By Juan Montoya
Cameron County will close administrative lobbies in its buildings until the appropriate protective shields to protect skeleton crews in the departments are installed.
Then, once the protections are in place, the lobbies will open once again with minimal crews under the mandate of the county's shelter in place order by having only personnel that "perform or access essential government functions."
Penalties for violating the "shelter in place" order could result in a 180-day jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.
According to Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre, until the Plexiglass protections are in place, persons wanting to acquire or transfer auto titles or renew their registration can use the county's drive-thru windows on the new Levee Street offices across from the old Wells Fargo Bank.
This decision was made this morning at the county's commissioners court meeting. Yzaguirre said that the collection of taxes, vehicle registrations and payment of property taxes will be handled by the reduced personnel.
He said he was aware that Gov. Greg Abbott had announced March 18 that he had directed the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to temporarily waive expiration dates for driver's licenses, commercial driver's licenses and other identification forms.
Among other suspensions of fees and rules, Abbott suspended penalties for failure to timely title or register a vehicle, or renew a parking placard.
"We are aware that the governor did that, but the court felt that these essential services should be provided and judged them to be essential government services," Yzaguirre said.
The news that Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino was micromanaging the departments struck one of our readers as "somewhat ludicrous" given the fact that he had also called for the shelter in place edict that prevented residents from leaving their homes except for the most dire necessities or if they were first responders or law enforcement.
"If people are not supposed to leave their homes except for the most essential reasons, why are offices like the tax assessor and county and district clerk offices left open?," they asked. "The courts are closed, anyway. It seems to be at cross purposes with the shelter in place order."
"What if one of the county staff get infected?," they wrote. "In that case, everyone in the office is going to have to leave to prevent the transmittal of the virus. Maybe some of the clients might even catch the virus. It seems to me that he is just getting too involved and going in cross purposes with the governor. Between him and the Brownsville Public Utility Board they are going to be worse than the COVID-19. God help us."