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ERNIE/ERIN: CADRIEL CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST
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By Juan Montoya It's been a mean season for current Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Ernie Hernandez â€" and by association â€" his daughter Erin's candidacy for Justice of the Peace 2-2. No sooner Teflon Ernie weathered a controversy that would have forced most honorable politicians from office, than another storm of dishonor rain down on his parade. The list is long. Should we start with the ongoing investigation of the bogus hiring of his brother-in-law Roberto Cadriel as a security guard at Veterans Memorial International Bridge, a job that lasted two days before he jumped ship as the public learned that perhaps someone else ha<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlnfaXj-9ZHT7zcqGHQdv4G-eyVSP2AX6zm8C6zkSeSRcCtjUZHPmuiHffv9XGubbnxHCgcbR2UyUlrkCIrwG1en94I6konjPMHF7UjlGarL8DE2gwE5XTFQ5lLl9Tl7Eohwm2wRRKCvw/s1600/ernieerin.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 348px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 235px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733154772977860882" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlnfaXj-9ZHT7zcqGHQdv4G-eyVSP2AX6zm8C6zkSeSRcCtjUZHPmuiHffv9XGubbnxHCgcbR2UyUlrkCIrwG1en94I6konjPMHF7UjlGarL8DE2gwE5XTFQ5lLl9Tl7Eohwm2wRRKCvw/s200/ernieerin.jpg" /></a>d taken the civil Service exam after he failed to pass it twice? We still haven't heard the end of that. Will the DA find enough evidence to issue indictments on the circumvention of the Civil Service, a federally-protected employment program? Or how about the fact that the then-Human Resources officer Robert Lopez, rather than stand his ground in the swirling blame game for the snafu chose instead to step aside and resign from his job? County sources tell us that a county worker in the Human Resources office may have taken (and passed) the test that Cadriel could only muster a grade of 36 at the most. The final grade after the third try was in the 90s. Either he's a fast study or, well...you draw your own conclusions. How about the recent coverage of his wife Norma's cousin Aroldo Cadriel and his involvement in the murder of a teenage girl and the alleged molestation of young boys? Now, as more victims step forward to point an accusing finger at the accused, the Hernandezs can't find enough cover. Before that it was the vending machine contract with the county whose ownership went from Ernie, to Erin, and then to Norma to try to avoid the obvious conflict of interest inherent in having an elected official doing business with the entity he represents? And how about Erin being listed on the campaign push cards of John Villarreal as his treasurer when the rules for the Texas judiciary clearly forbid a magistrate's involvement in any political campaign? Erin at the time was listed as the magistrate at Primera, Texas. There was, about two years ago, a huge controversy involving the use of the community park buildings (El Centro in Cameron Park, and Browne Park) to give free notary public services. At the time, the county's legal counsel said that county employees had no business dispensing the free services because it smacked of political campaigning on county time. Well, now we learn that when Ernie benevolently sought funds to hand out free gifts to families at Cameron Park, none other than his daughter Erin (running for justice of the peace) was chosen to put on the Santa Claus hat and personally hand them out. While we were visiting the Roaldo Cadriel tragedy, we got a few calls from former county workers who said Ernie lied when he said he had nothing to do with using thousands of dollars of caliche and the labor county employees and machinery (and federal colonia monies) to extend the caliche top on Nogal Road more than a mile all the way to the end of the road where Cadriel had his firing range business. Ernie conveniently didn't "recall" that when Carlos Cisneros was let go as then-Pct. 2 Commissioner John Wood's administrative assistant, he hired Hernandez to replace him. Ernie had just beaten Ruben PeÃ±a as the Democratic candidate for Pct. 2 and Wood thought it would be good for Ernie to get his beak wet before he took over the position before the November election. Well, apparently Wood didn't have to tell Ernie twice. He knows his way around a trough. The former county workers said that Nogal Road has but a few house on the north end of the road, and that they never used caliche to cover the far end of the unused thoroughfare. Not until Ernie came into the picture that is. "They put the colonia project workers and used colonia money to buy trucks and trucks of caliche to spread it far south where there aren't even any houses," said one on condition of anonymity. "And it wasn't just a few trucks, the caliche crown was at least six inches thick and about a mile long. It went right by Roaldo Cadriel's firing range." Knowing Ernie, these instances of questionable actions will probably not be the last we hear from his camp as we advance toward the May 29 Democratic primary wheere his daughter is running for office. Will we as voters remember?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-2300733158321451582?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/04/for-ernieerin-cadriel-chaickens-come.html

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IS LINEBARGER SNIFFING AROUND THE CITY COMMISSION AGAIN FOR DELINQUENT TAX COLLECTION CONTRACT?
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By Jim Barton <a href="http://www.meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot.com/">http://www.meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot.com/</a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrhTYTWC5KvYjfxK5Wjq9Scqu2ctKrTV6wnS2Eqvwbp7AvKruN6HhnF2jMwNpb57QBY6oYS6Kpot6-unyjpzI1O9ODpWKKz-u2XubyaWA_6e7jV5fo3lct_L1zrN6X9aU_qY2-d31bGCc/s1600/barton.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 144px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 171px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733144553919236690" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrhTYTWC5KvYjfxK5Wjq9Scqu2ctKrTV6wnS2Eqvwbp7AvKruN6HhnF2jMwNpb57QBY6oYS6Kpot6-unyjpzI1O9ODpWKKz-u2XubyaWA_6e7jV5fo3lct_L1zrN6X9aU_qY2-d31bGCc/s200/barton.jpg" /></a> The huge Linebarger law firm works the political game so well. They win contracts again and again, not on merit, but on influence. They recently garnered the contract for delinquent tax collection at BISD despite charging more for the service and having a poorer collection record than at least one of the competing bidders. Recently, though, the City Commission, at the urging of Mayor Tony Martinez, threw us a curve. It was decided to try doing collections in house, thus saving citizens a 30 percent recovery fee tacked on top of their fines. The move seemed benevolent and citizen-oriented, although I was cynically warned at the time that it was just a ploy to fail at collections and fall back to the open arms of Linebarger. Here is part of the Mean Mister Brownsville report published 1/18/12: Tony Martinez made a proposal at the 1/17/12 City Commission meeting that could make past due traffic citations less costly for those ticketed in Brownsville. Martinez spoke of "hard times" and the need not to put an excessive burden on locals who had difficulty paying traffic fines. Martinez explained that the current practice has been to ad a 30 percent administrative fee to all citations after 60 days, providing revenue to an outside collection firm collecting payments. He stated that the collection rate was still rather small, perhaps as low as 22 percent on delinquent fines. Now, we learn that Linebarger PR man Mark Moody is sniffing around the City Commission, angling for the collection contract. Actually, nothing has been put out for bids. The in-house experiment is still in progress. But protocol has never been Linebarger's long suit. State Representative Rene Oliveira has done stellar work for Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, L.L.P., but nothing for the citizens of the district. As we detailed in a Mean Mister Brownsville article dated 3/07/12: Rene Oliveira's salary as a "Representative" of District 37 which includes Brownsville and Cameron County is said to be $7,200. He is also retained by the Brownsville Independent School District as interim counsel. But it is his work for Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson, LLP that gives his employer the most bang for the buck. First, a little historical perspective: In 2001 Oliveira spearheaded a comm<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlAv9QeXqOZZ5a2drD-ZzvAybYi9IhdhnXJzZI9fCA1LvBUPN5XO8W9C5Qa_b9GoPXPCqig_tIfNifQzVoSmcBkimcIjY1uSIG_zLC4k4jakWdFQLd8gTZHwMhxUE4kG1QlqfWDuPJ8VA/s1600/RENE+oliveira.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733144419317300290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlAv9QeXqOZZ5a2drD-ZzvAybYi9IhdhnXJzZI9fCA1LvBUPN5XO8W9C5Qa_b9GoPXPCqig_tIfNifQzVoSmcBkimcIjY1uSIG_zLC4k4jakWdFQLd8gTZHwMhxUE4kG1QlqfWDuPJ8VA/s320/RENE+oliveira.jpg" /></a>ittee to remove a line in section 3308 of the tax code limiting the delinquent tax collection fee to 15 percent, subsequently including language allowing a tax collection fee rate of 20 percent. That bill sailed through the Ways & Means Committee of which Rene was chairman and was passed by the entire house. Considering Linebarger's near statewide presence in tax collection, how many millions of dollars did this sleight of hand add to the company's coffers? Now, fast forward to 2012. With Rene Oliveira retained by BISD as interim counsel, but still connected to Linebarger, the February 2, 2012 board meeting agenda contains an action item INCREASING the tax collection rate by 2.5 percent netting the collection firm an extra $125,000. And who is that newly named firm? Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson LLP. (Please note: As documented by other bloggers, Linebarger was a substantial contributor to the campaigns of BISD board members Longoria, Escobedo and Saavedra.) Who pays this extra fee and the millions of dollars collected since 2001 by the passage Rene Oliveira's house bill? The tax payers, the very people Representative Rene Oliveira claims to represent. We must not limit Oliveira's traitorous betrayal of Brownsville and Cameron County to tax matters. . . . . . Yes, Rene Oliveira is a representative, but not of the people of Brownsville, Cameron County and District 37.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-6260415586703526030?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/04/is-linebarger-sniffing-around-city.html

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Thursday, April 19, 2012

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