Valley Interfaith: Candidates held accountable

Short, quick and to the point.

Candidates running in the March 2 Democratic primary election for Cameron County offices offered quick responses Monday night to direct questions posed at a Candidate Accountability Session sponsored by Valley Interfaith.

The office seekers were given about 30 seconds to answers questions pertain to living wages, drainage improvements, pavement of streets and the toll way roads that Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority is proposing.

The candidates attending were Eddie Treviño Jr., Rebecca Gomez and John Wood all seeking the party nomination for county judge; Gerry Linan, Ernie L. Hernandez, Victor Alvarez, Ruben R. Peña, Enrique Escobedo Jr. and Ernesto L. De Leon, all seeking the party nomination for Precinct 2 commissioner seat; and Juan Jose Ortega, Eladio "Lyle" Garza and Dan Sanchez seeking the party nomination for Precinct 4 commissioner seat.

The Accountability Session, attended by at least 300 residents, was held inside the San Pablo Parish Hall at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Brownsville.

The candidates were quizzed on if they would work to increase the starting wage to $9 per hour as opposed to the current $8.50 that Cameron County currently pays its workers. They said yes.

When quizzed on whether they would support reinstating $300,000 in tobacco funds for health care services for the indigent, they agreed they would. Instead of being used for health care, the funding was used to balance the county’s budget instead, officials said.

Gomez said she was in favor of reassigning the funds which were promised to the community in the first place.

One of the most pointed questions had to do with the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority’s West Parkway project that calls for a toll road which may be constructed from the B&M International Bridge, near downtown Brownsville, to U.S. Expressway 77/83. More than 5,000 signatures opposing the road have already been gathered, Valley Interfaith officials said.

The candidates were asked if they would support passing a resolution against the proposed toll road. All replied yes, with Hernandez adding a sure way to ensure there’s no toll road was to "change out the members of the CCRMA" which came up with the toll road idea.