WE TAKE IT BACK: SAENZ'S NAME NOT TO BE ON BILLBOARDS

By Juan Montoya
Up until two months before the March 1, 2016 primaries, voters driving along the major highways in Harlingen and La Feria will see three billboards at a cost of $25,224 compliments of public funds expounding the work against domestic abuse waged by Cameron County District Attorney's Office.
We had previously reported that the commissioners had knuckeld under the pro-DA Luis V. Saenz effort to have his name prominently displayed on the billboards – only two months before the Democratic primary in March 1, 2016. The contract is from October to the end of December.
Despite the objections raised by Precinct 3 Commissioner David Garza over the apparent political stock that Saenz might gain over his opponents in the upcoming primaries, Asst. DA Rene Guerra assured them that politics was not behind the erection of the billboards in the northern part of the county.
(Rene Garza, by the way, is the brother of Remi Garza, the new Cameron County Elections Administrator. Before that, in Gilberto Hinojosa's administration, Remi was his chief of staff. He also ran and lost against David Garza for Pct. 3 commissioner.) Commissioner Garza asked why the billboards could not state that the offenses would be prosecuted by the DA's Office and not have the name of the elected officials featured so prominently on them.
That made it appear, the commissioner contended, that the county was paying for election publicity for the incumbent. It was a point supported by Pct. 2 commissioner Alex Dominguez.
Rene Garza contended that it would be Saenz who was going to prosecute the offenses in court and that the inclusion of his name was appropriate.
Regardless of what fund is used, some argued, the money coming into the DA's Office was public money whether it was generated by forfeitures, fines, or county appropriations.
In the end, with some slight modifications (the exclusion of Saenz's name) by the commissioners, they voted to approve Saenz's request for the billboards. However, they did so on the condition that only the Cameron County District Attorney's Office name be included in the billboard, not his name.
Since he has took office four years ago, Saenz has been a prolific public persona who has sought the greatest bang for the buck with a number of issues besides the domestic abuse issue. He also took credit for the capture by the U.S. Marshal's Office of convicted fugitive murderer Amit Livingston in India, the closing of eight-liners arcades, and the forcing of DWI defendants to have their blood drawn if they refuse to blow into a  Breathalyzer.
Garza did promise that the signs using the roses and the "black and blue" would not be used. Some critics had said the signs using the roses, a battered woman, and the bars were "weird."