By Juan Montoya
Even though she's sailing her fantasy world in far-off Disney World, JP 2-1 Linda Salazar is working her money-making magic by having other judges stand in for her in weddings she scheduled during her vacation time.
On Friday, a wedding party arrived expecting Cameron County Cupid Salazar to perform the wedding ceremony only to find that it was going to be performed by JP 5-1 Sally Gonzalez, from Harlingen. "We thought is was going to be Judge Salazar, but it turned out to be someone named Sally," said one of the bride's attendants. 'We didn't know who she was, but it was nice of her to come down from Harlingen."Why Gonzalez?
That's what a county staffer at the Levee building wondered when he overheard that Gonzalez was in the building to perform the wedding. "We have two other JPs in Brownsville on the second floor," he said, referring to JP 2-2 Johnathan Gracia and JP 2-3 Mary Esther Sorola. The couple who was getting married live in Brownsville. "Did Salazar and Gonzalez work out a sharing deal where Gonzalez performs the weddings while Salazar is on vacation and split the fee rather than let the Brownsville JPs do them and charge the fee?"
Many people don't know that the county makes no other money from a wedding than the $82 that the couples pay the Cameron County Clerk for the wedding license.
Many think that the more wedding ceremonies that a JP performs, the more money the county keeps.
However, under Texas law, the JPs are allowed to keep whatever they charge the couples. The fees by Brownsville JPs usually vary from as low as $150 if performed in the office during working hours, to $200 if it's within the city and outside the courthouse, or $250 if it's on Sunday or holidays in Brownsville up to $300 any time out of Brownsville.
It is a lucrative side to public service that Salzar has tapped on. She averages some 600 weddings a year, more than any of the 10 JPS in Cameron County. At that rate, at an average of $200 per wedding, it nets her a nifty $120,000, more than double her $53,000 annual salary.
Oh, well, someone has to pay for Mickey and Minnie's Disney World cheese.