Fighting The Power
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It’s time to stand up and take your government back!
“Do you solemnly swear all the information on here in correct?”
“Yes.”
On the hood of a car in the burning Rio Grande Valley, Eddie Loa began the formal process of trying to recall the entire city commission in San Benito.
Including the Mayor Rick Guerra.
It will require the signatures of 35 percent of San Benito residents who voted in the last two elections on petitions, but for days Loa had been stonewalled trying to get them.
This time he brought me.
“You’re required to give him the petitions under law period. End of story.”
The city secretary called the police. They do that a lot here instead of just doing their job.
“More of the same in the City of San Benito.”
By the end of the day, the petitions finally appeared.
The 30-day clock has begun. The only remaining questions: will the hundreds of San Benito residents who have reached out to us get over the fear of retaliation and take their city back?
“I’m trying to get a recall so we could get the right person in here and make a different San Benito.”
“There are so many things that have come out lately from mismanagement to hiring friends to treatment of employees. We’ve lost all our directors. People are just completely unhappy at this point in time.”
The attempt to remove the city commission and the mayor comes after months of downright embarrassing episodes for San Benito city hall.
That same City Secretary Ruth McGinnis ignored our requests for weeks to simply look at campaign finance records. By law they are supposed to be available for inspection immediately.
It prompted our first visit to San Benito city hall. Instead of giving us the records that day, the city’s spokesman tried to have us arrested.
Even the cops who showed up had no clue why they were called.
The city spokesman has since resigned.
We had already uncovered proof the mayor had appointed a convicted sex offender to the San Benito EDC. His application said he was the mayor’s cousin. It’s on paper.
But the mayor denied it. I guess he didn’t read the application. But the appointment was further evidence of the unethical nepotism that’s plagued this town.
City commissioner Deborah Morales appointed her husband Jose to the EDC, and they are being blamed for the departure of one developer.
And the treatment of a second developer Varco, working to finish the long-delayed Resaca Village Shopping Center.
“This is punishment or us not doing the deal with the right people.”
Jose Morales was ordered by the Texas Attorney General to release his phone records. He won’t and is breaking the law by not doing it.
Jose resigned a few weeks ago, but instead of finding a businessperson to join the EDC, Morales appointed herself.
“They’re husband and wife. So it’s like he never left.”
Eddie should know. When he went to complain about a dispute with a neighbor to the commissioner, Jose was in the meeting too.
The mayor appointed his brother to the housing board after his election. A second brother had been accused of sexual misconduct while working there, a possible crime.
The mayor was accused of retaliating against those who forced his brother to resign. He denies it.
But the housing board Guerra appointed is fighting to keep the investigation a secret forever.
The city has finally released some of Guerra’s employment records including the comment of his supervisor in October 2020, “Complaints over the past year were filed against Johnny about his manner of professionalism and treatment of subordinate staff. His demeanor towards individuals was very aggressive.”
The mayor threatened to knock the shit out of me if I kept investigating his family.
You know me. I love a good threat from a public official, even if it was a stupid thing to say.
We had just told the story of a former housing manager who finally refiled her criminal complaint with San Benito police this week, years after she stopped cooperating.
A former police detective told us she was told to drop the case.
“What do you want to happen?”
“The truth to come out. It’s not easy Wayne. He knows what he did.”
It was the mayor’s false claim of transparency that made her come forward. The city housing board is fighting to keep the investigation a secret.
“Do you believe that the mayor’s power helped protect him?”
“Yes definitely Wayne. No doubt in my mind, you know, there are some things that were covered up. That’s why I’m here, to set the record straight.”
“It’s not easy to come forward. It’s not easy to do what I did. But I’m very proud right now. I’m very proud that I did.”
I’ve convinced her to trust the San Benito police. We agreed to go with her to make sure she is treated fairly.
While we were talking to the mayor a few weeks back, someone was shouting we were liars and spies behind us, trying to interrupt. And then this.
It was the mayor’s brother Ramiro, the vice chairman of the housing authority.
He was charged with assault. He has not resigned and his brother the mayor hasn’t replaced him.
We discovered the City Manager Fred Sandoval was violating San Benito’s charter by refusing to move to the town he is paid to promote. The subject was testy.
And when we asked to see recall petitions and talk to the city secretary the other day to learn requirements for a recall, she sent us to lawyers who never called us back.
It was apparently under orders from City Manager Fred Sandoval, but under the charter he has no role in a recall.
It’s none of his business and it smacks of official oppression.
It is why we have called the current administration drunk with power, arrogant with power, stupid with power, and crazy with power.
To add to the waste of time and tax money, lawyers for the city EDC have now subpoenaed records from our media company as part of their fight with Varco.
They are trying to find out what we have learned about their relatives.
Yet the mayor and the city manager deny wanting our records.
“They’re using taxpayer money for what is at best a fishing expedition and what in reality looks like a witch hunt.”
A witch hunt San Benito taxpayers are paying for.
Our lawyers are now asking a Harris County judge to block the subpoena. We have sued both the EDC and Varco here in Houston.
The city is now standing in the way of Varco actually finishing the Resaca Village they’ve been complaining about not getting done.
When we came to town a few weeks back, more tenants had moved in and there is only one building left to finish.
But the work has stopped. The city refusing to lift a stop work order imposed two weeks ago after a subcontractor wrongly tapped into the city’s water line.
It’s exactly the opposite of what should happen.
Varco has invested upwards of ten million dollars in San Benito by developing this place. No other developer has.
Don’t you think other developers are watching this fight?
“It’s disappointing. It’s a waste of time and I wish that they would put their time effort and money helping us to fill these spaces. And I wish that why would was money on these legal battles.”
All while the EDC is ignoring the Attorney General.
“It’s time for the San Benito EDC and the powers that be in San Benito to turn over the records that the Attorney General has ordered them to produce. And if they’re not going to do it, it’s time to file a lawsuit.”
Folks have had enough.
“If I have to be a bully to help them get justice from their city, I am more than happy to do it.”
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