Mayor candidates in war of words

By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
& MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
San Benito News

If there’s one race sure to create fireworks, it is undoubtedly that of San Benito Mayor Jack Garcia versus challenger and former Mayor Joe H. Hernandez.

There has been much controversy surrounding the mayoral election, much of which stems from Hernandez’s heavily publicized departure from office in January of 2010 after the San Benito City Commission, then with Garcia serving as Mayor Pro-tem, voted to recognize an automatic forfeiture of office by Hernandez due to owing back taxes. The commission then cited the city charter which states that a commission member forfeits office if they owe back taxes to the city, this according to the legal opinion of City Attorney Jan Cassidy.

Garcia assumed the seat of mayor for the remainder of the term while Hernandez filed lawsuits against the city which he eventually dropped. It was an occurrence that not only divided the community but also prompted significant change in the city, leading to the forfeiture of office of Place 1 City Commissioner Rene Farias as he, too, was found to owe back taxes at one point; and with Garcia assuming the seat of mayor the Pl. 2 and Pl. 1 seats were filled in a special election held last summer. Commissioners Rene Villafranco and Tony Gonzales were elected to the respective positions; they are also facing reelection this year.

Indeed, much has changed in a year; still, Hernandez continues the fight to regain his mayoral seat while Garcia opts to campaign primarily on his platform.

“I think that being elected mayor is to closely monitor the present economic uncertainty, that is probably the biggest thing in my mind right now,” said Garcia. “Our condition right now with our water and wastewater is something that concerns me, but really the economic uncertainty is an issue that concerns me in relation to this upcoming election, because it’s something that has to be a priority and has to be taken seriously.”

While Hernandez has been quick to criticize the commission, he shared Garcia’s comments of issues facing the city. “It seems that people are complaining a lot about the city being dirty,” said Hernandez. “We need to do a complete cleanup. The other thing that concerns me is the streets. That’s one of my biggest concerns.”

Garcia said number one on his priority list if reelected is infrastructure – specifically street repairs. Then there’s additional economic development. “We tackled a lot of infrastructure projects in the last three years, especially this past year. That is going to continue to be important,” Garcia said. “I’m a really firm believer in doing our homework, but also providing incentives, if available, and being creative as far as economic development is concerned. I like the idea of sitting down with the developer of a lot of these companies that want to come down and do business.”

Garcia added, “I’m pushing hard for the downtown district. We’ve already started pushing hard for that, and we’re in the process of already establishing those boundaries. We’ve worked hard, the city administration and the commission, to get the over $19 million in construction.”

On street reconstruction, while Hernandez shares Garcia’s urgency to repair roads the former mayor believes not enough is being done. “Every year we were setting aside $250,000, and I hear now that all they are setting aside is $75,000. You cannot repair and make new streets with $75,000. I don’t know what happened there,” Hernandez said.

“While I was serving as a commissioner and as a mayor, we always had a surplus. We never had a deficit. There was never a deficit there. We always balanced the budget. We never touched the reserves, and I hear that they have touched the reserves. Sometime back the city went bankrupt, and that was because of touching the reserves. Something went wrong there, and I think it was overspending. A lot of it had to do with spending money on trying to prevent me from coming back,” Hernandez said, referring to the city’s legal costs in state and federal court defending itself against his lawsuits. “To me, I think that all of it was a fiasco. I think it was a circus to begin with. Never in the history of the city have we gone through something like that. Other elected officials came to me and told me that they were always behind in taxes when they were serving, they didn’t know why (the commission) made such a big issue with me. My taxes were up to date, it was very obvious that they wanted to remove me from there and really embarrass me with the community. I just hope to God that this is going to backfire on them.”

Garcia, however, has long contended that the commission has “done a great job” and attributed last year’s million dollar shortfall to deficits in water and wastewater utilities collections as well as sales taxes shortfalls. Also, Garcia said members of the commission did not dip into the city’s reserves. The mayor mentioned further that the commission currently has a 78-day reserve fund balance, the highest in recent memory and a increase from 71 days last year.

To see this story in print, pick up a copy of the April 27 edition of the San Benito News. Or view our E-Edition by clicking here.