DEVIL IN THE DETAILS: $8,069 RAISE IN THREE YEARS FOR ONE WHILE NOTHING FOR OTHERS WITH MORE SENIORITY. WHY?

By Juan Montoya

After the outcry over the proposed exorbitant pay raises for Cameron County elected officials for the 2020 fiscal year, the chastised officials quietly tabled the proposal and settled for the same salaries listed on the 2019 FY.

Critics said that the commissioners and other elected officials knew what their salaries were when they ran for office and didn't deserve to raise them, some by as much as $30,000 from FY 2019 to FY 2020.

And so these salaries remain frozen. For the workers in Public Works and Road and Bridge budgets – the lowest end of the pay scale and who perform the hardest work – wages have remained static for the last five or six years. The 2 to 3 percent pay raises they were promised never materialized. Mechanics and equipment operators, and laborers for the most part remain at the same salary levels they were at for the last four to five years.

These wages go from the mid 20,000s to the middle 30,000, depending on job description and seniority.

But there are some notable exceptions.
For example, the salary schedules approved by the court show Precinct 2 foreman Santana Vallejo getting a $1,000 raise from 2017 to 2020. For the most part, the vast majority of Public Works and Road and Bridge Maintenance have lingered at the same wages all that time. (That's the fun-loving Vallejo in one of his Facebook posts)

City of Brownsville Pubic Works crews remember Vallejo.

He left the city after a near scrape when city workers were discovered using materials from the sidewalk building project to do jobs on the side building driveways on private property.

He also got into a scrape ehen he came to the county where he somehow managed to dodge several Cameron County Sheriff's Department investigations of theft involving the sale of concrete driveway pipes to rural residents. His attorneys scared those who were sold the pipes by saying they were just as guilty as Vallejo and they refused to testify.

But as far as stagnant salaries, Asst. Pct. Foreman Robert Lopez, who has been with the county for more than a decade, has room to complain. His salary in 2017 was $35,479. In FY 2020, that salary remains the same at $35,479. As precinct asst. foreman, Lopez knows the ins and outs of the job as well as being responsible for the work crews.

However,as they say, it's not what you know, it's who you know.

Take the case of one of Vallejo's proteges who has only been with the county for three only years. That would be one Eric James Hinojosa who started as a equipment operator in 2017 at a salary of $29,342. But by 2019, young Eric's salary jumped to $34,010, the only one who got a raise over more experienced operators of $4,668.

What did this rookie operator do or show Vallejo that the other, more experienced and seasoned workers did not? No one knows.

The FY 2020 salary schedule shows the same trend. The majority of workers with more seniority and experience like Asst. Pct. Foreman Lopez stayed at the same salary level.

But surprise, little Eric – under the wing of Vallejo – not only got a salary hike to $37,411 from $34,010, a $3,401 raise, but also got a promotion to Asst. Pct. foreman like Lopez.

All told, Hinojosa saw his salary go up from $29,342 in FY 2017 to the current $37,411 for FY 2020, a $8,069 pay increase over three short years. That puts him $1,932 above the more experienced Asst. Pct. Foreman Lopez whose salary has remained the same since Hinojosa joined the road crew.

Obvious disparities like this do not contribute to good morale at the county barn. People start talking about favoritism under his watch and about Vallejo apparently trying to get into the good graces of Hinojosa's recently divorced mom. It would be interesting to see what justification is given for the meteoric rise of young Eric under his benefactor.

New Pct. 2 commissioner Joey Lopez – who is credited with  proposing the exorbitant salary increases for elected officials – might want to take a closer look at this anomaly happening in his precinct budget. Or is he not aware of what everybody in Pubic Works and Road and Bridge Maintenance knows?