Back in the 1970s and 1980s, if you attended the Cameron County Commissioners Court meetings, you couldn't miss Rio Hondo resident and gadfly JuaNita (with a capital N) Brodcecky.
A three-time mayor of Rio Hondo, she freely gave her opinion on any and all issues concerning county politics. She often got under the skin of longtime commissioner Dolph Thomae, who often resorted to a county-boy dirge as she tore into him."Come on JuaNita," Thomae would say exasperated.
If anyone could get under his skin, she could. Unfortunately, she died in 2011.
The same was with Moses Sorola, who passed away in 2013. If Moses had a bone to pick with you, he's be up front about it and push for a resolution. The members of the Brownsville City Commission got to know Moses after he (and three other city residents) took them to court to stop taking freebies that were not authorized by the city charter. Judge Janet Leal agreed with Sorola and the free health and medical care, the free cell phones and mileage payments stopped. It got to the point that the city staff knew better than to mess with a determined Moses.
These two fighters for the community came to mind as we spoke over the weekend of the vote taken by Pct. 4 commissioner Dan Sanchez on awarding 10 percent raises to district court staff members. The request for the pay raises was made out of the budget cycle, something that Pct. 2 commissioner Alex Dominguez and Pct. 3 commissioner David Garza made clear in voting against them. That led to the county court-at-law judges also asking for a raise for their staff since the functions of the employees are virtually identical. In fact, some argue that the volume of cases heard by county court-at-law judges is greater than that of the district courts. They were also given a raise. And just as Dominguez predicted, the other department heads also put in their request for raises but the court put them off until the budget process begins.Public Works employees are also upset with the raises and plan to make their displeasure known to the court.
"The stipend they gave us last year was taken away by the higher appraisal rates on our homes," said one. "They give us $500 and then raise out taxes by $600. There it went."
But getting mack to San the Man, the fact that Sanchez – a lawyer – made the motion to increase the salary of those employees when his brother David is a distinct court judge and he often does business with the courts, raised the issue of potential conflict of interest. It would have been better, some have suggested, that Sanchez (as well as Dominguez, also an attorney) should have abstained instead.
Others go even further. They say that the issue is crying for a Texas Attorney General's Opinion to settle the matter once and for all.
But who will do it? The landscape looks pretty bleak for anyone pushing the matter to a resolution.
It's days like this that we miss the likes of JuaNita and Moses.
4 comments:
So will Alex Dominguez and Dan Sanchez refrain from voting on the budget of the District Attorney Office? They already vote on District Attorney items. Their income as defense attorneys is contingent on the deals they make with the DA's Office for their clients. I believe there is even a law or AG opinion already on this topic.
didn't the Cameron County Good Government League fight all the time with Juanita to try help her expose things?
Ok so its a clear conflict of interest? So what? What can we really do?. Who or whom do we complain to?. And will they even listen? Cca
We cannot forget Cap. Manuel Hernandez, whose love of knowledge and justice for his fellow man was something we could all aspire to. God bless him. He is missed.
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