LAWMAN VOTED OUT? BRING PARK RANGERS BACK

By Juan Montoya
When Conrado Cantu beat Omar Lucio for Cameron County Sheriff, Gus Reyna, his Lucio's Chief Deputy needed a place to go.
Likewise, when Cantu was deposed, there was a place needed for his Chief Deputy Juan Mendoza to go.
After all, you don't want to get rid of a good lawman just because their political fortunes turned sour, do you?
The true and tried formula was to send them to bide their time patrolling the sand dunes of South Padre and Boca Chica until the political tides changed in their favor to the Cameron County Parks Department.
In Reyna's case, he is back in the saddle as Chief Deputy to Omar again, and Mendoza is now a Justice of the Peace in Los Fresnos.
And so, when the political tides turned on Pct. 1 Constable Horacio Barrera and he was defeated in an upset by Pedro Delgadillo, he turned toward the Par Ranger Department. But alas! There was none. In fact, Zamora had argued for the dissolution of the department and told Pct. 1 Commissioner Sofia Benavides that the department was no longer necessary since he could handle his constable position and if you would just transfer the Ranger Dept. personnel over to him, he would guarantee their performance in patrolling Boca Chica and Padre Island, both in her precinct.
But hey, things change. Apparently, Horacio, out of a job, has talked Benavides into asking the court to reestablish the ranger department to make room for him.
Zamora never thought Delgadillo – of all things a Republican – would come out ahead in the election recount. Now Zamora, who has cut deals with the devil including Pct. 4 commissioner Dan Sanchez who is looking for all the support he can muster to make a run for county judge, is asking through Benavides for the court to reconsider resurrecting the Parks Ranger Department and making someone (maybe him?) Chief Ranger. If Sanchez goes along with Benavides and they can get Ernie Hernandez, who needs a few votes for his pet projects (the dog pound), the deal might go through the court despite Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos and David Garza's objections.
As the late Pct. 3 commissioner Doplh Thomae used to say : "All we county boys (and now gal)  need to know is to count to three."
Additionally,  Benavides was asking at least two more of her fellow commissioners to go along with her plan and to transfer the salaries and positions of the former deputy rangers to the reestablished department under the new department chief (Zamora, of course).
However, there is some bad blood between Benavides and Hernandez because Hernandez has been after the funds allocated to the Pete Benavides Community Park on Browne Road, Sofia's late husband and former county commissioner, to appease and make political points with the animal shelter advocates.
But Ernie has proven to eb a political chameleon when it suits him and he relishes being the swing vote if he thinks there might be some political gain in the future when he might need it.
Depending on the eventual outcome of that tiff, Zamora may find himself staring at the waves lapping up on the beach at SPI without a badge or busting you for drinking a cold one in a glass container.
(We have learned that a majority of the commissioners voted to bring back the department on the condition that they can find the money to fund the department and that the job for Chief Ranger be open to all applicants.)