City of Laredo officials get rich on back of poor

Recently appointed city manager Jesus Olivares heads the pack of City of Laredo "officials" who are making exorbitant salaries on the backs of Laredo taxpayers. Keep in mind that nearly 35 per cent of Laredo's population is impoverished.  Another way of looking at that is that 1/3 of the salaries for these Fat Cats come from people who live in poverty. Not bad. I was going to pose the rhetorical queston: Do they have no shame? But we all know the answer to that- NO.

Many Laredoans had a big problem with then-city manager Carlos Villarreal making $242,000 a year. After eight years on the job, he was able to get the city council to award him that kind of a very generous salary. That was nothing compared to the current city manager Jesus Olivares who came into office and immediately got what Carlos Villarreal took eight long years to reach- $242,000 a year.

Now, if that doesn't make you Laredo Proud, I don''t know what will.  Incidentally, the city manager has already started dropping hints that our property taxes might need to raised again next year in order to continue paying for this type of reckless spending.