PORT'S' REED BLINKS: TRUSTEE ELECTIONS IN NOVEMBER?

By Juan Montoya

He was adamant.

Brownsville Navigation District Chairman - facing an opponent for his Place 3 position - during a teleconference meeting - said the May 2 elections for the port board would be held, hell or high water.

If the Texas Southmost College district decided to hold them in November, Reed told the participants, we'll go ahead and do it on May 2 even if we have to run it ourselves. Today TSC voted to hold their on November 3.

Reed was in a hurry to hold the election to fend off pesky Julio Grana, his opponent, and said the port would hold the elections even if Cameron County Election Administrator Remi Garza was under the restrictions of the disaster declaration by Gov. Greg Abbott.

On March 20,  Abbott suspended the May 23 primary runoff elections because of the potential for spreading the virus and postponed them until July 14, with the early voting period starting July 6.

Both the BND and TSC have contracted with the county to run their elections providing the machines polling place judges and workers across both districts.

However, with the disaster declaration by Abbott, (Remi) Garza was said to have complained to the port that he would be prevented from using the machines or personnel available to hold their election.

There are eight early voting sites including the port main building.

There are three seat up for grabs on the BND board, Places 1 (Ralph Cowen, incumbent), 3 (John Reed incumbent) and Place 5 (Sergio "Tito" Lopez, incumbent).

Brownsville hotelier and investor Grana is challenging Reed for Place 3 and Lopez is facing Bill Berg, associated with the "No Road" movement in Brownsville's West Side.

On the TSC side, Adela Garza faces Jorge Luis Sifuentes for Place 1. Alejandra Aldrete, Ancelmo Naranjo Jr. and Antonio Guevara, are candidates for Place 2. Delia Saenz faces no challengers for Place 4

"Reed said that the port would run the election themselves and get the machines to  do it, even if there was only one polling place at the port and port personnel would run it," said a participant in the teleconference. "He was adamant about holding the elections despite the governor's disaster declaration."

Well, how things change.

The chairman has now issued the statement via the port's PR machine that: "The Brownsville Navigation District (BND) will consider postponing the scheduled May 2nd commission elections until November as a further step to safeguard the community from the potential spread of the coronavirus and pursuant to a proclamation of the Governor of Texas and a related advisory issued by the Texas Secretary of State."

The BND board of trustees will hold a special telephonic meeting scheduled for 12 p.m. Friday, March 27, where they they will vote on whether for the  the commission elections to be conducted on Tuesday, November 3 with other local, state and federal elections.

Reed, who had vowed to hold the election May 2 in defiance of the governor's declaration and placing the voters and election volunteers and judges in danger of infection by COVID-19 is singing a different song now.

“The well-being of our community is always our top priority,” said Reed, “and we need to consider all responsible steps to safeguard poll volunteers and the voting public. We are continuing to monitor decisions and recommendations across the state as we work together to protect our community.”

Aha!