He justifies the reprogramming of the monies because he says that he is the only commissioner who doesn't have an office in his precinct," said one. "Why did he have to wait three years before he decided he wanted to have an office at Cameron Park? With the paperwork that needs to be done for bond reprogramming, engineering, and the architectural work required before construction can actually begin, he might already be gone before it's even built."