By Juan Montoya
When JP 2-3 Mary Esther Sorola announced that she had had it with the squabbling and haggling over weddings on the second floor of the new Cameron County Levee Building and would perform the weddings for free, a yelp went up from an office next door.
It was the unmistakable sound of JP 2-1 Linda Salazar who has made wedding ceremony an industry since she was elected to office. The yelping got even worse when Sorola posted signs letting people know she would marry them for free.
Salazar, who averages more than 600 ceremonies over the past four years, apparently did not want the upstart JP across the hallway advertising on the first, second and third floors of the building that she would perform them for free.At $200 or more a pop, that added up to a not inconsiderable $120,000 a year for the ceremonies. Under state law, she is allowed to keep anything she charges for performing the weddings.
The first sign that the inmates at the asylum were not happy was the fact that all Sorola's signs advertising the weddings gratis on the third floor were torn down at the direction of County Clerk Sylvia Garza-Perez. For years, the other two JPs have suspected that someone at that office was steering (or hinting) that Salazar was the cupid of the courthouse.
Then, when Salazar complained to County Administrator David Garcia that Sorola was putting a dent on her racket, the edicts started to come down.
Sorola could no longer post signs on the courthouse advertising the free service. The JPs were also told that no judge can post a sign saying which court they are in. Advertising by any judge, apparently, is also prohibited.
So now Sorola's staff say that she will charge $140 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in her office. Other judges can use their discretion and charge whatever fee – or no fee at all – for performing the weddings.