Valley Interfaith confronts county
A wall-to-wall crowd of Valley Interfaith members and Catholic priests confronted Cameron County officials Tuesday on an earlier pledge to devote $317,000 in tobacco lawsuit proceeds to health care for the poor, demanding to know why the funds were not spent to keep the Father O'Brien Health Clinic open in Port Isabel.
Also Valley Interfaith and other Brownsville neighborhood groups, led by local activist Bill Berg, accused county leaders of keeping secret plans by the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority to build a four-lane "freeway" with an 18-foot steel barricade through west side neighborhoods on soon-to-be-abandoned railroad right-of-way.
"We expect you to keep you commitments to provide for indigent health care," said the Rev. Jerry Frank of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Brownsville. His statements were echoed by the Rev. Gerry Barrett of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Port Isabel and the Rev. Sam Arizpe of St. Theresa Catholic Church in San Benito, two other Brownsville priests and a large crowd of Valley Interfaith members.
Frank reminded County Judge Carlos Cascos that he promised on Oct. 9, 2007, that a committee was appointed by county officials to oversee the selection of health care providers who were to use tobacco settlement funds to provide indigent health care.
But now Cascos is apparently putting the $317,000 in the county's general fund and skirting the promise to use it all for health care for the needy, the priests said.
Melba Barrera, of Port Isabel, co-chairwoman of Valley Interfaith, said, "There are no funds for Father O'Brien (health care center) at Port Isabel.
"They need services there so they won't have to make the long trip to Brownsville or wherever," she said. "You need to be compassionate," she told Cascos and County Commissioners Sofia Benavides, John Wood and David Garza.
Commissioner Edna Tamayo was abesent.
Cascos explained that since the commitment was made to Valley Interfaith, the county has entered into a contract with Valley Baptist Health System, which has large hospitals in Harlingen and Brownsville, to provide health care for the poor. Before that step was taken, the county always ran out of funding for indigent health care before the end of each fiscal year, he said.
Fuel prices, a $1 million drop in bridge system toll revenue and the creation of two new courts by the state Legislature, have battered the county budget, Cascos said.
"We have to look at the whole enchilada," he said. All county services are being trimmed back and every department is making sacrifices, despite a 1-cent tax rate increase, the county judge said.
The new system with Valley Baptist has provided more and better care than low-income people received before, he said, but there are large numbers of people who still don't get care.
Wood said one problem is that many members of the "working poor," who do not meet federal and state income requirements for free care, would have been served at the Father O'Brien clinic and elsewhere with tobacco settlement funding, but now they must meet the income requirements.
People who work for low wages are now left out, Wood said. "They are the ones who fall through the cracks," he said.
Garza suggested that all commissioners take another look at the budget and find a way to squeeze the promised $317,000 out of department budgets so funding can be restored to the Father O'Brien clinic.
During the heated debate about the possible future use of the railroad routes for an "expressway," Cascos and Garza said that some information being circulated is not accurate.
But Cascos said the Cameron County RMA was created by the Texas Department of Transportation and he wasn't aware of plans for a four-lane highway with an 18-foot steel wall cutting through Brownsville neighborhoods.
He proposed a meeting of all parties to take place at the courthouse in mid-January and that county officials gather information about RMA plans before the session.
Berg said that nobody in Brownsville wants a four-lane road with a steel barrier running through neighborhoods.
"We don't want a highway," he said. "We want parks."
Commissioners also met with District Attorney Armando Villalobos in closed session to learn about plans to prosecute Constable Jose G. Maldonado Jr. who is accused of allowing another person to fire his county-issued handgun during a drinking party.
Also, Cascos said applications are being accepted for people who wish to be appointed to a two-year term at the Port Isabel-based constable post and will be reviewed at the end of December. No decision on the appointment will be made before January, he said.
