Cirque Du Socorro

In last night’s edition of Cirque Du Socorro, the city council held public hearings on the ordinance creating a recall election of Mayor Willie Gandara and District 3 Councilman Luis Varela. Mayor Gandara was indicted on public corruption charges and Councilman Varela was arrested on drug charges.

Ironically, it appears that the arrest of Councilman Varela was, at least according to this map, exactly 112 feet from a business that is listed on the El Paso County website as Gandara Recycling. That DBA was first registered in 1999 to Mayor Willie Gandara and is still active under his name.

Most of the people, about 70%, that spoke were in opposition to the ordinance, that is to say that they were in support of Mayor Gandara and Councilman Varela. If you gauged public support for the Mayor and Councilman Varela based on the public comment portion of the meeting it would be easy to assume that public sentiment was on the side of the Mayor and Varela.

The majority of City Council in Socorro says that’s not the case. A couple of members of council argued that their constituents support the ordinance but choose not to come to city council meetings for public comment periods.

Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Gandara, nephew of Mayor Willie Gandara and sponsor of the recall amendment, stated that most of the people that spoke before the council in support of the Mayor and Varela had a vested interest in ensuring the Mayor stayed mayor of Socorro or had an axe to grind.

One of the people that spoke was Sergio Cox. He was the Councilman-at-Large (CAL) and lost to the current CAL.

Attorney Joshua Spencer spoke in opposition to the recall ordinance. There are two reasons that is interesting. One, he doesn’t live or do business in Socorro. When I asked him his connection to Socorro he said it was because he hunts in Socorro. Which is weird because there is an ordinance prohibiting the discharge of firearms within the city of Socorro, but I’m told people hunt rabbits and birds out in the rural areas. The other reason is pretty obvious, his last name is Spencer. I checked with him and he is the son of Joe Spencer, who is Mayor Gandara’s lawyer.

In one of the lighter moments of the meeting, one gentleman who addressed the city council, Roberto Leal, began by saying, “I come in peace”. He went on later to say that “…Mayor Gandara told me he didn’t even know the person who accused him…” Mayor Gandara cut him off by putting his hands up and saying, “No, no, no”.

Ernest Gomez and his sister addressed the city council. Gomez was formerly the municipal judge of Socorro and is a retired police officer. His contract was not renewed by the city council in favor of the appointment of a municipal judge with a law degree, Alex Vidalez.

Interestingly the city of Socorro has never had a municipal judge with a law degree. Vidalez has not yet passed the bar exam, but does have a law degree from UT Austin and formerly worked as a Legislative Aide for Senator Shapleigh. Gomez and his sister would understandably have a reason to oppose the current majority on city council since he no longer has the $30+k per year salary, though its now $50k.

There was a question about the residency of the municipal judge. Vidalez lives in east El Paso and not within the city of Socorro. Some people have looked at the city charter on the city’s website and saw a provision that required the municipal judge to live in Socorro. In fact, sources tell me the El Paso Times is going to do a story on the issue.

I checked the El Paso County Election website and found that in the May 2008 election there were 12 amendments to the city charter on the ballot. Amendment 9 changed the residency requirement from Socorro, Texas to El Paso County. The measure was approved by voters 61.43% to 35.57%, or 352 votes to 221.

Another resident (didn’t get a name for him) said he was a veteran who served in Afghanistan and resented people infringing upon his freedom of speech (more on that later) and specifically address City Councilman Jesse Gandara. He said that Gandara didn’t show respect for his uncle and said that he would get it if he ever spoke to his own uncle the way Councilman Gandara speaks to Mayor Gandara. To underscore the various familial ties, the man’s father is Alfonso Gutierrez, who was the city councilman for District 4 until he was defeated by…you guessed it, Councilman Jesse Gandara.

Analysis

I can see why some people might not want to come to city council meetings to speak during public comment. The crowd is often pretty rowdy and emotions run high, which is why they tried to make the public comment portion of the meeting more orderly in the first place. The entire meeting has the feel of confrontation and in a town the size of Socorro, who wants to have that kind of relationship with their neighbors? Not many I’d guess, so that’s probably why not too many people in support of the ordinance attend.

Their city council meetings look like Kangaroo Court. It’s a small town and it looks like people take the public comment portion of the meetings to settle the score of blood feuds that probably span multiple generations.

There is no infringement of anyone’s right to free speech by the change of the way the community is allowed to address the city council. Under their previous system, they had an Open Forum system. Essentially that meant that any one, at any time, could stand up and say basically whatever the hell they wanted. I’m sure you can see how that kind of stuff could get out of hand.

The new system is more orderly. There is a public comment portion of the meeting, the Mayor will recognize anyone who wants to address the council and they walk up to a podium to speak. There is no limitation to how long someone can flap their gums and bore the hell out of the audience. They don’t even require someone to sign-up to speak, both of which are required by the City of El Paso.

There are good things happening in Socorro, despite the fact that the circus is covered more than anything else. Socorro is sometimes its own worst enemy.



But the driveway project gets a bum rap from the El Paso Times Editorial Board and reporters. They run a headline that said some residents were irked by the driveways. Funny thing is, their article doesn’t quote any irked residents. Don’t believe me, read for yourself. 

Each city district has a project in the works. District 4 chose driveways. There was a formula to choose whose homes were done first, which was at least in part, based on a check with the Central Appraisal District. Some of the homes that have been paying more property taxes and therefore contributing more tax dollars to the city were given priority.

Is there a fair critique in the formula?

Probably, but to act like it was done arbitrarily is inaccurate.

Should the two city councilman have waited to go last?

You're damn right. But doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s an improvement to the district and the residents are appreciative of the upgrade.

An old firehouse is being converted to a community center. A new state-of-the-art park is in the works.

I’m betting that a year from now people will be talking about the improvements made to Socorro, but for now, everything is seen through the prism of their crazy city council meetings, and confrontational relationships.