With the arrival of former Brownsville Police Department Chief Carlos Garcia at the helm of the Port of Brownsville police force, people figured that an officer who had been in charges of a force of about 250 officers would have easy sailing with his impressive 8-person troop.
But the rumblings we hear from the Golden Gulch is that not everybody is a happy camper out there.
For example, we understand that at least two veteran officers have left the force in frustration over Garcia's style of command and that one officer hired by Garcia recently lasted just three days before turning in the towel."At least two of the people who left were good veteran cops," said a port insider. "They just got tired of the way Garcia was running things. And the guy who lasted three days before quitting is a testimony to the fine screening done by the chief."
Garcia was a shoo-in for Port of Brownsville's director of security when he was named the finalist for the position.
It didn't matter that there were 25 other candidates, the scuttlebutt at the port indicated that Garcia had the inside track on the plum position even before the application period had elapsed.
And, as was the case when we initially reported the item, Garcia had not told the city commissioners or city manager that he had applied for the position.
At $107,966 (plus benefits), Garcia was the third-highest paid city employee only behind City manager Charlie Cabler at $159,120 (an ex-cop himself) and Assistant City Manager for Finance Pete Gonzales, at $115,696.
While Garcia was responsible for about 250 police officers in a city of almost 200,000, he will now be the head of a formidable seven-officer force and ride herd on a dwindling port force that has steadily decreased from a high of almost 6,000 workers in the different port leasees to a number estimated to hover between 2,000 to 3,000.
And still, after less than a year there, and with the number of defections under his command, could it be that the job is too much for the chief to handle?
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