DAN THE MAN A CHIP OFF THE OLD HINOJOSA BLOCK

"We spending O.P.M. (what's that?)
Other Peoples Money and we like it (love it)
We spending O.P.M. Other Peoples Money and we like it (love it)"
O.P.M., by Dom Kennedy

 

By Juan Montoya

By all measures, the master of spending other people's money was former Cameron County Judge Gilbert Hinojosa.

He has since graduated to become the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party with a slightly larger budget to vex the electorate, although the results of the last state and county elections did not favor his party. 

But the boys from upriver have learned a thing or two about O.P/M.

Take Cameron County Precinct 4 commissioner Dan Sanchez. Dan has never made it a secret that he years to sit in the chair formerly occupied by Carlos Cascos and now by Pete Sepulveda. He lobbied hard to be appointed when Cascos left, but could not bear to resign his seat (to which he just got reelected) without the assurance he would get the nod.

But that hasn't stopped Dan from currying the favor of elected officials with sizeable constituencies as Hinojosa did in his heyday.

You remember. At the peak of his reign as county judge, a visit to that office would bring you face to face with the late Frances Domensky, the reigning politiquera from El Ranchito, former Combes Mayor Silvestre "Silver" Garcia, and his chief of staff Remi Garza, son of a prominent San Benito dentist and his mom Yolanda, a n attorney from the Resaca City.

All were put on the county judge's payroll and paid for their services by the public. But in reality, the jobs they performed were more political than they were essential to running the county.

In fact, Remi Garza, now Cameron County Elections Administrator, was paid more than professional government planner with a Master's Degree then working in the same office.

With this crew in place, Hinojosa could call (and often did) on them to move their different constituencies on his behalf when he ran for office or wanted to influence a political outcome.

Sanchez had a good teacher.

Remember when former County Clerk Joe River and former District Clerk Aurora de la Garza wanted hefty raises and the commissioners court did not have the funds to do it? In 2012, Gracious Dan said he would take a pay cut so they could each get a $3,000 raise and did. But when the next budget came up, the duo's salary stayed in place, Sanchez's salary returned to the same level as his peers on the court, and the taxpayers were left holding the bag.

Then came the off-budget request by district judges that their court staff get a 10 percent raise and Sanchez – despite the fact that his brother David is a district and he does business in that court – made the motion to give it to them.

That opened the flood gates and less than a month later the staffs of the three county courts-at-law appeared before the court asking that their staff get the 10 percent raise as well. Sanchez voted to give it to them, too.

And just recently, the local daily reported that Sanchez asked that this year’s salary grievance committee be chosen based on a formula that puts seven elected officials on the 10-member committee, suggesting that those requirements are included in the Local Government Code.

The newspaper reported that the committee is put together each year to consider raises for elected officials who grieve their publicly funded salaries.
Additionally, the statute dictates that in addition to the non-voting county judge, the committee can include the county sheriff, tax assessor-collector, treasurer, county clerk, district clerk, district attorney and enough public members to have nine voting members.
For at least eight years, however, the county has gone by a second statutory option to select nine public members pulled from the grand jury roster to serve alongside the county judge, who serves as a non-voting facilitator.
Under Dan's proposal – which fortunately was tabled by the cooler heads on the court – the elected officials could step off their committee seats and ask for their raises and then seat again to consider other officials' grievances as well as their own. It is doubtful that the three members of the public would counter the elected-official majority on the board.
"What's to stop the committee from recommending that all elected officials get a 10 percent across-the-board raise?" asked a county staffer. "If you do that, what's to keep the rest of the county employees from demanding a similar raise? You'd have to raise property taxes to do it."
It doesn't appear that the rest of the court will entertain Sanchez's generous motion to have elected officials determine if they will get a rise for themselves. But at least all these folks (with their constituencies) know that despite losing, they have a champion in Dan who gave it the old college try.
"We're spending O.P.M. and we like it (love it)," don't we Dan?