EL RRUN RRUN
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/
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IMAGINE ERIN AND LINDA SALAZAR AS COMPETING CUPIDS!
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By <b>Juan Montoya</b><br />Now that we know that Erin Hernandez Garcia will be in charge of the Justice of the Peace 2-2 position, can we expect the same kind of performance from her that we are getting from her kindred soul Linda Salazar?<br />Courthouse regulars report that the <i>modus operandi</i> of the Salazar court consists of dodging cases filed by the Cameron County Sheriff's Department, constables and Department of Public Safety troopers against offenders.<br />They say that Salazar â€" who has been on the campaign trail for the past few months â€" at all costs tries to avoid and reject these thorny and unpopular cases and has her staff steer them toward the court now headed by Kip Van Hodge. Kip, a workaholic who â€" since he did not run for the office â€"doesn't care about the political fallout that results when he applies the law equally to everyone.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXBzWffYJh3biOmJDtORvQ66mQ_uNyJ9JsF443KXea5rk8U6ZOiBB2K7Z5s3rHjXwoD9h1pP3Ccds2DKaMrSkams2mtw_8Xlq2jHNGC9FiqebYf9T1N9UYM0AUkb0QZeZKGb_oWnx3nGc/s1600/salazargal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXBzWffYJh3biOmJDtORvQ66mQ_uNyJ9JsF443KXea5rk8U6ZOiBB2K7Z5s3rHjXwoD9h1pP3Ccds2DKaMrSkams2mtw_8Xlq2jHNGC9FiqebYf9T1N9UYM0AUkb0QZeZKGb_oWnx3nGc/s320/salazargal.jpg" width="240" /></a>As a result, these observers say that the staff at JP 2-2 has been overworked since they don't turn away constables, troopers or sheriff's deputies to avoid the unpopular cases.<br />Hodge, who is known to apply the rules by the book, has borne the extra load because he is not in competition for the money-making functions of the office like marriages as is Salazar next door.<br />The fact that Salazar was busy running for office against Libertarian Marlene Daughtery simply shifted more of the case load to Hodge's office.Troopers, sheriff deputies, and constables have now started to turn in tickets only to Hodge's court because they know he won't dismiss them, as Salazar is wont to do.<br />We have commented on Ms. Salazar's affinity to money-making marriage cases, but the lengths to which she has her staff hunt them down in the halls has reached the point where it has become embarrassing to courthouse employees. She reportedly sends her employees to look for likely couples and guide them to her court lest they knock on Hodge's door.<br />Salazar even has instructed the employees at the county clerk's office to physically walk them to her court if they happen to ask for the Justice of the Peace office to make marriage arrangements.<br />In the picture at right, an employee from Salazar's court was photographed sitting and waiting to steer potential matrimony cases wandering down the courthouse corridors to Linda Salazar's door.<br />Come January, will Erin Hernandez Garcia allow this potential windfall to be steered past her door or will she insist that Linda share the pie with her, unlike Hodge is doing now?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-1948683973666499760?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/11/imagine-erin-and-linda-salazar-as.html
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IS GILMAN JOCKEYING FOR 1ST DA ASST. DESPITE DISCREPANCIES IN DAUGHTER'S EMBEZZLEMENT CASE?
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />The jockeying to see who gets the plum assignments inside the Cameron County District Attorney's Office now that Luis Saenz has trashed Chuck Mattingly has begun.<br />One of the names that keeps being heard is that AD Asst. Peter Gilman â€" who once ran for DA himself â€" is looking longingly at the First Assistant position now that Mattingly will be gone.<br />But there is trouble on that horizon, some say.<br />Gilman, if you'll remember, is the stepfather of Melinda Gilman Gonzalez, the child-support collection clerk who got arrested and charged with taking between $8,000 and $10,000 in payments by parents under court order. The scheme involved taking payment after 430 p.m. when the computerized system was closed and then giving out handwritten receipts which were never entered in the system.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gju6yE4YeyCEPbJnfVPNJz0ZuQ_l4dBQZ6tJIgNOj3Z1DL5c59Xc87UpWDoo9f-4beC4DeukLm5OGEgECsgBKzrls6GbSYMqAHIDIabrWGOosy7PisRtiTIXmYJhAPq2qkASGlqNPr0/s1600/jockey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gju6yE4YeyCEPbJnfVPNJz0ZuQ_l4dBQZ6tJIgNOj3Z1DL5c59Xc87UpWDoo9f-4beC4DeukLm5OGEgECsgBKzrls6GbSYMqAHIDIabrWGOosy7PisRtiTIXmYJhAPq2qkASGlqNPr0/s400/jockey.jpg" width="400" /></a>What raises eyebrows was that when the scheme was discovered, her boss Cameron County District Clerk Aurora De la Garza attempted to keep the matter quiet and handle it in her own special way. She allowed the woman to resign, then allowed Gilman to walk her into the Cameron County Sheriff's Department and had her booked and released on her dad's signature.<br />To make matters worse, De la Garza is alleged to have been mentioned in a statement by a county employee who implicated her in attempting to prevent investigators from discovering the evidence (the receipt books) by urging them to make the books disappear.<br />The statements were then kept in the county auditor's possession and until now, have not been made available to the DA's office or the sheriff's investigators. <br />But even there, there seems to be a peculiar problem.<br />Why didn't the sheriff's investigators insist on getting the incriminating statement?<br />"The sheriff investigator who interviewed Gilman Gonzalez was a former classmate who went to high school with her," said a courthouse source. "He didn't withdraw from the investigation when he found out he knew the accused. It was no wonder he didn't probe that much."<br />This preferred treatment of an accused embezzler who happens to be related to Gilman, a DA's Office employee, is raising eyebrows in the courthouse community and local legal profession.<br />"Everyone starts jockeying for a position in the new administration," said our source. "But that may prove to be too much baggage for Luis (Saenz) to bear at the very onset of his term as DA. We'll see."<br />Meanwhile, courthouse observers are wondering whether the auditor's office will be forced to turn over the statement incriminating De la Garza. The DA's Office wrote the counsel for the Cameron County Commissioners Court asking for the document Oct. 12. So far, it is unknown whether they, or the auditors, have complied. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-7822747782188721948?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/11/is-gilman-jockeying-for-1st-da-asst.html
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CATY SURVIVES, POWERS IN, WILL THERE BE A PLACE 7 RECOUNT AS A RESULT OF GILL-MARTINEZ'S 4-VOTE WIN OVER CHIRINOS?
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />The dust hasn't settled in the race for control of the board of the Brownsville Independent School Board. But one thing is for certain.<br />The proposed majority of Otis Powers, Butch Barbosa, Minerva Peña and Jose Hector Chirinos is not to be.<br />Voters decisively voted to keep in Catalina Presas-Garcia and maintain the current board majority of Enrique Escobedo, Presas-Garcia, Lucy Longoria and Christina Saavedra.<br />And, if Chirinos calls for a recount and the resutls remain the same, Linda Gill-Martinez (the bus lady) will taker he seat after the results are canvassed and her razor-thin 4,709 to 14,705 four-vote victory stands. Word is she gets along just fine with the current majority.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2McMUD7jZRAZ6JopKQ3IW31Ao2Ku_px7J_vFzLfDhwjEe0WE4ZisbumEoO23Hc5U5pIhwouuv9g0rvjvNPyhqQmpfUrtkLAIrFKIRmitVf22-YvSv_Uv4Z_cSX6VkYe1IQPyO9wu1JA4/s1600/cata11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2McMUD7jZRAZ6JopKQ3IW31Ao2Ku_px7J_vFzLfDhwjEe0WE4ZisbumEoO23Hc5U5pIhwouuv9g0rvjvNPyhqQmpfUrtkLAIrFKIRmitVf22-YvSv_Uv4Z_cSX6VkYe1IQPyO9wu1JA4/s320/cata11.jpg" width="320" /></a>No one expected Gill-Martinez to beat Chirinos, and before a certain discredited cyberpolitiquero group tries to pin that rose on their ample lapel, the <em>rrunrrun</em> is that her extensive network among special ed parents and the community are responsible for her impressive showing.<br />Chirinos, who was counting on his good-guy demeanor and giving away of the BISD budget in overtime to bus drivers while head of BISD transportation was in for a rude awakening. Apparently, playing Santa Claus and Casanova with OPM (Other People's Money) didn't materialize as votes.<br />Observers say it stands to reason since the Choferes Unidos emit more sound and fury than actual votes.<br />"A lot of them can't even vote because they aren't citizens," said a BISD observer. "They are used to the tactics of the <em>sindicatos</em> of Mexico. That doesn't go over big around here."<br />Nonetheless, if Chirinos wants to stage a recount, it'll cost a pretty penny. Will his anger at being shunted from department to department so that he could get the idea that his days at the BISD were over drive him to incur yet another expense to feed his anger?<br />We'll see.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUeL7b2PN49Lplxn7pVDZd1CpfgTxMqo7lZgBby3ruBvHlLyJ6kdbiYIDBItawliG6jDtcTmlI_QnEYgQ9xF-OrWZH1KK_wfUvcoJWtKlSEP76rSvwd0YxzbDuY0pF8UU1FpXeokumNk/s1600/linda+gill+yellow+shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUeL7b2PN49Lplxn7pVDZd1CpfgTxMqo7lZgBby3ruBvHlLyJ6kdbiYIDBItawliG6jDtcTmlI_QnEYgQ9xF-OrWZH1KK_wfUvcoJWtKlSEP76rSvwd0YxzbDuY0pF8UU1FpXeokumNk/s200/linda+gill+yellow+shirt.jpg" width="178" /></a>On the other hand, Powers' 2,722-vote edge over Argelia Miller (16,120 to 13,398) might at first blush seem convincing expect if we consider the fact that Miller was hampered from campaigning because she is employed by the district, spent virtually no money, and except for one newspaper ad, limited her campaigning to emailing supporters from her hand-held iPhone. <br />With plenty of ammunition at her disposal from the lawsuits filed in federal and state courts where Otis was recorded taking an active role in a conspiracy with the former board majority to fire the former superintendent Hector Gonzales, Miller chose not to make use of it. Why?<br />"Perhaps she really didn't want to win and lose her job," commented a BISD critic. "She was the most reluctant candidate I have ever seen."<br />Given Powers' 10-year tenure at the district (except when he was beaten by Presas-Garcia in 2008), his hiring of politiqueras, and his association with the Ernie Hernandez vote-harvesting machine, his victory is less than impressive.<br />"Watch out deer, that's all I have to say," said a participant at a victory party. "Otis likes to go hunting at vendors' expense and he's back on the board. It's hard to tell where he'll put the deer heads he will get from the taxidermist now that he can hunt again at other people's expense."<br />Presas-Garcia, on the other hand, was the lightning rod on the board who was targeted by the likes of former trustee Rick Zayas, former AD Joe Rodriguez, and the SAVEBISD PAC headed by Ernie Hernandez Politiquero Joey Garza.<br />It should be interesting to see who funded the PAC when the final report is due. In their 30-day prior to the election report, they listed a total of $600 in their contributions. Yet, the expenses surely amounted to perhaps four nor five times that in newspaper ads alone. Who will Garza say gave him money. We know they didn't have any chicken fundraisers or such to hide their contributors. Expect some gymnastic contortions in that report.<br />Presa-Garcia faced the Perfect Political Storm and out polled her closest competitor J.M. "Butch" Barbosa with 3,931 votes (12,571 to 8,640) and Don Clupper by 4,382 (12,571 to 4,382).<br />It is doubtful that any candidate in recent memory had so many enemies come together against her at any one time. Zayas, for example, filed a lawsuit against forensic auditor Danny Defenbaugh on behalf of Rodriguez and his protege Tom Chavez. Yet, the contents of the case read as a liturgy against Presas-Garcia and were filled with allegations against her.<br />Likewise, Zayas filed another lawsuit on behalf of two former Presas-Garcia real-estate clients less than 10 days before the Nov. 6 election alleging she stole money from them.<br />The timing of the lawsuits raised the suspicions of the electorate and the ruse backfired. Even worse, the lawsuit against Defenbaugh triggered a $1 million countersuit by high-powered attorneys who charged that the allegations in the lawsuit were groundless and filed for the purposes of harassment and other purposes having nothing to do with their client and defamed him and hrt his livelihood.<br />"If Rodriguez and Zayas think this thing is over, they don't know who they tangled with," said a BISD administrator. "They're not going to let go just because Caty won. It's not over, Rover."<br />Should Gill-Martinez prevail in her victory over Chirinos, what will result will be a supermajority with Powers and Peña in the minority.<br />"Powers knows how to play ball," said a former trustee. "He knows he has to horse trade if he wants to have things done. Even if Escobedo waffles on the majority, Gill-Martinez gets along with the other women and they'll make him irrelevant."<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-5597009557109106976?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/11/caty-survives-powers-in-will-there-be.html
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