It took a while for the Cameron County Human Resources and administration to get their act together, but on Friday they leaped into action to make sure that Public Works Supervisor Ruben Gonzalez was held to the same standard as the department's employees.
On Tuesday of last week, Gonzalez held a mandatory meeting with all the workers and laid down the law.
Any worker who was involved in any accident involving a county vehicle was to be prohibited from driving until he had a drug test and took a safety driving course to be paid out of his own pocket.
This last wrinkle was new to the workers and would constitute a considerable expense and time from work without compensation. But Gonzalez would have none of it. The rules were the rules and that was it. No exceptions.
Then, on Wednesday, Gonzalez driving County Engineer Paolina Vega and showing off the new 20-foot wide paved section of Oklahoma Road in the county's southwest end when he inadvertently slid off the newly-paved section and into a bar ditch with his passenger.
He quickly called some of his trusted workers and had them pull his truck out. There was going to be no report written, and things wold be kept quiet.
But then someone threw a monkey wrench into works. A passing motorists saw the truck in the ditch and snapped a photo which they sent to this blog. Upon asking, we learned that there had been no report of the Wednesday incident.
But once the county bureaucracy realized that the gig was up, the secrecy surrounding the accident vaporized. Now Gonzales' truck is parked at the county barn and we heard that he had to undergo a drug test. By then, except for marijuana, any trace of any other drug would have left his body. But, hey, that's a start, right?
We're sure that the average Public Works employee is heartened by the response – albeit a little late – on the part of the county's administration. What's good for got the goose, is good for the gander.