WITH HURRICANE SEASON UPON US, WHERE'S THE EMC? IS PETE TIED TO THE MAST LISTENING TO GILBERT'S SIREN SONG?

By Juan Montoya
June is the beginning of hurricane season, and with the near miss of Tropical Storm Bill, many people are asking what happened to the Cameron County Emergency Management Coordinator.
That position – the County Emergency Management Coordinator which used to be held by Humberto Barrera – comes under the aegis of the office of Cameron County Judge Pete Sepulveda and has been vacant since Barrera left the county.

Currently, the chores are being carried out by Assistant EMC Charles Hoskins.

This is what Hoskins said before the buildup of Tropical Storm Bill earlier this week.

“The (hurricane) outlook does not forecast landfall location; therefore, preparedness is important.”
Well, that's stating the obvious, but without a EMC, the task is left to the underlings to protect county residents.
Well, it seems like what one thing that Sepulveda did do is to authorize the advertising of the EMC position. Prominent among those who applied is one Tom Hushen, the EMC under the Gilbert Hinojosa administration.
Now, with Carlos Cascos gone, Hushen has emerged as one of the top applicants for the Chief EMC position under Sepulveda.
That the EMC position has been left in the hands of an interim or assistant given the quirky nature of our coastal weather is just one more oversight on the part of this current county judge. He is getting his feet wet, but as the county administrator for almost a decade and also chief executive of the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority, one would think that his learning curb would of necessity have to be very small.

Following the trouncing of the Texas Democratic Party under state chairman Hinojosa, he has landed on his feet by getting appointed interim Port Isabel City Attorney. He quickly convinced his majority on that city council – two of who are his legal clients – to hire Jared Hockema, his former county assistant and county party treasurer as interim city manager there.
And just this past month Remi Garza – another one of Hinojosa's minions – was picked to be elections administrator for the county without the benefit of a nationwide search and chosen over others with a lot more experience.
To many it appears that the old Hinojosa team is regrouping after the trouncing at the hands of the Cascos before he left.
If Hushen gets tabbed to be the new EMC, it'll mean the reinstatement of yet another Hinojosa functionary in the county. Is Sepulveda listening to the siren song and tied to the Hinojosa mast? And if so, will it be Sepulveda at the helm or Hinojosa?