By Juan Montoya
In October 2001, Browntown was all atwitter.
President George W. Bush had just nominated former Brownsville Police Chief Benigno G. Reyna as the Director of the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), "America's oldest federal law enforcement agency."
Reyna took office on December 5, 2001.For a small-town cop in charge of some 130 officers to suddenly find himself at the head of an agency with a staff of 4,200 and a budget of $733 million was heady stuff. A hometown boy had done good. Reyna had been in the BPD for some 25 years before being named Chief of Police in 1995, a position he left in 2001 to go to Washington at the behest of W.
According to a Washington Post article, he almost immediately faced skepticism from judges and regional U.S. marshals about his experience for the job.The US Marshals Service had come under fire from judges over the issue of security of judges and their families when Reyna headed the agency. He was soon the target of criticism about judicial security lapses and his leadership from federal judges and some members of Congress.
Then – only three years into his tenure – the Justice Department's Inspector General issued a report in 2004 critical of the way the US Marshals assessed threats against judges. Congress felt strongly enough about the issue that it authorized $12 million to spent on security systems for the homes of federal judges. Of 1,700 judges who requested these systems be installed, only 500 have received them before an event galvanized protest against his leadership.
The straw that broke the camel's back and which drove Reyna to resign came after typically reserved judges publicly criticized his management to Congress after a frustrated litigant broke into the Chicago home of U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow in February and killed her husband and mother.
They complained that Reyna had failed to devote staff and money to the service's primary duty of protecting judges and was channeling resources into other projects.
The Washington Post story said that in a private meeting with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in March, several federal judges on a national judicial leadership committee urged him to consider removing Reyna from office.
When Reyna could not weather the congressional onslaught, Gonzales announced his resignation without explanation and thanked him for his service.
"Benigno Reyna has served as director of the U.S. Marshals Service with integrity and skill," Gonzales, who would also take his turn at the resignation podium later, said in a statement. "As a law enforcement officer with more than 29 years of experience, he has shown steadfast leadership in directing the Service in the months and years following the September 11th attacks, as well during its work with state and local law enforcement in Operation Falcon, which resulted in the arrests of more than 10,000 fugitives."
Leaving Washington D.C. in disgrace and heading home, Reyna was soon taken under the wing of University of Texas-Texas Southmost College partnership President Juliet Garcia and a position was made for him in the Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs as a Special Assistant to the V-P for Administrative Affairs at $100,000 a year.
That increased to $102,000 in 2006-2007, $104,040 in 2007-2008, $106,000 in 2008-2009, and finally to $108,233 from 2010 until today. However, he no longer is assistant in academic affairs. His niche is now described as Administrative asst. to the Office of the Provost for Governmental Affairs.
What does Reyna do to earn his keep besides relish the memories and photographs of his time in the Big Leagues before he was ushered out the back door? Like many of the high-paid underachievers in Garcia's coterie, his major qualification is that he is her staunch supporter. In Browntown, as at UTB, that's really all that matters, isn't it?
0 comments:
Post a Comment