What the hell is going on in Webb County ?
El Diablo está suelto in the Justice Center and the Old Courthouse
The news according to El Pitazo

By María Eugenia Guerra

Publisher

Some of the best stories in this newspaper have come to us via El Pitazo, and I'm about to tell you one such story and in a very informal way.

The tipster who called on August 9 said that two county employees were about to leave the Webb County Courthouse to pick up donations for Precinct 1 Commissioner Frank Sciaraffa's scholarship fund. Those who contributed would end up with an ad on the cartulina (poster) announcing the upcoming fundraiser dance called “Baile Para Becas.”

The tipster told us the County employees included utilities employee Johnny Amaya, who happens to be a member of the Laredo City Council, and a member of Sciaraffa's staff.

LareDOS editor Ernie Treviño and I staked out the parking lot and waited.

Amaya pulled into the parking lot of the old courthouse in county vehicle #13-12, which bears the Webb County seal and “Utilities” under that seal. We watched as Sciaraffa's office administrator Sara Jo Davila boarded the county issue truck around 2:40 p.m., and then we tailed them down Sanchez/Gustavus and to two meat markets between there and Saunders. They never stopped. About 15 minutes into the tailing venture, the ride got a little crazy with a great deal of zigzagging on Amaya's part. He lost us in South Laredo on a street that runs parallel to Hwy. 83. Actually, we lost them. They were just about to pull into Rodriguez Pipe and Steel on Market Street , which is inaccessible from Market.

I was back in the courthouse parking lot visiting amiably with Commissioner Jerry Garza when county vehicle #13-12 pulled back in near the end of the work day.

When Davila disembarked, I asked her if she was fundraising for Commissioner Sciaraffa's scholarship fund while on county time. Davila said, “Ask him,” as she pointed to Amaya and continued her brisk walk back into the building. Davila is nothing if not cool and unflappable.

Asked if he was picking up contributions for Commissioner Sciaraffa's scholarship fund, Amaya vehemently denied that he had been and then drove off after a conversation with a man wearing a gun and a peach colored shirt, a man who told me I could not park in the manner in which I had parked.

In a subsequent conversation with Davila, she said she was doing as she had been ordered by Commissioner Sciaraffa. “Per his instructions,” she emphasized. When I called back again, she handed the phone to Commissioner Sciaraffa, who was quite irate.

When asked for a comment about Amaya and Davila running his errands and picking up donations for his scholarship fund, Sciaraffa responded, “You write what you want to write. That's your opinion. How do you know she was not on her lunch hour? Mr. Amaya was just driving.”

When I reminded him that Amaya was driving a county vehicle on county time, Sciaraffa asked, “How do you know that?”

“Because I photographed them coming and going,” I replied.

Sciaraffa denied that the two had used a county vehicle, though he later admitted it when questioned by County Attorney Homero Ramirez and Pro-8 News reporter Brandon Rittiman who reported on the use of county resources for private business.

“That stuff you wrote about me, it's not true. I'm doing a good job,” Sciaraffa said. “How come you didn't call me for a comment?” he asked in reference to a poem and a cartoon in the July 2005 issue of LareDOS.

“What about your friend Judy Gutierrez? Have you ever written anything bad about her? No! Because she's your best friend!” Sciaraffa yelled into the phone. (Though I am an admirer of Comissioner Gutierrez's independent mien as a public servant, she is not my best friend.)

According to Webb County utilities director Tomás Rodriguez, who is Amaya's direct supervisor, Amaya had not asked for annual leave to run the errands for Commissioner Sciaraffa. Rodriguez said that Amaya, a systems manager for the utilities department, is issued a county vehicle and has permission to drive it. “He was not authorized to drive it and another county employee on that kind of an errand,” Rodriguez said.

Another phone tip on the next day, August 10, alerted us that collection efforts were planned once more that afternoon in Amaya's personal vehicle. Among the stops scheduled for that outing, sources told us, were Laurel Insurance, which provides the County's health insurance plan, and the downtown office of attorney Ricardo de Anda.

That outing never transpired. Instead, Amaya was summoned to Judge Bruni's office for what one courthouse observer quipped was Amaya “meeting his maker.”

Davila said, “Commissioner Sciaraffa is my boss and he ordered me to run these errands. I was afraid I would lose my job.” She apprised Judge Bruni of details of the fundraising errands for Sciaraffa, errands that reportedly have been conducted since mid-July. She also answered questions posed by County Attorney Ramirez.

Sciaraffa's collection efforts at fundraising have been two-fold. One of his letters asked for cartulina ad sponsorships of $150. An additional letter asked for support for the scholarships as “Gold Sponsor $2,000.00” and “Silver Sponsor $1,000.00.”

County Attorney Ramirez initially said the use of county resources by Sciaraffa was “under investigation” and that he had spoken with a “contrite” Sciaraffa about the matter.

A few days later Ramirez said he had found “no official misconduct.” He said what he saw was “poor judgment by Sciaraffa and some of his volunteers.”