HONEYMOON'S OVER: WE HAD A FALLING OUT, AS LOVERS OFTEN WILL; NO ONE OUTSIDE THE DEPARTMENT NEED APPLY

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

There's an opening at the Cameron County Sheriff's Department.
However, not just anyone can apply for the $80,000 a year annually gig.

The second-in-command job at the sheriff's office at Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center is open only to in-house applicants.

The chosen applicant will replace outgoing Chief Deputy Robert Gracia, a former U.S. Customs officer who invested heavily in the campaign to have Cameron County Sheriff Eric Garza elected, then promptly set about to alienate the department's personnel based on who had supported Garza and the former (and late) Sheriff Omar Lucio.

But he will not earn the close-to-$100,000 salary Gracia was earning. Instead his replacement will start at about $80,000.

In no time at all after the election, Gracia's authoritative manner sparked lawsuits in federal and state courts from the department's staff, even one from Cameron County itself when he and Garza tried to establish their command over the security at the county courts.

In fact, Gracia started issuing orders and replacing personnel before he was even a Cameron County employee. It wasn't until March, 2021, three months after Garza started his term, that he was officially hired by Cameron County. 

One, filed in federal court by Sgt. Rodrigo Almanza, was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. with prejudice early July, 15 months after it was filed. Rumors are that the issue is not dead yet. But we'll see.

In the lawsuit, Almanza claimed that Garza and Gracia retaliated against him for supporting Lucio by taking the following actions:

—Transferring him to the Transport Division from the prestigious Criminal Investigations Division, where he handled major crimes and also served as a liaison to the CCSO's counterpart in the Republic of Mexico

—stripping him of all subordinates and supervisory duties

—assigning him to shift schedules and working conditions not given to the other CCSO supervisors

—having him report to a person not certified as a peace officer, and

—requiring him to perform menial and pointless tasks like distributing inmate meal carts and physically manning a perfectly operational gate.

In his ruling pertaining to Garza, Rodriguez states, that "Almanza's claims against Garza fail because uncontroverted summary judgment evidence demonstrates that Garza would have taken the same action against Almanza even in the absence of the alleged conduct protected by the First Amendment, and Almanza has not created a fact issue that the non-retaliatory reasons for the employment action were pretextual." Uh?

The one against Cameron County was settled after the commissioners court allowed Garza to provide security for the county's courts and used it's courthouse security budget to fund protection for county buildings under Pct. 2 Constable Abel Gomez.

And even though the application period for the job will be between August 8 through August this coming Fridday, August 12, insiders say the job will go to former Cameron County Parks ranger Silverio "Silver" Cisneros, who has been angling for the plum for years. In fact, "Silver" has run twice unsuccessfully against Gomez for constable.

Suddenly, the second-in-command spot fell on his lap. Good things come to those who wait. (That's the dynamic duo in happier times at right.)

But before we start shedding crocodile tears for Gracia, we should remind our seven readers that his son JP 2-2 Jonathan Gracia's mother-in-law, was the recipient of the lucrative jail commissary contract worth close to $1 million in annual sales to sell food and clothing to county inmates, a captive audience.

We understand that Gracia's tenure at the CCSO ends effective August 15, three days after the application for his chief deputy slot is expected to be filled by Cisneros. He will not, insiders say, be missed.