ARE WE BACK TO COMPADRISMO IN CAMERON CTY. HIRINGS?

By Juan Montoya
In 1997, when the Brownsville-Matamoros Bridge Company erected a new concrete, four-lane toll bridge adjacent to the original (old) bridge to handle automobile traffic, the late bridge manager Prax Orive was asked to say a few words.

Orive, who would die a few years later, was already infirm and his voice shook as he addressed the dignitaries gathered for the grand opening.

Pointing to federal judge Reynaldo Garza who was seated with other U.S. and Mexico dignitaries, he said he had risen to the position of manager because of the judge.
"I was free3sh from the U.S. Marines and I had a wife and baby at home and I needed a job," he said. "I went to talk to judge Garza and he picked up te phone and told them that he was sending over a veteran who needed a job and I got it. If it hadn't been for the judge I wouldn't be where I am today."
Judge Garza was visibly chagrined that Orive had told that story but smiled wanly as the crowd clapped politely.

The way that Orive got the job at the bridge mirrors how hiring and firing was done in those days. Find someone with enough influence, get him to move a few palancas, and the job was yours.
Granted, the B and M Bridge was privately owned and personnel polices that apply in public service were niceties to them.
Now that Human Resource polices are in place in the City of Brownsville and Cameron County there are rules to follow to make sure that influence and compadrismo no longer guide public employment.
Cameron County, for example, consolidated the four county precincts from Road and Bridge to Public Works back in 2002 to remove the hiring and firings by individual commissioners and give everyone an equal chance at the jobs available.
They adopted the Civil Service for all county employees below supervisory rank in 2006.
As former county Pct. 2 commissioner John Wood wrote in a letter to the local daily, "The Commissioners Court adopted a Civil Service system that prospective county workers as well as those seeking advancement. These tests are administered without regard to whom you know; they are based on what you know, and hiring and promotions are to be based on those most qualified."
Yet, even as late as 2011, Pct. 2 county commissioner Ernie Hernandez was indicted and later resigned over his role in the "fixing" of the system to hire his brother in law Roberto Cadriel. Testimony in the trial of Hernandez's assistant Raul Salazar indicated that Cadriel had flunked the civil service exam twice before a HR staffer was told to take it for him and he passed.
We feel a little sorry for poor Ernie because we can only imagine the henpecking that his wife Norma gave him over getting her brother Robert a job. During the trial, Cadriel testified that it was Norma who filled out his application for employment since he could neither read nor write. To begin with, he was a convicted felon and couldn't be an armed security guard.
Later, it was disclosed at the trial that Salazar gave Cadriel the answers to a test for a noncommissioned security guard at a county international bridge. Cadriel – as well as Robert Lopez, the HR director at the time – resigned after the facts in the matter were revealed.

Salazar was later convicted of Tampering With a Government Documents and is waiting to serve a 10-month sentence pending his appeal with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. A previous appeal to the 13th Court of Appeals was denied.
And just when one though the system was fixed, we get yet another report that county administrators and supervisors are finding ways to circumvent the system.
We have learned, to cite one example, of the hiring of one Juan Carlos Olivarez with the Precinct 2 Road and Bridge crews by a method that calls into question the performance of both the Human Resources Dept. and the Public Works Road Administrator Ruben Gonzalez.
Olivarez, who had previously worked with the county and resigned but later returned to work part time with the Public Works colonia crew, applied January 7, 2016 for a position with the Pct. 2 Public Works crew.
His application was filled out and the pertinent answers were given.
Gilbert Elizondo Jr., who took over the HR Dept. about four months ago, said the county had posted the opening online for the required 10 days and that Gonzalez had looked over the application and hired Olivarez. But he said he didn't know how it was that the HR Dept. missed vetting some important items on the man's application.
For example, the county application asks all interested employment seekers: "Have you ever been convicted of a felony, misdemeanor, or receive a differed (sic) adjudication? (Disclosure of criminal record does not automatically disqualify you for employment.)
Olivarez crossed off the "no" box.
Just above, in the preceding question, the application form also asks: Are any of your relatives employees of Cameron County?
Olivarez crossed off the "no" box there as well.
It also whether the applicant has any licenses and Olivarez wrote that he had a Class A CDL, but did not include the date received or the license number as required in the form.
When Elizondo was shown the Texas Department of Public Safety record details of Olivarez's conviction DWI on May 19, 2011 and told that the county salary schedules show that he has two brothers working for the county, one in Public Works and the other in Pct. 1, he said it was impossible for HR to investigate whether anyone had relatives working for the county and counted on the applicant to be straightforward. Salary schedules indicate that one of Olivarez's brothers is a road crewman for Public Works and the other is employed with the Pct. 1 Road and Bridge crew.
As for the DWI conviction, Elizondo said that lying on an application could carry serious consequences.
Elizondo referred us to the pertinent Cameron County Personnel Policy Manual on what consequences applied to anyone caught lying on the application and we came across this:
4.08 DISQUALIFICATION An applicant is disqualified from employment by the County if... he or she "knowingly has made a false statement on the application form; has committed fraud during the selection process; or is not legally permitted to hold the position. An employee may be terminated if it is later discovered that he or she knowingly falsified information on the application form."
Who was ultimately chosen, he said was up to Gonzalez.
We asked Elizondo if the county was serious about its own personnel policies or whether it has regressed to hiring people based on who you know and not what you know.
Olivarez just happens to be a good friend (compadre) of Public Works Construction Foreman Santana Vallejo and in turn Vallejo is Road Administrator Gonzalez's pal. In fact, Gonzalez is listed as a reference in Olivarez's application. Yeah, that's the way the sausage is made.
Just about now Ernie is beginning to look better and better.
(P.S. HR Director Elizondo said he'd get back to us after he investigates the matter further.)