To
the Editor:
The Laredo electorate
has often treated the office of the County Judge as
a sinecure. Some may take issue with my diction or
opinion because if this observation is true, then
why did County Judge Louie Bruni go along with the
idea of hiring an additional county administrator?
One could argue that there must be so much work that
two administrators are obviously needed. Nothing can
be further from the truth since the Judge does not
work full-time for the taxpayers of Webb County. And
when he does he conducts his personal business from
the county offices (Laredo Morning Times article,
2/5/03). The reason the commissioners court hired
Carlos Villarreal was because the judge's staff was
perceived as incompetent by the commissioners court
and also to recapture the institutional knowledge
that was lost and needed for the purpose of pursuing
a presidential permit for an international bridge.
By ex post facto judge Bruni acknowledged that his
staff was incompetent by voting to bring back Carlos
Villarreal, who was also former County Judge Mercurio
Martinez's county administrator. As the voters will
recall, Bruni was instrumental in Carlos' resignation
from the City of Laredo after the council voted to
fire the city manager. As the saying goes, "politics
makes strange bedfellows." The commissioners
court should consult with the county attorney and
seriously consider an alternate method of budget preparation
to produce cost savings and to avoid the budget fiasco
of last week by creating a budget officer position,
which essentially strips the county judge of his budget
officer duties. Then the commissioners court should
eliminate both the current chief of staff and executive
administrator positions, which have duplicative roles,
and transfer one of the more qualified and experienced
individuals to this newly created position. The new
budget officer could assist the commissioners court
in the performance of the court's duties relating
to the efficiency and effectiveness of county operations
(Local Government Code 111.071). Most folks would
agree that Carlos Viallarreal is the most qualified
to pursue the Webb County's goals under the given
political climate.
The half-educated county judge is a mosaic of influences:
the self-serving Machiavellian statecraft of Senator
Zaffirini, Old Party family ties, and South Texas
bossism. And yet, despite such glaring defects, one
can only surmise as to why the electorate voted for
Bruni over former Webb County Judge Mercurio Martinez.
Many political insiders claim that the electorate
simply wanted a change, but others would argue that
it was Judge Bruni's campaign promise to the voters
that he would end the bickering between the city and
the county by abandoning the county's plans for construction
of an international bridge that finally tipped the
scales in his favor on election day. The county judge's
vacillation on the bridge issue is a sign that he
doesn't have a political backbone and cannot be trusted
with the taxpayers' money. However, the dynamics are
far too complex for this brief editorial, and a more
detailed analysis will follow in a forthcoming book
I have been working on regarding the social basis
of bossism on the border.
Nevertheless, since Bruni has assumed office the county
has sunk to the lowest degree of credibility. Webb
County is currently on the road to perdition and the
emotional type of jihad the county judge has created
toward the people that oppose his policies partially
explains why he and his staff have barricaded themselves
in the upper floor of the county courthouse. But the
bunker style mentality and mismanagement of county
resources cannot continue indefinitely without causing
serious long-term damage to the representative form
of government he was elected to uphold. His administration,
in establishing control, has systematically tried
to abolish all vestiges of democratic principles by
mercilessly suppressing dissenting views. His recent
tirades in threatening a citizen with contempt of
court for expressing her views or his constant bashing
of the Laredo Morning Times is appalling and I am
ashamed to have served with him on the city council.
The patrón system of government is back with
a vengeance. But how can we expect the county judge
to behave any differently when he is a direct descendant
of the families that perpetuated bossism in South
Texas for nearly a hundred years?
One of the most critical sets of questions about Laredo's
political system is the composition of its leadership:
Who governs and who has access to power and what are
the social conditions of rule in Laredo? Such issues
should be of concern to the electorate and primarily
to political science students at Texas A&M International
University. Furthermore, TAMIU would better serve
the community if the future leaders were to study
the patterns affecting the operative codes that affect
the behavior of the leaders in the system. Consideration
of these problems is highly relevant to an understanding
of political change in South Texas, and Laredo offers
a promising laboratory for a study of them. The majority
of Laredoans are politically homeless or orphaned
because they do not vote. But one can understand their
frustration since many of the local leaders are more
interested in their political careers than in the
people's welfare.
The sad state of politics inWebb County is beyond
redemption with Senator Zaffirini at the helm and
County Judge Bruni as her lackey. They both have repeated
the tragedy of the mythical Greek Narcissus: they
are hopelessly absorbed with themselves. One only
has to cite a few examples of their public policy
decisions to see the operative code guiding the behavior
of so unholy a political alliance. According to street
wisdom and the scuttlebutt among the local judiciary
in the wake of Judge Bruni's ill-conceived proposed
restructuring of the Webb County district courts,
the plan was allegedly a directive from the Zaffirini
camp as retribution for the loss of the highly publicized
Brittingham case by the Zaffirini law firm. Furthermore,
Judge Bruni used his position and influence as a former
councilman to award thousands of dollars to Zaffirini
Communications for the production of a Protocol Handbook,
and Priority Procedures for the Mayor and City Council.
Bruni also insisted on raising the original amount
of the contract. This is a questionable transaction
because a state official should not be getting paid
from a local taxing entity she represents at the state
level to perform work that could have easily been
obtained at no cost from other sources. Furthermore,
other Laredoans were never given ample opportunity
to perform such work. One would have thought the Bruni/Zaffirini
sweetheart deal would have ended with Bruni's city
council term. Nevertheless, this gross conflict of
interest simply migrated to the county, with Judge
Bruni spearheading for similar communications and
customer service workshops from Zaffirini Communications.
The county should have requested an Attorney General
opinion. And even if the AG opinion were to state
that this particular transaction did not violate constitutional
or statutory standards of conduct, it could still
be considered unethical.
Judge Bruni's proposal to begin negotiations with
Wackenhut Corrections Corporation to build a new superjail
does not pass the smell test either, since he tried
to ramrod the item through the commissioners court
with little public discussion. It's no coincidence
that Senator Zaffirini's husband Carlos Zaffirini
represents Wackenhut, and that he also served as the
head of Bruni's administrative transition team while
he assumed the county judge's office (LMT 6/21/03).
I fully understand that leveraging support for pet
projects has always been part of the political process;
however, it is so transparent that the jail and bridge
issue have been the driving force for other issues,
such as who to hire for the road and bridge position,
for tax attorneys, a county administrator, and Bruni's
bizarre attempts to solve the county's drought problems.
From the furniture debacle to the subsequent leakgate
that led to the county hiring an out of town public
relations firm that handled election polls and phone
banks for Bruni's run for office is consistent with
his practice of patrón politics.
And finally the county's request from the Comptroller
of Public Accounts for a Governmental Accounting Standard
Board (GASB) 34 Implementation Review to assist Webb
County in adapting to the new accounting and financial
reporting standards was a waste of state taxpayers'
money because the county was already in compliance
with GASB 34. If the Judge's staff would have communicated
with the county auditor or allowed the comptroller
staff to directly discuss the review with the county
auditor, then the waste of state tax dollars could
have been avoided, since the commissioners court had
already hired an accounting firm to assist the county
with the new reporting standards.
The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is
doing because of the distrust and Machiavellian politics
that is so pervasive throughout Webb County administration.
It's like the blind leading the blind in a sinkhole
of retrogression, abuse of the public trust, abuse
of power, and sycophancy. The rot is worsening in
Laredo politics, and hopefully the voters will empower
themselves and remove the shackles of boss rule by
voting the scoundrels out of office in the next election
cycle. For Laredo to maintain its competitive edge
in international trade, medicine, education, and the
arts, it must have a stable form of government and
of high political standards and practices. Monarchies
contain unstable elements and a King Louis Bruni monarchy
will only degenerate and change into tyranny. I suggest
he read the Greek historian Polybius for a study of
politics. Most people become better persons as they
mature, but others are tragically flawed with their
pursuit of power and money at any cost. The judge
should well heed the words of Sir Winston Churchill:
"We make a living by what we get. We make a life
by what we give."
Alfonso I. "Poncho"
Casso,
former city councilman and Mayor Pro Tem for the City
of Laredo, and former manager of the Local Government
Assistance Division for the Comptroller of Public
Accounts. Currently working on a book on Laredo politics.
Austin, Texas
(512) 743-5927
