SALAZAR'S CASE DROPS COST COUNTY $3.8 MILLION IN FINES

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Special to El Rrun-Rrun

A mailer sent by JP 2-1 challenger charges that incumbent Linda Salazar dismissed almost 20,000 cases in the last two Fiscal Years to divert attention from her inattention to her docket.

Those cases were generated during the last 15 years she has been in office and she has to own them.

After 13 years of her tenure (FY 2018), there were 25,686 cases remaining open in her court, more than the other two Brownsville JPs combined (13,215 and 9,998) and – aside from JP 1 in Port Isabel, more than any of the other nine JP offices.

Salazar claims she is not the only JP to dismiss cases and that the DA agreed to the dismissals.

The cases that Linda asked the DA to drop in her court were generated by her in the last 15 years she's held office. Other JPs made the attempt to notify defendants that they could be brought to court if they didn't pay the fines and in some cases inherited the backload. After exhausting all possibilities to collect, the DA agreed to dismiss some in those court.

The open cases go back more than a decade and Linda has been there for 15 years. She claims her office was short handed and that she needed more staff

Over the years, Linda had accumulated 25,686 open cases over 13 years before she got the DA to dismiss 19,417 tickets, nearly wiping out total cases remaining open and costing the county taxpayers millions to make herself look good.

The DA does not get involved looking over the JPs shoulders. If the JP asks that some cases be dismissed, they have to justify why they should be dismissed. 

Two years ago Linda told the commissioners that she was short handed and needed extra help to address the problems.Despite given the additional funds, it did not result in any measurable increase in revenue to the county and she had to ask the DA to drop the cases.

Hinojosa estimates that the mass dismissals cost the county nearly $4 million in revenue (at a $200 average per case).

During the last two years when she has dismissed 19,417 cases, her office had collected less money than the other two Brownsville JPs. In FY, her office was dead last of the three Brownsville JPs.

It wasn't until last year FY 2018-2019, that she registered a 5 percent increase from the last year. Even this meager increase ($45,649) from $960,530 to $1,006,179 in collections doesn't compare to the lost revenue due to dismissals in the same period of 25,686 cases which at an average of $200 per citation cost the county $3.8 million.

Hinojosa points out that Salazar instead has focused on spending the majority of her time soliciting the wedding business which - as allowed by Texas law - ends up with more than $120,000 in her pocket every year. None of those fees go to the county coffers.

Salazar's supporters say that over time people know her and seek her out to marry them.

But she cannot deny that she has been caught on tape in the Cameron County Clerk's Office talking to couples and inviting them to her office so she can marry them and charge them a fee of anywhere from $2000 to $300 per ceremony.

There have also been instances where someone in that office put her business card in the marriage license envelope to steer business her way. In other words, over the years she has cultivated the marriage ceremony business to the detriment of the other duties of her office.

Elected officials should not use their public offices and public facilities to enrich themselves while ignoring their other duties and making the other JPs shoulder the work load. Elected officials took an oath to work for the people, not grow fat from the perks of office.