THE SAME MOLD: SEN. LUCIO JR., LUCIO III, RENE OLIVEIRA

 By Juan Montoya
One thing you can count on when it comes to our representatives at the state level: If there is a dollar to be made from their positions of public trust, they will grab it.

We saw it in our esteemed state senator Eddie Lucio Jr., and we have seen it in his son Eddie Lucio III. Rene Oliveira is cut from the same cloth.



In Sen. Lucio's case, it was he who convinced the commissioners of the Brownsville Navigation District that they should change engineers for the Bridge to Nowhere from Brown & Root to Dannenbaum Engineering.

The result? The disappearance of $21 million from the port taxpayers, $100,000s in Lucio's pocket as a consultant, and no bridge.

 He did the same thing in Willacy County with the construction of private prisons. He convinced the county commissioners to go with the companies for which he was consulting and three commissioners ended up going to jail for taking bribes. Lucio ended up with, you guessed it, mucho money in his pocket as their "consultant."

Lucio III just happens to be on the The State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) Advisory Committee that advises the Texas Water Development Board on the administration of SWIFT funds.

The committee reviews the overall operation, function, and structure of the fund at least semi-annually and advises the board on any water related matter. That committee has not met since March 2017.

Yet, because of his membership on that committee, Lucio III has managed to snag on as a "consultant" with Beatty Bangle Starma who does work for various water and drainage districts for a pretty fee.

TEDSI, another consultant firm for which Lucio works, regularly bills the Hidalgo Drainage District # 1 for their work and include compensation for Lucio III as a partner in Beatty Bangle in the $10,000s. In inner circles of South Texas water and drainage personnel he is known as a "Water Rata."

He was also chosen as the city attorney for the City of Rio Hondo.

Oliveira is not much different. He is on the "consultant" list for  Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, the largest delinquent-tax collection firm in the state. In his role as their "consultant," Oliveira passed through a bill in the house that allowed the company to increase their take on the collection of delinquent taxes by 2.5 percent, making them millions at one bold stroke.

His firm is not much different. Take, for example, the recent settlement of the settlement stemming from San Benito's lawsuit against companies involved in the construction of the $17 million water plant.

The media reported that a total of $2.8 million in attorneys’ fees and another $1.06 million in expenses bit into what was a total $9.02 million settlement in favor of the Resaca City. Of that San Bene was paid $4 million and a defendant agreed to perform $3.1 million in services aimed at putting the water plant back into operation.

The settlement stems from the lawsuit filed in 2014, in which the city argued the water plant did not properly operate. City commissioners met in closed session with City Attorney Ricardo Morado to discuss the settlement’s disbursements.

Attorneys’ fees and expenses took about $3.8 million of the total settlement amount. And do you know who Morado works with and how much they were paid? The settlement paid $1.29 million to Morado’s firm, Roerig, Oliveira & Fisher of Brownsville; $1.29 million to Arnold & Itkin of Houston; and $188,219 to Beck Redden & Secrest of Houston.

City Commissioner Esteban Rodriguez said he had questioned the Roerig, Oliveira & Fisher firm’s involvement in the lawsuit because Morado serves as city attorney. “It concerned me at the time,” Rodriguez said. “Now, it’s already settled.”

And so the likes of Oliveira and Lucio 1 and Lucio 3 continue to gorge themselves on the misfortunes of their constituents with not one bit of remorse. Lucio III and Oliveira are up for reelection this year. Will they continue using their public trust to feast on the rotting carcass of the Valley's economy like so many maggots?