Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 16, 1974 Page: 16 of 28
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JUDGE from page,l
elected representative, that is,
the county judge; one more vote
from another governmental
unit and that is Grulla. Since
there are two cities in our
county, if Roma decides to be
represented, Grulla would have
one-half vote and Roma one-
half vote. We also have one
more non-governmental
member representing a general
interest group. Starr County
was designated to provide a
member which would represent
education. Prior to this, Mr.
Alex Gabert has had this
position. At the time of his
appointment he was a school
trustee. At present he is an
elected county official. He did
an excellent job during his
tenure at Laredo and was most
helpful and cooperative,
however, in view of the fact that
he no longer is with the school
and that he is a county elected
official, it is my opinion that
somebody else should serve in
his place.
I therefore appointed John
Pope in for this position in
yesterday's meeting. I con-
sulted with the school board
president and we both felt that
in view of the fact that Pope had
served as county attorney in the
past and because he is aware of
the many problems in our
county that he would do a good
job in this position. The com-
missioners have threatened to
secede from the Council
because they did not like my
actions. I believe that this
would be very foolish. We would
lose a lot of programs. We
would lose a lot of assistance
that comes to us because of our
membership through the
council. I have always acted
very fairly and very im-
partially; I have always come
to them for ratification and for
their opinion regarding all
actions that I have taken at the
Council of Governments. I
believe that the director will
verify that on many occasions
where other judges have acted
on their own because of their
prerogative and because of the
right that is inherent in the By-
laws.
I have never exercised this
privilege and I have always
come to them in the past. The
By-laws state that the one
member who is a non-
governmental general interest
group will be appointed by the
commissioners court of Starr
County or the County Judge of
Starr County at his option. The
other judges have always
exercised this option
in appointing a member.
I have never exercised this until
this time. I have assured the
commissioners court that I will
continue to act fairly and im-
partially on behalf of the
community and not in behalf of
the court. And specifically with
regards to Manpower
programs, I will do as I have
always done in the past and will
distribute this slots and
positions evenly and 'equally
between all groups in the county
that should have represen-
tation.
QUESTION: What is the
financial status of the county
now?
ANSWER: In many ways the
county is much better now than
it has been during the past
several years. We are told that
last year we owed a little over
$200,000 dollars. Right now we
only owe a little over $100,000.
Five years ago we owed much,
much more than this and it
seemed like it might be im-
possible to be able to meet all
^ligations. Our county
a different type . of
financial problem. Most of our
money comes in at the end of
each year. This money is used
to pay for what has been
budgeted for that specific year.
In other words, that which will
be received at the end of this
year will go to pay for this
year's expenses where it should
go to pay for next year's ex-
penses. This is not a new con-
dition since it has been in
existence for many years.
Actually, speaking when we
begin each year we do not have
the funds to be able to take care
of the budget as it has been
formulated. During the time
that I have been county judge
we have cut down expenses
tremendously. We have paid off
a lot of the debts that were
pending. During the month of
July and August there is very
little money coming in to the
treasury. We have borrowed
from the bank in order to be
able to continue to operate and
then in the late fall when the
money comes in we pay the
bank off. The first year that I
was judge we had to borrow
quite a bit, the second year we
borrowed less and the third
year less. It is my hope that
eventually we won't have to
borrow any, but in order to be
able to get to this stage we are
going to have to cut down on
expenses tremendously and
save a lot of money so that we
can begin to operate each year
in the black. This year like all
previous years by summer just
like other years, the county
funds were just about
exhausted. We were also faced
with the fact that the county had
committed $125,000 to help with
the hospital construction. We
tried to borrow from the Rio
Grande City bank as usual and
we have been advised that the
bank does not have any money
to lend at present.
The bank tried to get other
banks in the region to par-
ticipate in a loan but were
unable to find any. Because the
situation was drastic and
because we had to pay the
contractor of the hospital so the
work could proceed, Mr.
Enrique Gonzalez and I offered
to sign a personal note so that
construction would not stop. It
has not been necessary to do
this yet but we may have to do
it. What is worrying me right
now is that the county auditor
advised us in court yesterday
that we only had enough funds
in general revenue to operate
through May and we only had
enough in the Road and Bridge
fund to operate until July and
possibly August. I am afraid
that if we are not
able to get money from the Rio
Grande City bank that we may
well have to go into script. I
have tried to explain it to each
commissioner and I have talked
to them at length but for some
reason they do not seem to
comprehend the matter. They
seem to think that because we
have a budget and because they
think that they are within the
budget that there is no problem.
They don't understand the fact
that there is no money in the
Road and Bridge fund and in the
General Fund and that we
cannot borrow any. There is no
way that they can meet their
obligations and there payroll.
One may wonder why we
cannot borrow from other
banks. The Rio Grande City
bank is the depository and for
this reason they have loaned us
money on a short time basis. It
is practically impossible for the
Mission bank or any other bank
to d< the same thing since they
are not the depository. I have
looked briefly through the
financial statement which was
presented'to me -by ^auuttof..
and 1 find that several of the
commissioners and several
departments have exceeded
their budgets already by con-
siderable amounts. I intend
within the next few days to send
out a letter to each department
advising them of what the
budget was and how much they
have spent and informing them
of the seriousness of our
financial situation at present.
QUESTION: Why wasn't the
condition of the county's bad
finances not released before?
ANSWER: In prior years I
have advised each department
of how they stood financially in
regard to the budget by the end
of the first trimester. This year
I have not been able to do it
because the auditor has been
extremely busy and had not
been able to do any posting
whatsoever and I did not know
at all how we stood financially.
QUESTION: Does the county
need any more road equip-
ment?
ANSWER: The county
auditor stated yesterday very
strongly in court that l\e <li'd not
feel that this county needed #ny
more road equipment. I very
much second his remarks. It^i§
my understanding that otjj&SK.
counties which are the same"
size as Starr and even some that
are larger do not own anywhere
as much equipment as we do.
Just before I became county
judge during the end of Mr.
Nye's tenure as county judge,
the county bought quite a bit of
heavy equipment. This has only
been five years ago. Since then I
have withstood efforts on many
occasions to buy heavy
equipment. The county auditor
has very strongly endorsed this
position. I do not feel that at this
time we need or can afford to
buy any road equipment.
QUESTION: Do you think
that commissioners Pena,
Ixizano and Alaniz completely
understand that the county does
not have any money and cannot
afford to buy or lease expensive
road equipment?
ANSWER: I don't think that
they fully understand the
seriousness of the matter and
how critical it is. I'm afraid that
they do not understand the
complete financial picture of
the county. During the past
years the county auditor and
the county judge have been the
ones who have worried about
finances and we have been the
ones that have done all the leg
work with regards to getting
loans so that the county does not
have to go on script. The
commissioners do not seem to
realize how extremely im-
portant it' is that they must
adhere to the budget and try to
economize because county
funds are limited and we should
not operate in the red.
QUESTION: Were there any
bids for contracting this grader
that Commissioner Lozano
wants to lease. And if not, why
can't bids be required for such a
contract'.'
ANSWER: There were no
bids published. Mr. Lozano is
making his proposal to the court
legally in that if you are going to
lease purchase you do not have
to go through bids. I'm sure he
realizes that we do not have any
county funds available so he is
proposing to buy this out of
Revenue Sharing funds. We do
have funds available in the
Revenue Sharing funds. The
county auditor has advised us
very strongly that this money
should be spent wisely and we
do not believe that this $48,000
should be spent for one grader
for one precinct. If I would
agree that we buy it I certainly
wouldn't agree that we lease
purchase it because I do not see
,the
amount of interest that would
have to be paid on the lease
purchase plan when we have
the cash.
If we need to buy it, then we
should buy it outright and not
lease it. There is no need to
spend two to three thousand
dollars in interest needlessly.
Furthermore, if we decide that
we want it or that we need it and
we decide that we are going to
buy it outright then we would
have to pay it. I am not in favor
at all of lease purchasing
without bids. I am sure that I
am going to be criticized on how
come I am in favor of buying
the equipment for the hospital
without bids. This is a com-
pletely different matter. In the
case of the county equipment,
the service that we are paying
is for making the list and
anybody would have charged
you six or seven percent for this
service alone. The company
that we hired is nationally
known, is completely reputable
and it is one that has been used
by most of the big hospitals in
the state. They are offering to
sell us the equipment for ten
percent over cost. This is only
three percent above the normal
cost of making the list:-and
preparing cost analysis, etc. I
don't think we can buy this type
of equipment anywhere in the
country for three per cent over
cost so actually in this case we
are saving a tremendous
amount of money and in the
other case we are spending
extra because of the fact that
we didn't bid and because we
are going to buy on a lease
purchase basis.
QUESTION: Tell us
something about the status of
the hospital and the payment
that is due on it by the county?
ANSWER: The hospital
committed $400,000 initially
from the bond election after we
got the figures on it we found
out that it would be impossible
to meet the projected costs with
that $400,000 with the 90 percent
the amount the federal
government had allocated,
which represented 90 percent of
the original estimate. In order
for the construction to begin to
get underway, the county
committed $125,000 additional
money. It is understood that all
of this would be paid back to the
county or the hospital district,
so actually the county would not
be out a penny. The way that the
project works is that at certain
stages of construction, say 25
percent, 50 percent, the state
and the federal government
sends an inspector
and after they have inspected
and after they have inspected
closely and agree that
everything is in order than they
will send us part of the money.
Because of the fact that the
construction is proceeding
rapidly and because of the fact
that it takes time to get the
federal funds, the county has
had to put up its share in order
for construction to proceed.
We have spent most of the
$400,000 of the bond election bet
we still have to spend the ad-
ditional $125,000 that was
committed. Recently, we have
not been able to meet the
payroll of the contractors
because of the fact that the
county did save or did not plan
or did not have on hand the
$125,000 that had been
designated for this purpose. The
contractor has not had to wait
three weeks for his payment
and the second payment is due
now. We have had the 50 per
cent inspection and we will
receive the money within a
couple of weeks but it is unjust
and completely unfair to ask the
contractor to wait three weeks
for payment because of the fact
that he needs to pay his sub-
contractors. Mr. Marshall has
been most understanding but he
needs the money and he has to
pay what he owes as soon as
possible. If we do not meet this
obligation he is liable to stop all
construction and we would have
broken off the contract. In order
to renegotiate a contract the
county would have to pay quite
a bit more than was initially
intended for this project.
Mr. Gonzalez and I offered to
sign personally for a loan but
we were advised that Revenue
Sharing funds could be used for
this purpose. We were told that
we could either borrow them or
that the court could designate
some of this for this purpose
since it is above and beyond the
10 percent that the county had
originally committed. We were
supposed to have payed last
Friday and we called
Washington and they gave us
the green light when it came to
Revenue Sharing Funds.
However, I have always been of
the opinion that I should never
act on my own, and we asked
Mr. Marshall to wait until
Monday's meeting where three
of the commissioners insisted
that they wanted an opinion
from the attorney general from
somebody in writing before
they would use this money for
this purpose.
However, they had no qualms
whatsoever of using this money
to buy one grader for one
commissioner to the tune of
nearly $50,000. Mr. Marshall
called this morning and said if
he was not paid during the time
of two or three days he would
have to stop construction
because of the fact thSt he is
very much behind with his
subcontractors. Not only is the
payment overdue three weeks
but the new payment is due
right now and another payment
is due right now.
Market
Report
Egg prices skidding down-
ward should make con-
sumers happy this week, one
authority predicted.
"Grade A, large-size eggs
offer the best combination of
quality and economy," ac-
cording to Mrs. Gwendolyne
Clyatt, consumer marketing
information specialist with the
Texas Agricultural Extension
Service, The Texas A&M
University System.
"Other economical poultry
products are fryer chickens,
with an increased supply of
three to five per cent, chicken
hens, turkeys and turkey parts.
"At beef counters, many
markets are featuring round
steaks and roasts, ground beef,
chuck roasts, beef liver, and
perhaps rump and rib roasts.
"Pork values include
shoulder roasts and steaks,
hams, picnics, end-cut loin
roasts and chops and pork liver.
Features may offer center
chops, quarter-loins cut into
chops-and some brands of
bacon."
Fresh fruit ancj vegetables in
good supply at economical
prices are oranges, bananas,
grapefruit and pineapple, the
specialist said.
Also, cabbage, carrots,
broccoli, celery, mustard
c.reens, dry yellow onions,
£.een onions and radishes.
Asparagus is available at
moderate prices, and water-
melon supplies are heavier, but
prices vary considerably. Since
weather affects strawberry
quality and price, select them
, carefully,';, , ,, ,
I
48
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Trejo, Raul. Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 16, 1974, newspaper, May 16, 1974; Rio Grande City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth194459/m1/16/?q=heraclio%20perez: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rio Grande City Public Library.