PETE SHOWS HIS TRUE COLORS, RUNS INTERFERENCE FOR DAN

By Juan Montoya
Courthouse spectators who attended the Cameron County Commissioners Court this morning were stunned to see appointed county judge Pete Sepulveda ask the court security guard to remove a speaker after he had gone past his three minutes allowed for public comment.
The speaker was former Pct. 4 commissioner Tivi Valencia, who spoke at length that he and fellow Pct. 4 residents believe that outgoing commissioner Dan Sanchez has neglected the county's roads and used county money to pave some as favors to his political friends.
The call for Sepulveda to silence Valencia was a shock to eyewitnesses who say they can't remember anyone being publicly removed from the speaker's podium because they had gone past the time limit. In fact, sometimes this same court has allowed speakers to go past the three-minute mark because they had not completed their remarks.
Just recently, criticisms about the incumbent commissioner have appeared in fliers charging him with spending thousands of dollars to pave Retama Road, a long empty stretch of road with only one home along it. That house just happens to belong to Gus Ruiz, the attorney for the Veterans Court, a court run by Dan's brother David, the 445th District Court judge.
Running against Ruiz is Basilio "Chino" Sanchez (no relation to the Sanchez twins) who is said to have a better than average chance of replacing Sanchez on the commissioners court. However, Ruiz has easily overspent "Chino" as his campaign expenditures reports attest.
So far, Ruiz has reported that he has spent about $40,000 in campaign expenditures, including some $37,000 in personal loans, while Sanchez reported that he had spent about $3,000 with $1,720 in personal loans.
Witnesses who attended this morning's session said Valencia had begun to complain to the commissioners that roads where residents needed to have improvements have been neglected and that Sanchez had bypassed the Public Works Dept. to have certain roads paved. They point to the fact that almost as soon as the Pct. 4 road get paved, numerous developer signs appear signalling the construction of future development.
Sepulveda, apparently miffed that Valencia was criticizing Sanchez and went beyond the set limit, called the security officers to remove him even as one of Valencia's companions was set to make the next public comments on the same topic. As Valencia tried to complete his remarks, Sepulveda signaled the security guards at lest three times to remove him from the podium.
It has been more than 90 days since Sanchez resigned by announcement that he would seek the county judgeship in the Democratic Party primary. He made that announcement Nov. 10 and many expected that Sepulveda – as county judge – would name someone to replace him since the Texas Government Code dictates that a replacement be named "as soon as possible."
That phrase has been twisted by Sepulveda who opted to inject politics into the choice and keep Sanchez on the county payroll and let the primary decide who should replace him.
"When we have a county judge that does not follow the statutes, what can anyone do?," said a county elected official. "The District Attorney (Luis V. Saenz) is in a tight race of his own and won't act to force Sepulveda to make the decision."
Some court house observers had criticized Sanchez for wearing a campaign button at least twice during county meetings, apparently – as he himself characterized it – "in bad taste." Now, even without his campaign button, it seems that Sepulveda has revealed his choice of county judge candidates in this race.