AT PCT. 2, ALEX DOMINGUEZ A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

By Juan Montoya

When former Cameron County Precinct 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez resigned in disgrace after being indicted by a grand jury, Republican county judge Carlos Cascos did the right thing. He appointed – and the commissioners court approved – local attorney Alex Dominguez who had won a runoff victory in the Democratic primary over Leo Lopez in May.

Everyone wondered what Dominguez, a successful attorney, would bring to the court's chemistry. His colleagues on the court included Sofia Benavides, a local business woman and widow of the late Pct. 1 commissioner Pete Benavides, Pct. 3 commissioner David Garza, a San Benito pharmacist and representative of the county on matters related to the Cameron Cunty Regional Mobility Authority, Cascos, who had beat two successive Democratic Party candidates for the position, and Pct. 4 commissioner Dan Sanchez, another attorney who had just won his second term in office an made no bones that he wants to fill Cascos seat.

Cascos has accepted the offer from Texas Governor-Elect Greg Abbott and will leave for Austin on January 21. The commissioners court will have to decide on a replacement for that vacancy. And – depending on the outcome of the Sylvia Garza-Perez county clerk debacle – he may have  a vote on who replaces her if that comes to be.

No one, the saying goes, is born knowing how to fulfill the responsibilities of a public servant. Sometimes it takes years to get the knack of it. Sometimes some politicians never do.

An assessment of Dominguez six months after he completed Ernie's unexpired term and took the oath to serve his four-year sting after being sworn in by County Court-at-Law David Gonzalez?

"You can say anything about his being new at this,"" said a fellow commissioner. "But one thing I can tell you, he is fair."

On New Years day, close friends of the new commissioners gathered at the Dancy Building and witnessed him being sworn in by Gonzalez.

"Alex is one of the most intelligent persons I know," Gonzalez said before he swore in Dominguez.

Coming as it did, after the Pct. 2 leadership was removed by force of law, Dominguez inherits what Hernandez left behind – a trial of favoritism, patronage, indictments of him and his administrative assistant, and a box full of broken promises of public service to the precinct's residents.

In the first six months that he filled out Hernandez's term, Dominguez had to deal with the momentum left by Hernandez's momentum. He found out his precinct crew had been committed to pave the Rivera High School parking lot and couldn't  get to do any Pct. 2 projects until late August.

In the short 4 months the commissioner was successful in obtaining funding and got started the construction of drainage, side walks and paving of the last three unfinished streets in Cameron Park, the county's headache for Pct. 2 commissioners since Cascos was commissioner there. Hernandez had not been able to finish that in three and one-half years. It is now projected that the project should be completed by the end of summer in 2015.

Dominguez has also secured street lighting for Olmito working closely with community leaders, county administrator Pete Sepulveda, county engineers and Valley Interfaith. High traffic areas in Olmito have received speed bumps as well as placing some on FM 1732 around tight curves to eliminate accidents due to speed.

And he also cut his milk teeth on passing the 2015 budget for Cameron County, an invaluable experience for the coming years.

Dominguez has to work within the limitations of the people he inherited from Hernandez. Since they are under civil service protection, he can hardly do a wholesale terminations unless he wants to incur costly legal liabilities for the county. Bu the word is slowly getting out that this will not be business as usual and that there are no holy cows.

Coming in as Dominguez is, during a time of leadership crisis at the county judge and county clerk's positions and the political in-fighting associated with having the commissioners appoint these officials, it will be interesting how he will balance the electorate's wishes and the protection of the public's trust with those appointments.

In fact, his vote may be the determining one in who gets those positions. For a first-time office holder, the prospect is daunting. But as his fellow commissioners said, we can be sure that he will be fair in his decisions.

And that, is a welcome breath of fresh air after the performance of the previous bunch in that office.