As Popeye would say: "What a coincidinks!"

No, it's not a bordertown version of Ripley's Believe it or Not, it's an actual news story from the Laredo Morning Times.

Excertped from The Laredo Morning Times

The next Webb County facilities director named to the job by commissioners Monday is a nephew of Uni-Trade Forwarding owner Eduardo Garza, a generous contributor to local political campaigns.

County commissioners selected Gilberto Garza to fill the vacant director position at the facilities department after conducting interviews with him and two other candidates.

Gilberto Garza said his relationship to his uncle had nothing to do with his selection.

“Everything I did, I went through a process,” he said.

“I submitted an application, I met the minimum qualifications, I responded based on my knowledge and my experience.”

Garza said he is grateful to have the opportunity to lead the department and that his uncle was not involved in his hiring.

“He is one thing and I am another thing,” he said.

Since June 2010, Garza has worked as an administrative assistant at the City of Laredo finance department. ( City of Laredo officials are recipients of Garza's political contributions)
Before that, he worked for six years as a site supervisor at Laredo Accurate Inspections Inc. (Is this the same company that is owned by Mr. Unitrade Garza?)
Advertisements for the position included a requirement of five years as a facilities and maintenance director, of which two must have been in a supervisory capacity.

Commissioners passed on two other candidates, Javier Mendoza and Lourdes Paras-Jasso.

As operations manager and president of Mendoza Maintenance Group, Mendoza has handled maintenance contracts with entities including Dallas and Williamson counties.

Paras-Jasso has worked as a facilities officer at Laredo Independent School District since 2004.
Eduardo Garza donated at least $5,000 to County Judge Danny Valdez during his last run for office.

He donated $500 to Tijerina during the campaign for her court seat in 2006.  (La estan regando, ya ni le tratan de despistar los sinverguenzas!)

Apples to Oranges : Laredo to become more expensive for everyone

This has got to be one of the biggest jokes the City of laredo has pulled off in quite a while. Today's Laredo Morning Times includes an article about all city's proposed fee hikes. Of course this is now reportedly necessary because of all the mis-management going down at city hall.

The funniest part of all is that, in an effort to try to justify all these fee hikes, the city has put out a detailed report comparing Laredo to San Antonio and some Rio Grande Valley cities.  How can anyone in their right mind try to compare Laredo to San Antonio? Like the old adage says "You can't compare Apples to Oranges". I guess anything goes when you're trying to impose such a vast array of fee increases.

Virtually every city department has put a long list of what fees they are willing raise, double, triple or even worse.  Citizens using the newly-opened Haynes (Hines) recreation center, for example, would see their costs go from $10 per year to $15 quarterly. That's an increase of 600 percent from the current $10 annual fee to the proposed 60 bucks (15x4=60).

The library fees are scheduled to skyrocket as well. First of all, the amnesty program which was usually held during April of each year was recently gotten rid off. Users returning their books during the month of April were allowed to do so without any fees whatsoever. Perhaps that was a bit too generous but now the city is about to make up for it.  Instead of the current 20 cents a day per book late fee, the city is proposing a 35 cents per book, per day penalty. Take that readers!  Maybe the city's Public Information Officer was predicting the future when she commented recently on facebook that "no one uses the libray anyway"- or something to that effect.


Read much more at:
http://www.lmtonline.com/articles/2012/08/14/news/doc5029f8e396369637814948.txt

Ethics ad-hoc committee meets again on Wednesday evening

The Laredo ethics committee is meeting for the second time in the last 8 days.  The gathering is slated for Wednesday at 6pm at the city manager's conference room on the third floor of city hall.  Voices In Democratic Action has gone on record as officially rejecting councilman San Miguel's appointee, Alfonso Campero.

The initial objection by VIDA was voiced at last week's meeting and continued Monday night at the regularly-scheduled meeting. Dr. Hector Farias and at least two other VIDA members made it clear to the city council that Mr. Campero is "unacceptable" for the committee. Farias explained that Campero has worked with San Miguel and for San Miguel's "boss", businessman Eduardo Garza of Unitrade Stadium fame. 

Laredoans wake up to no new dumped tires post

File photo from BTB's voluminous dumped tires archives

With Laredo's blogging colosal, BTB, still on hiatus, many Gateway City residents woke up without their usual Tuesday morning "dumped tires" thread.  Reportedly, a group of readers have even started to wager on the part of town from which the latest photo will originate. Of course, it's mostly the West side, but those familiar with the area get into specific barrios or even streets.  Usually, Los Amores, El Trece, Las Canta Ranas are among some the barrios repeatedly mentioned.

In the meantime, BOLAS has been looking into citing BTB and LaredoTejas for dereliction of duty. As mentioned before, BTB has taken a vacation of sorts while LT's posts have recently been minimal at best. La Sanbe, in the meantime, continues in its juggernaut role as Laredo's Most Impressive Blog.

Mayor's soon-to-be Ex-wife files for Dist. 7 race

It looks like the Laredo city council district VII race just got a little bit more interesting. Yolanda Salinas, whose divorce from mayor Raul Salinas should be finalized by October, has announced that she is seeking the seat currently being held by Jorge Vera.

Ms. Salinas is the third candidate to announce for the city elections in November. Previously, UISD board president Pat Campos announced she will seek the district V seat being vacated by Johnny Rendon. Shortly thereafter, Roque Vela Jr. also announced for the same seat.

No word yet if the mayor plans to resign.

Mayor Salinas, councilman Vera steal the show again

A sort of media-days for the military training exercises currently taking place in the Gateway city turned into a rather familiar scene. Not surprisingly, mayor Salinas again took the opportunity to remind everyone that Laredo "is not a war zone" while, as La Sanbe correctly pointed out, standing in front of an "Apache Helicopter" and several US military personel in full garb. Naturally, the mayor took what could have been said in about 15 seconds and stretched far beyond that.

In the meantime, councilman Vera continued a pattern: In this case, he chastised Laredoans for daring to complain about the noise which the various helicopters have been creating as they go about their business. I, for one, have heard the helicopters daily and nightly and have wondered aloud what they are "really" doing in town. I have heard others mention the same thing; not once have I heard anyone complain about the noise. It seems that for the most part, Laredoans are bothered by the lack of information surrounding these events.

And, if people want to complain- it's their right to do so without having an elected official berating them about making any commotion. On La Sanbe's vaunted blog, Keyrose features a video clip in which the councilman tells the commanding military officer something like " You don't worry about anyone complaining about the noise. You go ahead and train and do what you have to do. Your missions comes first and the people..... (unitelligable)".

The military is going to do what they have to do no matter who complains- or doesn't complain. Of course, they would much rather have the support of the community- and they have. There is no need to put on a show for the media.
Overall, it looks like Mr. Vera is learning fast from the mayor about how to make almost any photo op about himself. During a recent, park-cleaning, volunteer weekend, the councilman held up some sort of drug paraphenelia he found strewn about and chided Laredoans as he muttered something to the effect of "If you want your kids to be around this sort of thing (drugs), then fine, don't volunteer but if you want to make a difference, you need to get out here and help cleanup this place". During his tantrum, Vera yells to a nearby kid in an apparently angry tone "get over here" as he tries to get the kid in the camera shot for effect.

 It's clear that it's an election year and the councilman is up for re-election.

LCC Administration: It wasn't ineptitude, just inabilty

The famed Laredo Morning Times ran a story this morning detailing the goings on at a "recent" specially-called LCC board meeting. It was interesting how the college's administration kept side-stepping taking full responsibilty for the mis-management that led to Laredo Community College being put on 12 months of probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

At one point, a Mr. Solis, speaking on behalf of LCC's administration, tries to argue that the college was simply unable to comply as opposed to be inept.

From Friday's Laredo Morning Times

Tensions ran high at a recent LCC special board meeting as the college’s administrators discussed the school’s plan to close its ongoing accreditation reaffirmation process.

Laredo Community College was placed on a 12-month probation in July by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges because it failed to correct deficiencies in its institutional effectiveness reports.

Institutional effectiveness is the process schools use to improve educational programs and services and ensure they’re meeting objectives.

The college has until June 2013 to correct the deficiency or risk losing its accreditation, which would render degrees and credits from the institution meaningless. 

The statement from the commission released in June stated that LCC failed to demonstrate compliance with “institutional effectiveness for administrative support services, academic and student support services and community/public service.”

Trustee Ed Sherwood asked for a simplified breakdown of the language used by the accrediting agency and what it meant for the college.

Solis said the statement didn’t reflect the college’s ineptitudes but rather the college’s inability to place what they’re doing into a narrative, something the agency requires via submitted reports.

“It’s coming clear that you had the data and information.

It was just the proper substance in the report that didn’t get communicated or written properly,” said trustee Pete Saenz Jr.

“What else could we have done in retrospect to have avoided this?” Saenz asked.

In response, Maldonado said administration had been ambitious, dealing with the college’s facilities master plan and student success master plan in addition to the agency’s expectations.

“I can understand the concern of the board and I accept responsibility for the fact that we were engaged in a lot of different things.

I am pledging to you that our No. 1 priority is closing the reaffirmation cycle,” Maldonado said.