Former Webb County Tax Assessor Collector Patricia Barrera will face incumbent County Judge Tano Tijerina in the upcoming March 6, 2018 primary.
In a decision she called “bittersweet,” Barrera tendered her resignation at the Commissioners Court meeting of Nov. 27, 2017.
Barrera first ran for office in 1992, winning the primary by 54% with a campaign strategy of block walking and hand-painted signs. She ran for and won a seventh
term in 2016.
“I knew it was time to move on. I’ve known that for a year,” she said, “as it became more and more clear of the lack of leadership in the Commissioners Court, the failure of the Condrey system to protect employees, the insurance mess, the sick leave policy that changed in mid-stream, the hiring of unbelievably unqualified individuals, the attacks on good employees, and the lawsuits leveled at the Court by elected officials.”
According to Barrera, the chaos and the lack of harmony of the Commissioners Court have damaged morale and created uncertainty for County employees. “Yes, these are hard economic times. We all agree. Elected officials — all four district court judges, the District Attorney, the County Attorney — have come before the court to keep their staff positions from being reduced or reassigned. Some have had to file lawsuits to keep employees or to be able to offer new hires a salary in line with their experience,” she said.
“I have always wanted to be of service on a larger scale,” Barrera continued. “I want to provide leadership that puts Webb County on better financial footing and ends the idea that the agendas of Commissioners Court meetings are worked out in advance,” Barrera said.
She said she sees one commissioner taking the leadership role and not the sitting judge. “I see one commissioner running the County’s agenda. I see bad hires for political payback, and I see retribution for an employee who went against that one commissioner’s wishes. This Court belongs to the people of Webb County. It is not a place to settle scores. That is beneath the dignity of a public servant.”
She continued, “For FY 2017, all of us — department heads and elected officials — did as the Commissioners Court asked, to tighten up and give up positions, only to find out that the Court had created a finance department with new positions.” Barrera said the proposed 2017 budget was not available for review. “What they submitted was an amended proposed budget in the dark of night rather than in open Court where budgets are amended.” She said that for FY 2018, the Commissioners took five positions from the County Attorney to create a new civil law department. “If they are asking us to give up employees to tighten County finances, they should not be creating new departments and staffing them,” she said.
The lifetime Laredoan, who has been at the helm of the tax office for a quarter century and whose hallmark has been to establish efficiency and a high level of customer service, said she aspires to improve service in all County departments.
The youngest of Anastacio and Consuelo Peña Barrera’s three children, Barrera was raised in the home behind her father’s neighborhood store at Logan and Corpus Christi. She managed the store for a time, surpassing its highest sales. “I painted, cleaned, sold a lot of gas, and kept an eye on who might be stealing. That experience was a test run for everything I have done after that,” she said.
Barrera recounted that in 1977, before her 25th birthday, she “came to the Lord” and set about moving out of a deep depression and “cleaning up everything about my life and learning the power of prayer.”
According to Barrera, three of the County’s eight community centers should not have been built within the City limits of Laredo. “This is a costly duplication of services. The centers in the outlying areas of Río Bravo and El Cenizo should be handed over turnkey to those municipalities. “We can’t afford them. They are a hub for cañoneros to gather up votes for the elected officials who pay them,” she stressed.
She said that the taxpayers of Laredo are subsidizing the garbage pickup of the rural residents of rural Webb County. “Laredoans pay the City for their own garbage service. Why should they pay for the services of another community?” she asked, adding, “We are selling water in the rural areas for less than what we pay the City of Laredo for it. It’s time to stop underwriting services that are not mandated by statute or constitution. Members of the Commissioners Court need to stop using County services to gain a few votes to stay in office.”
Touting the possibility of turning tires and trash into fuel, Barrera said the current administration has not moved quickly enough to find additional revenue streams. “There is no shortage of discarded tires or trash, and it is a good move environmentally. Obviously the equipment to do this will require an investment,” she said.
Barrera sees the proposed fifth international bridge and a rail bridge in southern Webb County as income generators that will fund the County and lower the tax burden on home owners and business owners.
She said the availability of raw land on both sides of the Río Grande in proximity of the bridge site would spur unprecedented economic development for the county, Río Bravo, and El Cenizo.
“Mexico wants its next international bridge to cross the Río Grande in the southern sector of Webb County as a conduit for goods that have come through the deep water Port of Lazaro Cardenas on the Pacific,” Barrera said, adding that Mexican investors from the private sector are willing to build the bridge. “Webb County should invest on the U.S. side for a return that could be very profitable. Kansas City Southern de Mexico has benefited greatly in moving goods from Lazaro Cardenas to Laredo,” she said.
“The current administration has not moved this project forward. It needs to happen as quickly as possible,” she said.
Asked about the October 11, 2007 raid of her office by the Texas Attorney General to look into “raffles and pots” in her office, Barrera said, “It was alleged that I was making money from this. I was not, and the case was dismissed.”
Asked about her refusal to have Tax Department employees sign in with the County’s biometric time clock and payroll system last year, Barrera said she had done so because a handicapped staffer who did not have a right hand could not use the system. When Barrera’s refusal to comply resulted in her employees not being paid electronically, she sued the County and County Treasurer Delia Perales.
She said if elected she will visit with every Commissioner, every elected official and department head to implement efficiency measures that save time and money.
“Taxpayers are the revenue source for Webb County. We owe it to them to be more frugal,” Barrera stressed.
“It all goes back to when I ran my father’s store. My plan for Webb County is to fix what makes service slow and inefficient, to be watchful of those who might be stealing time or goods, and to get every department to put pride into the product or service being offered,” she said, adding, “These are things I can do.”
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