Webb County government:
the chain has left the sprocket

By María Eugenia Guerra

In its quirky, sometimes offbeat and self-proclaimed march to bring professionalism to county government, the new administration of Webb County Judge Louis H. Bruni experiences moments in which the well-oiled chain of desired machinations leaves its sprockets. The harder he pedals, the longer he stays in place and chances falling over in a spill that could render him dirty.
Such is the very visible desire, that of the Judge and Commissioner David Cortez, to recycle former Community Action Agency (CAA) director José Valdez, Sr., into the new Road and Bridge Superintendent, a position that pays $61,700 annually in taxpayer dollars.
The Webb County Commissioners have been reviewing applications for that position over the last couple of weeks. Late last month, I had understood from a conversation with Webb County Chief of Staff Raul Casso that the roster of 11 applicants had been short-listed to five names, and that the short list included Valdez, he who had a rather unwieldly problem five years ago with air conditioners and heaters purchased with federal funds for the poor, ill, and disabled of Webb County.
To shake dust from the carpet under which Mr. Valdez' CAA debacle was so deftly swept and to refresh everyone's memory, Mr. Valdez in his capacity as CAA director ran a county administrated department that among other things was qualifying individuals across the county for air conditioners, water coolers, and heaters purchased with federal money. Under Mr. Valdez' watch air conditioners went to homes with no electricity, water coolers went to homes with no running water, and in some instances they went to homes where no individuals had filled out an application or qualified for a free air conditioner. Some went to homes that had not been weatherized to the specifications of the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs (TDHCA), the state agency administering the grant that purchased the air conditioners intended for the poor, ill, and disabled.
On August 20, 1998, I watched 14 of those units leave a county warehouse in a county truck and witnessed their unloading by county employees at a private residence in Colonia San Enrique on Hwy. 359 where no one had applied for or qualified for one single unit, let alone 14. After a brief discussion with the recipient of all 14 units -- a man who routinely surfaces during political campaigns -- who was unable to produce 14 applications, I watched him make a phonecall on a cell phone and then witnessed county employees re-loading the cargo and heading back into town.
After stories that ran in the September and October 1998 issues of LareDOS, Mr. Valdez' agency was audited n October 1998 by the TDHCA which published by letter findings that Mr. Valdez' agency had experienced some "serious mismanagement of program funds," "misapplication of the program," "inadequate service to clients," "payment for services that were not delivered," and instance upon instance of incomplete applications, erroneous calculations of client income for qualifying for the agency's services and free appliances, a host of questionable costs, invoices for weatherization work that was never completed. There was also the matter of 300 hoarded and warehoused heaters that were purchased with federal funds in 1997 and were available for but never given to the poverty-level elderly, ill, or disabled of Webb County.
Mr. Valdez eventually resigned in 1999, not because the Webb County Commissioners would go on the record with finding anything amiss in his administration of the Community Action Agency, but because the state agency agreed to forego $50,000 in disallowed costs if Mr. Valdez stepped aside. Mr. Valdez resigned quietly the way public servants are allowed to resign in Laredo without censure or even a public scolding. Shame on him and shame on those indebted to him for political favors.
When I heard that Mr. Valdez had made the short list for applications for road and bridge superintendent, I took a look at the other applicants, and I kept my ear to the ground to poll commissioners about who their choice might be from a pool of applicants that include persons in my opinion far more experienced with road work than Mr. Valdez and some with higher education degrees and experience. To be clear, there were some good applicants, but it looked like the field could be opened further for more applicants.
As I polled some of the members of the Webb County commissioners court, I began to get a picture of the hot potato the selection of Mr. Valdez might be. I also got a picture of how that hot potato was driving other issues not really related to Mr. Valdez, whom some people believe has political caché enough to help win an election. How better to thank a friend for his help in your last campaign, or to ensure his alliance in your next campaign, than to name him Road and Bridge Superintendent at $67,100 taxpayer dollars a year. What a generous gesture of thanksgiving as well as an insurance policy for support in a future election. But what happened to a thank you card and a gift certificate to Luby's, things you pay from your own personal pocket and not from county coffers?
As I made my straw poll of who supported Mr. Valdez for R&B super, I came across the driving forces for other issues and ended up getting a picture of a County Judge and one commissioner in particular leveraging support for this or that pet project in return for support for the hiring of José Valdez. (Not a real picture, Judge, just the one I formed mentally.) Two of those issues that seemingly carried leverage were who would be hired as the tax collecting attorneys for Webb County (an extremely hot potato) and whether or not the County would go forward with its application to construct the fifth international bridge. Relative to the tax collecting attorneys, allegedly there were calls from the county's chief prosecutor to a commissioner telling him to march in synch about the preferred choice for tax collecting attorneys, lest there be an indictment coming down the pike regarding an alleged FBI investigation into that commissioner's dealings and yet another call to another commissioner advising him that if he didn't understand the program, and quickly, that he could face criminal charges for a recent alleged altercation. Consider that the purveyors of this information and the envoys of these pressures include not only the DA's office but also a District Judge and a JP way too political for his own good and other political messengers doing the mandados of the current Webb County administration.
But here's the most sickening picture I got. Discussions about how and whom to hire for the road and bridge position, for tax attorneys, or for the building of an international bridge seem to be taking place not in the open forum of commissioners court chambers, but over telephones and in unofficial meetings that bear the spectre of violations of the open meetings act.
So here are my questions to the taxpayers of Webb County.
Have things really changed or is it business as usual? Why would you recycle José Valdez and his questionable and dismal performance as the director of the Community Action Agency into a road and bridge superintendent?
Why would you have these kinds of leverages driving the decision for whom to hire with your taxpayer funds? Why would you elect pawns to make choices for how to spend your money -- not in the full light of open government and based not on qualifications or records of public service but on the need to repay a political favor? Is it OK with you to use your money to pay political debt, and was this change in Webb County government a real change or simply a lateral move?
(For all stories regarding the TDHCA audit of the Webb County Community Action Agency and Mr. José Valdez' subsequent "resignation" as director of the CAA, please go to www.laredosnews.com)