The DA, the Stadium, & the Cultural Center

Sources indicate that a meeting was held last night at around 6pm at the United Blood Services on the westside to talk about the progress of the Mexican American Cultural Institute (MACI) and their plans for the Hispanic Cultural Center (HCC).

Apparently the District Attorney Jaime Esparza gave a presentation about an idea that pretty much sounds like deprogramming the funds for a downtown stadium that was approved by voters during the bond election in favor of directing the funds towards the HCC.

Several prominent Latino business and political leaders were allegedly at the meeting including City Rep Lily Limon, Aliana Apodaca, Hector Gutierrez, Dora Oaxaca, Terri Garcia, Oscar Venegas, Joe Cardenas, Henry Gallardo, the Rosales', Queta Fierro, and Ralph Adame among others.

Interestingly I'm told Aliana Apodaca introduced Representative Limon and indicated that she was there as a member of MACI, not in her capacity as a city rep. I think that raises a question as to whether she should recuse herself from votes on the issue in the future considering she's a member of the MACI. To my knowledge she's the only member of council that has directly tried to influence the outcome of the HCC as a member of the MACI and other members of council may have avoided participating directly in the process in order to not create a potential conflict of interest.

If the reports about the presentation are accurate it is a very questionable decision on the part of the District Attorney to spearhead considering he is going to be facing at least one, if not more competitors in the primary next year. I'm not sure I think its prudent to be near either one of the projects during an election cycle because both have become so controversial.

The HCC was under-funded. The stadium is going to be expensive. Either way we are talking about tax dollars being spent, not saved. Esparza has a job that doesn't have budgetary issues as a major component of a campaign but involvement in this issue is going to give his opponent(s) an opportunity to bring that issue up in a campaign.

Plus I think there is going to be a messy conversation about whether or not you can actually deprogram the money considering it was an expenditure approved by the voters.

To bring this full circle, that is also problematic for Limon. I'm starting to think she has mayoral aspirations as well. She may want to one day be whispered in the same breath as Alicia Chacon and the only way that happens is if she runs for mayor. The problem is that she can't argue more money for the HCC by using the argument that the voters approved it if she is also trying to kill a project that was also approved by the voters. Again, if the reports I received are an accurate characterization of her position.

I'm still gathering details on this but I wanted to get started with this part of it first. Stay tuned.