Mayor, council give $$ raise before looooong break in council meetings

How do you like our new council chambers back there (Fed.bldg) ?

I have to give credit to Laredo mayor Raul Salinas and our city council. Their timing on giving city manager Carlos Villarreal an extremely controversial $37,000 raise was perfectly timed, especially considering our public's very short memory.

Usually, there is about a 14-day break between city council meetings. For the most part, there are two held every month. The exception(s), of course,  are when the mayor and council are up partying it up in either Austin or our nation's capitol.

After the much-maligned raise, however (on April 15th), the subsequent city council meeting is not to be held until at least about 22 days later, around May 6th. On top of this prolonged break working in favor of the unpopular council actions of late, there is always the chance that they will throw in a pseudo controversial agenda item such a beer run ordinance or something.

Our illustrious mayor and council might not learn much in the way of truly being helpful to their community, but they're learning something allright.