Transparency? More Like Transpare-NO!
Less than 24 hours before Cameron County was scheduled to hold an in-person commissioner's court meeting at the old Cameron County Dancy Building, county officials decided in the interests of public health and public safety, the meeting would instead be held via telephone conference.
The announcement and change came less than one full day after County Judge Eddie Treviño held an in-person press conference with members of the local health community to encourage the citizenry to get vaccinated.
It seems for every decent thing Treviño and county leaders do, we have to put up with a handful of poor decisions.
I woke up this morning expecting The Brownsville Herald to be streaming the commissioner's court meeting just like they had live streamed the press conference the day before. I was surprised to see there were no live feeds being offered by The Herald. I figured it wouldn't really be a problem — I would simply visit the county's website ad check the video archive of the meeting so I could summarize the commissioner's court meeting like I had with the previous day's press conference. I figured the public comment period was going to be interesting.
After downloading the agenda, I noticed it had big bold red type emblazoned across the top. It read: THIS MEETING WILL BE CONDUCTED AS A TELEPHONE/AUDIO MEETING DUE TO THE COVID-19 HEALTH EMERGENCY AS AUTHORIZED BY V.T.C.A. 551.121-126, TEXAS GOVERNMENT CODE. The agenda went on to provide instructions for those who wanted to phone in their public comment, something that needed to be done by 8:15 a.m.
There wouldn't be an in-person meeting although there had been an in-person gathering the day before, public comments were going to be limited to phone calls or emails that could have been ignored outright, and the changes were done with less than a 24 hour notice.
When I went to click on the archive to listen to the recorded meeting, I was met with a "network error" that didn't play any audio or video. How very Nixon-esque of them.
Did the commissioner's court decision to move the meeting to a phone conference have anything to do with the fact that the proposed pay raises for 26 top county administrators were up for discussion and debate and county administrators didn't want to "discuss" the fact that many people believe this isn't the time for pay raises for the top county officials? What changed between Monday and Tuesday that concerned the county commission enough to move the meeting to a virtual setting? Treviño didn't seem to have a problem yelling into a microphone unmasked while there were people in the gallery on Monday — he didn't have a problem giving his Oscar-worthy performance, banging his fist on the desk begging county residents for their help.
Could it be because Facebook pages like the 44,000-plus member Cameron County News encouraged people to attend the public hearing and sign up to make public comments who might have let commissioners know this wasn't the time for them to vote to approve raises for themselves?
Whatever the motive ends up being, the strategy worked. Former Cameron County Judge and Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos announced the following on his Facebook page. "I was advised that the Cameron County Commissioner's Court voted to give themselves their raises."
I hope county leaders never use the political buzzword "transparency" if, and when, they decide to run for reelection. Changing the meeting format and limiting the public comment period was the absolute worst thing the county commissioners could have done. Even if their intentions weren't to obscure the vote and limit the public's participation in the discussion, it certainly appears as if that was their ultimate goal.
Brownsville and Cameron County are often times referred to as a hotbed of political graft and corruption. When the county commissioners seem to be voting for pay raises under the cover of a quiet conference call, they certainly help make that argument.
The political process shouldn't be conducted behind closed doors. The premise of a representative republic and a democracy is based on the ability of the people to participate and question their elected representatives. If we remove the people from the equation, we're no better than any run-of-the-mill, two-bit, tin pot, third-world dictatorship.
If the county judge, or any of our county commissioners are reading this, do you think you made the right decision in sneaking your pay raise in through the back door when nobody was watching?
There are stories circulating around the campfire saying Eddie Treviño will seek the state representative seat Eddie Lucio III will vacate when he decides to run for his father's state senate seat in the upcoming election. Eddie Treviño continues to prove the only person Treviño is looking out for is Eddie Treviño.
One can hope the voters remember what was done today. The actions of the Cameron County Commissioner's Court are disappointing and saddening, but I would be lying if I said I was surprised.
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