Sorry but just could not sleep after reading on South Texas Chisme that the Nueces County Commissioners Court may bail out the Irma Rangel Pharmacy School. The Corpus Christi Caller Times has a small blurb on the subject but does not have further details.
Okay, found the story on the San Antonio Express newspaper.
It seems the Nueces County Commissioners Court voted to appropriate $1 million for their neighbors in Kleberg County. My friend, Rep. Juan Escobar, D-Kingsville is quoted as saying, "They feel like this is a regional issue and the pharmacy school in Kingsville has an impact on Nueces County because they are right next door." Escobar went on to say he hopes the county commissioners' action "puts a little more pressure" on state leaders.
So far some have said that budget concerns caused by hurricanes and school funding struggles have caused a reluctance to release funds for the school.
Most recently some of us had hoped that some interim funding could come the Texas A&M System. Texas A&M University System spokeswoman Terri Parker commented on the commissioners' court action as being, "very generous and very much appreciated, assuming the state provides the necessary funding for the school."
Well this is good news and those of us committed to this project have to keep moving and working toward success. The need is there. The students are there. We the state just have to do our part.
Okay, now I can go to bed.
12 comments:
Hey, Rep, you did not have to wait up until 2.30 a.m. I read the full story about Nueces County's decision in the Rio Grande Guardian at 4.30 in the afternoon yesterday. In the story, County Judge Terry Shamsie slams state leaders for not funding the school.
To use a phrase my son uses all the time: dude, my bad!
Steve Taylor over at the Guardian is always getting the scoop before everybody else. I was out all day and just didn't stop to look.
Now if I could get some sleep, zzzzzzz!
Shamsie was slamming Vilma Luna and Gene Seamen to be exact.
Where were they? They should have been helping out, but instead were out campaigning against Juan Escobar in Kingsville. SHAME ON THEM
Ahem...STC posted the news at 11:26AM yesterday, so I believe we have scoop bragging rights. ;)
Anyway, it's not a totally done deal since the contract can be cancelled within the next 30 days (see KRISTC.COM). Craddick wants the Pharmacy school to die and the Republican County Commissioner, Chuck Cazales (probably with Vilma Luna's help), is working overtime to kill the deal.
This was a very generous proposal, but I fear it will be shut down.
Chuck Cazales, Betty Jean Longoria, and the rest of the naysayers are readying complaints that the votes for the generous grant were based on improper familial influence. Specifically, Oscar Ortiz is being criticized because his brother, Solomon Ortiz, is an elected official who represents Kingsville, and Peggy Banales is being criticized because her husband, Manuel Banales, is an elected official whose constituency includes Kingsville, and that both Oscar and Peggy should have recused themselves from the vote to grant Nueces County taxpayer funds to Kingsville due to that conflict of interest.
Plus, the transparency with which Terry Shamsie structured this generous gift as a sham "contract" only promotes the incorrect impression that this was an improper deal. If there had not been so much public talk about making this a gift before it was restructured as a "contract," then perhaps it would pass the smell test as a contract, but people talked too much beforehand for the contract to pass the smell test now. To avoid this misperception of impropriety, we should be forthright in calling the grant a gift to a worthy cause and not a pseudo contract.
I fear this act of generosity will be torpedoed and, just as importantly, I worry that this is playing into Lloyd Neal's otherwise flat-lined County Judge campaign to festoon the whole county with roads as badly pocked-marked as the city’s streets. What can we do to make sure that this issue does not infect the current County Judge race?
Props and respects to South Texas Chisme. You are always on the forefront of the news, even in the Valley.
Abogado?
You dont have a clue...
The county did what the republican state Lege (plus DINO Vilma) would not do!
Banales is a State Judge & Ortiz is a Fed. Whats does that have to do with $$$ for a State school? Thats the state lege funtion, (am I correct Rep. P) not a Judical or Fed duty.
For an ABOGADO your not to Esmart!
There is no question that the county deserves much credit for taking on the job that the Ledge and Luna should have taken care of.
I'm just giving you a heads up on how Cazales and Longoria are planning to attack the gift, and Ortiz, and Banales, and Shamsie, etc. Also, I didn't understand that the Cazales-Longoria camp was going to accuse the county of doing a state judge's job or Congress's job. Instead, I understood that they were going to say this gift was an improper use of Nueces County money to win support in Kingsville for a state judge and a congressman who depend on Kingsville votes, and that it was the husband and brother of this judge and congressman who were responsible for the gift which made this support possible.
No one has ever accused me of being overly "Esmart" so you are surely right when you say otherwise, but over the next few days maybe we'll see whether my source in the Cazales-Longoria camp was blowing smoke or if she was telling me the truth about how they plan to attack this generous gift.
Abogado and the other guy don’t know anything about Nueces Politics.
Betty Jean could not vote for the Rangel School because she has a tough Primary opponent. This would certainly be a critical attack point against her. Otherwise she would have voted for it. She is in the same camp as Ortiz and Shamsie and would never blast one of her own, notice her silence in the debate.
As far as Judge Banales, why would he care? He has no opponent in his current reelection bid and as a matter of fact has never been opposed in 12 plus years! Much less from Kingsville! And Ortiz does not have a primary opponent and in the Gen. and has the same repub from last election who he crushed with something like 68% of the vote!
The fact is that it would have been a 4-1 vote had Comm. Longoria not been up for reelection. Chuck Cazales is nothing more that a republican looking out for his party! As far as the skunk he keeps talking about. Its nothing more that the Toxic pollutants from his employer Citgo refinery! (Did you know that he still gets paid $100,000 a yr. as Corpus Christi’s Citgo P.R. manager? Hey isn’t that owned by BUSH’s buddy Hugo Chavez!)
Both of you do your homework.
Nueces Source is probably correct, but on the news station I was watching, Betty Jean Longoria was not silent and she seemed more than happy to blast one of her own:
"Commissioner Betty Jean Longoria is upset at how the contract was passed. She said the county couldn't use tax payer dollars to fund the pharmacy school, so commissioners decided to make a contract agreement with the university. The money will still go to fund pharmacy school.
She feels that people will feel deceived. Longoria said, 'I would think so, because that's how it's going to be perceived.'"
link
I think it would be much better if Longoria just stepped away from Cazales or -- better yet -- stepped up in favor the generosity that the others have shown.
KRIS TV has a poll going on the vote. Check it out. KRIS poll
If Jimenez is not quite actively fighting against the grant, then she is doing everything in her power to lose the fight without paying the political cost of openly opposing the grant:
"County Attorney Laura Jimenez made it clear; Nueces County can't fund the Texas A&M-Kingsville Pharmacy School.
'One of the governmental functions of the county is not educational purposes. That's what the pharmacy school is...education,' Jimenez said. ... Jimenez added a citizen could put a stop to funding the school, if he or she files a lawsuit."
Link
This is less than surprising when you see newly-reborn Republican Fil Vela was one of the first big contributers who got her husband's judicial campaign started. Link
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