TSC PRESIDENT DISAVOWS ASST.'S ACTIONS ON CAMPAIGNING

By Juan Montoya

Texas Southmost College President Dr. Jesus Roberto Rodriguez has disavowed the actions of his senior administrative assistant who – accompanied by two security guards – confronted a candidate who was campaigning with students on the campus Thursday.

The incident happened at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday and involved Place 6 candidate Carlos A. Rios – who is one of two challengers of incumbent Dr. Rey Garcia, the other being J.J. de Leon – and who was campaigning among the students well removed from the 100-foot restricted area around the polling place at the Ft. Brown Memorial Center.

Unbeknownst to him and the students he was talking to, someone was watching them from inside the president's office at the Gorgas Building across the street. That someone was President Rodriguez's Senior Administrative Assistant Max E. Roca and the office secretary.

According to reports, Roca felt Rios should not be campaigning on college grounds and grabbing two uniformed American Surveillance security guards, went out to where Rios was talking to the students and told the candidate as much and said he could not continue to campaign there. Rios objected but deferred to Roca and left.

But his supporters questioned the propriety of Roca's actions and went to Edgar Chrnko, Director of Marketing and Community Relations, and also in charge of elections, to ask why Roca had told Rios he could not campaign on college grounds.

That Roca was accompanied by two American Surveillance security guards immediately fueled suspicions among Rios supporters that it could have been a response to Rios' platform plank calling for a college police department that would do away with the hiring of a private security firm.

To his credit, Chrnko told Rios' supporters that Roca was mistaken and that Rios and any other candidate was free to campaign at the college and interact with the students to encourage their participation in then college's elections.

This has left some people wondering whether Roca was acting on his own initiative or whether he was under the direction of Dr. Rodriguez.

When contacted, Rodriguez quickly nipped the suspicions in the bud and issued the following statement:

Texas Southmost College welcomes all candidates, in that it hosted a candidate open forum on
the TSC campus on April 17 to encourage student and community engagement with all
candidates. All of the candidates for the Texas Southmost College District Election were
present. (Click on graphic to enlarge.)

Candidates are able to interact with students and the community on the TSC campus, as long
as they adhere to the Elections Code requiring all candidates to remain at a minimum of 100
feet from an early voting and election day polling place.

We were recently informed that one of the campaign candidates was asked by Mr. Max Roca, an administrative assistant, to leave the TSC campus and to refrain from interacting with
students. Mr. Roca acted without authorization and direction and is not the designated elections
administrator at TSC.

Efforts were immediately made by the TSC Elections Administrator, Edgar Chrnko Salas, to
inform the candidate that he, as well as any other candidate, is welcome to proceed with
interacting with students and the community on the TSC campus.

After the meeting with Mr. Chrnko Salas, the candidate shared that he would continue to interact
and engage with students on the TSC campus on the same day. He also expressed
appreciation for the elections code clarification.

TSC board president Adela Garza  also assured us that Roca's actions were mistaken and taken on his own initiative without authority from the TSC president or the board.

"TSC encourages civic engagement and political participation, freedom of speech and of expression," she said. "Mr. Roca's actions in no way reflect the policies or philosophy of TSC."

It is worth noting that of the seven early voting locations in the college election, the Ft. Brown polling place has drawn the least number of votes so far.