RECIDIVIST DAN IS AT IT AGAIN, MA! PARKING IN COP SPACES

By Juan Montoya
Remember back in September 2011 when we ran a post an how Cameron County Pct. 4 commissioner Dan Sanchez was using the constables' reserved parking space placed conveniently for them on the east side of the courthouse to park his personal car as he conducted his conduct his private law practice?
The picture we ran back then is the one posted on the bottom of this note.
Well, he's at it again. That's his car parked in the public servants' spot again. If you go to do business at the courthouse, surely you know how hard it is to get a parking space there. Often one has to seek a space in the adjoining blocks because both the east side spaces and the main parking lot in front are always full on Harrison Street.Many times, visitors are doomed to wander the side streets looking for place to park long enough to do your business and hope that the city parking officers wouldn't find you had parked in front of one of those suspicious "illness" signs people seem to have bought from crooked city guys in the past.

Was there an epidemic around the courthouse in days gone by?

Anyway, one guy who never has any trouble finding a place to park his car is Sanchez. He not only has his own Pct. 4 parking slot at the Dancy Building, but he has again taken over a constable's parking spot.

(That's his car bearing his brother David's (a judge) campaign sticker on the rear window in the old picture below. That's the same car this morning.)

We asked a security guard (bailiff) whether anyone could park there because the signs clearly state that they are for "Constables Only" and that unauthorized vehicles would be towed away at owner's expense.

The bailiff would only smile and said that the commissioner apparently had friends in the right places.

"He gets here in his car with his secretary in the morning and doesn't leave until five," said a court regular. "His county-provided secretary is always with him."

Now, we remember that Dan promised that he would be a "full-time" commissioner for Precinct 4. But if he and his secretary are at the judicial building the whole day, who's minding the store at the precinct office?

Is Sanchez just plain arrogant who feels he doesn't have to abide by the rules like we mere mortal  do? Or has he become so full of himself that he feels he can throw his weight around and do as he pleases?