SHERIFF JOBS TO HIGHEST BIDDER, CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

First there was Robert Gracia, one of the two main contributors to new Cameron County Sheriff Eric Garza's campaign who was tabbed to be chief deputy even though he wasn't a state certified peace officer.

Gracia – a retired Drug Enforcement Agency veteran – came in guns blazing even before Garza was sworn in ordering sheriff department personnel to attend the swearing in and to reapply for their jobs on pain of termination. 

He took over the position even though he wasn't one of the eight applicants for the chief deputy advertised slot. 

After three months and various attempts at passing the Texas Commission On Law Enforcement (T-COLE), he did and is now Garza's right-hand man. He is now listed as chief deputy at $86,020, a handsome profit for his investment. 

But even before he passed the test, he had

authorized transfers in personnel from various divisions and implemented policies that seemed to some supporters of the previous sheriff they were retaliatory. 

He figures prominently in two lawsuits in federal court, one of them for allegedly violating the First Amendment rights of former sheriff Omar Lucio supporter and subjecting him to demeaning and humiliating chores below less qualified personnel. 

Then, after getting the commissioners court to approve an office administrator's job and two clerks, Garza announced that his former deputy at the district clerk's office Ricardo Cornejo was getting the job, a day before the application period for the position had expired and without any interviews conducted. Cornejo, who campaigned heavily for Garza, is now listed at the department at a $48,470 salary.  

 

Were those Sheriff Department positions for sale?, people ask.

Qualifications don't seem to matter. What matters is if you helped in his campaign or donated money. Instead, for example, of promoting secretaries that have been there for years and years at lower paying positions, he is hiring the people that helped him in his campaign, sources say. 

One of Cornejo's two assistants is Nereyda Arredondo, who was earning $28,000 at the district clerk's office and who now works at the sheriff's department. Garza removed two veteran patrol lieutenants from their offices to give Arredondo, who helped him financially in his campaign. She is listed in campaign reports as having donated $2,250.

Arredondo now works at the sheriff's department. Her $2,250 donation was almost 10 percent of her salary then. She is now making $30,949 as an office specialist at the department. 

At the time many speculayed that she - like two or three other low-plow-paid district clerk employees who donated thousands -were merely "prestanombres" to cover large donors.

Garza removed the two veteran patrol lieutenants from their offices to give Arredondo and another clerk the space. Is it good policy to embarrass patrol supervisors by removing them from their offices to please his campaign contributors? 

Then there is the spending thousands of dollars to paint all the patrol units and changing all the uniforms of department deputies to erase the Lucio presence rather than asking giving a deserved pay raise for them and the jailers?

Just four months into his four-year term and things do not bode well for the folks out at Rucker-Carrizales. How many more lawsuits are lurking out here with this scorched earth administrative policy?