Hear the latest?
Observers with their ear close to the ground on the City of Brownsville Commission say that except for the insistence of Mayor Tony Martinez on personally interviewing the remaining four candidates for city attorney, Municipal City Judge Rene De Coss was all but a shoo-in.
The vote was delayed for two weeks to give Da Mayor – also the de facto city manager and attorney and dog catcher in the abeyance of a permanent office holder in these positions – time to cull through the three remaining applicants.
There were four then, but since then Arron Leal announced his withdrawal.
The others are Gary Linan and Lysia H. Bowling, the city attorney for Pensacola. Fla. and De Coss.
Martinez has let it be known in city commission circles that he does not want De Coss and has the support of Ben Neece, who for some unknown reason, has not expressed his support for his former colleague on the municipal court bench.
The apparent majority – Jessica Tetreau, Joel Munguia, Ricardo Longoria and Cesar De Leon – apparently felt comfortable with De Coss and seemed ready to take the vote until Martinez forced the two-week delay. After all, besides being a municipal judge now, he has also served as a district judge and has the respect of prosecutors and defense attorneys alike.
Now, working in the background, his opponents have launched a silent – and nefarious – campaign to submarine De Coss' candidacy and push for Bowling, who also served as the city attorney in San Angelo. The selection is on the city agenda for this Tuesday.
There are other considerations, as those who have served in public service know. There are things like duration on the job, knowledge of local issues, knowing the actors, etc.,
But this is where the rubber meets the road.
We have heard supporters of other candidates for the city attorney selection have targeted De Leon's vote, who was the chair of the attorney search, and now lenguas sueltas are saying that he won't support Bowling because – you ready for this? – she happens to be African American.
Now, as far as we know, applicants don't include their race or heritage when they send in their applications or resumes. We know, for example, that neither De Coss, Leal, nor Linan, indicated that they were of Hispanic descent. Bowling sounds just plain American to us. Maybe they expect commissioners to deduce that through the candidates' affiliations with cultural affiliations. Then again, what if Bowling is a MALDEF member?
Has it really come down to this?
The city was subjected to national scrutiny and disdain after De Leon was surreptitiously recorded using the "N" word to refer to two vindictive Cameron County Asst. DA's who were coming down hard on local defendants and were denying plea-bargain deals (the meat and potatoes of the local law profession) to the clients of local lawyers.
When De Leon, in the presence of three other people in a private setting, used the word derisively to refer to these two specific prosecutors, the person recording him used to divert the attention to his own problems and misdeeds. That person eventually was fired as fire chief and an audit conducted on him was later used as evidence to indict him. De Leon was one of the moving forces behind that audit.
We need not go into that sordid mess since the former fire chief remains under indictment and faces an additional nine charges, aside from theft.
De Leon has since apologized and moved on. Now whoever is whispering these poisonous words in the ear of Herald reporters and other social media, is throwing this out saying that is the reason why De Leon supports De Coss and not Bowling, the African American.
Does this mean that De Leon will be suspect if he celebrates Martin Luther King's Birthday?
Whoever is doing this is merely resurrecting the specter of racism and tarnishing the image of the city again just because they don't think they have the votes to select their candidate for city attorney. This smacks very much like the lawsuit against the selection of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation CEO Mario Lozoya. In that case, the GBIC board members and their supporters who didn't have the vote for their selection sued the board, including De Leon.
They failed, and we predict this will fail as well.
If Da Mayor and the others don't have the votes to get their selection, will they sue De Leon for racial discrimination? Or will they – damn the image of the city – merely smear De Leon to cut their nose to spite their faces and show their parliamentary impotence?