By Juan Montoya
The blaring headline in yesterday's Brownsville Herald screamed that City Secretary Estela Von Hatten had resigned her office effective Dec. 31 and that Friday would be her last day of work.
Immediately after that, speculation began to surface that a number of things may have prompted her "resignation," "retirement," or whatever.
City Manager Charlie Cabler dutifully said the city will miss her, and we add our sentiment to his. Estela was always very forthcoming with our request for information even when some departments and elected officials weren't.
Now, there is a big difference between the headline announcing a "resignation" and a retirement.
Coming on the heels of a flubbed recording of a vote by commissioner Jessica Tetreau on the proposed sale of Lincoln Park to the UT System, it raises suspicions that the commissioner – who insisted that her vote was incorrectly entered into the minutes of the city commission meeting held February 25, 2013 to reflect that she did not attend that meeting – might have had a part in her leaving.
We certainly hope not.
Tetreau was present at the meeting and did vote "no" when the final decision was made to negotiate the sale on November 4, 2014.
But the fact that she didn't vote Feb. 25 because she was absent from the meeting would have made no difference which way she voted one way or the other because the other commissioners did. The "no" vote Nov. 4 also made no difference because a majority of the commissioners voted "yes."
Besides, Lincoln Park is in District 1, the position being held by commissioner Ricardo Longoria who voted "yes" on the first vote and "no" on the later vote when he saw the writing on the wall.
Now, what does this have to do with Estela's departure from public service?
It means that those of us who make information requests to keep an eye on elected officials and public administrators might not get the fine attentions and positive consideration we've been used to under her watch. And that alone is enough to echo Cabler's remarks that "we'll miss her."
The Herald, instead of filing an information request and said a city spokeswoman said the city’s human resources department declined to release Von Hatten’s letter because it’s considered a personnel issue. So their headline writer called her departure a resignation.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
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9 comments:
Of course VonHatten retired! ~It was public knowledge she could not stand to be present as Mayor Martinez continues his destruction of the city. I thought the final straw was going to be when Julieta and the Mayor tried to take her office and place her at Market Square.
Herald reporting rule number 4: If in doubt, guess.
Estella is a great asset to the city, but guess her retirement is her way of rowing up her hands in frustration. The city administration is sick and the lack of leadership surely frustrates those who want to do a good job.... The city will miss Estella, but will likely hire another of Tony Martinez's "muppets" that will do his bidding without question. We see so many progressive activities going on in other cities in the Valley, but Browntown continues to swirl down the proverbial toilet. Thank you Tony Martinez for you incomptence.
Of course Tetreau is not running is District 1, She's running in District 2!
I see that Sergio Zarate has begun the campaign to run against Jessica Tetreau for the dist 2 city commission seat.
Da mayor playing the part of "El Chivo" had her removed. Since we have no dungeons here, a simple letter of "resignation " sufficed. La Tele Novela , "El Chivo".
It so disgusting how Sergio Zarate is using his daughter's incapacity to gain political followers
Zarate has no chance of winning any office seat. ~And when I say that I'm talking about the wife and the husband duo. It sounds to me like the Sucio Lucios are going after a seat on the city commission after they couldn't elect that witch dolores or Wendy Davis. They've always had their eye on the golf course and many other valuable city assets. This shouldn't be a surprise.
~ The "retirement" of Ms. VonHatten is really sad because she was the only department that ran efficiently.
Nah! She was as defficient as Cabler was based on facts
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