IS COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR'S EMPLOYMENT ON THE LINE?

By Juan Montoya

Are there storm clouds in the horizon for Cameron County Administrator David Garcia at the next regular meeting of the commissioners this coming Tuesday?

Once the favorite of individual commissioners (Pct. 3 David Garza, for example), Garcia seems to have rubbed somebody the wrong way recently. Inside sources suggest that it may have been Garza himself who called for the item to be placed on the agenda. At one time, both seemed to have been joined at the hip and often traveled to Austin to represent the court in transportation forums.

On December 2014, during a meeting of the Cameron County Commissioners Court, Pct. 3 commissioner David Garza was presented the Texas Department of Transportation Road Hand Award given to him by for his labors at the Alliance of I-69.

Garza was the secretary-treasurer for the group and he frequently travels upstate to perform his duties aside from those of a county commissioner and a pharmacist in San Benito.

According to a Alliance I-69 press release, the award "is a TxDOT tradition to acknowledge those who have made major contributions to improving transportation in their community and in the state."

Garza is a long-time member of the board and is credited for making dozens of appearances before the Texas Transportation Commission to keep the spotlight on the fact that until 2013 the Lower Rio Grande Valley was the largest metropolitan area in the nation not served by the Interstate Highway System.

Garza, along with other leaders of Cameron County and Valley communities, worked with TxDOT, state lawmakers and members of Congress to attempt to convert US 77 and US 83 to freeway standard and to push successfully for legislation to allow these completed I-69 system sections to be added to be designated as interstates.

Those who attended the meeting where Garza showed off his award were somewhat embarrassed when Garcia – who often tagged along with Garza on his statewide sojourns – was the lone audience member who rose to applaud his benefactor's efforts. It is obvious that there is a real camaraderie, if not mutual admiration between them both, but the lone member ovation was a bit much for some.

Has there been a falling out between the two? If a decision to discipline, reassign or dismiss Garcia is made in executive session, it will be voted on in open court. Stay tuned.