Jose G. Landa

Staff writer

  Former Maverick County Judge and current Eagle Pass Independent School District Board of Trustee Rudy Bowles has thrown his name into the race for the position of Maverick County Judge, currently held by Judge David R. Saucedo.

The registration period for the 2018 Maverick County elections in  March is fast approaching.

Press Release

Maverick County Sheriff’s Department will be hosting the 5th Annual Say No To Drugs Halloween Block Party Wednesday, October 25 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Maverick County Lake Pavillion.

Jose G. Landa

Staff Writer

Local Attorney and City Councilwoman Gloria Hernandez announced her intent to run for the position of Maverick County Judge in the upcoming electoral process, and with doing so is now subject to an automatic resignation from the position of Eagle Pass City Council member.

Jose G. Landa

Staff Writer 

  The debacle between Maverick County and Ethelvina Felan  has found its way into the courtroom. Both parties were present at the 293rd District court on Wednesday March 15, in front of state appointed District Judge W.C. Kirkendall, attempting to settle a lawsuit seeking a writ of mandamus, permanent injunction, and declaratory judgment and request for disclosure against the county.

    Felan’s lawsuit stems from a rollback election petition filed on December 22, 2016 which the county deemed invalid on January 9, 2017. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants went beyond their legal power or authority.

    Recently, the plaintiffs legal counsel filed an amended motion for a temporary injunction against the county on Thursday, March 9, 2017. 

The County, through their legal counsel, then filed a response to the plaintiff’s Motion and Brief in Support of Temporary Injunction on Monday March 13,2017. 

    The defendants allege that the plaintiff is not able to contest the governmental action as the plaintiff fails to meet the statutory requirements, therefore the case should be dismissed, and there is no basis for a temporary injunction. 

  The county further argues that by failing to meet statutory requirements, the court should dismiss the suit for lack of standing or jurisdiction.

“This court has no jurisdiction to hear this matter because there is no basis for the claims of the plaintiffs.”

   The plaintiff argues the contrary. The county then questions the fact that the plaintiff through her attorney filed a motion for temporary injunction on March 9,2017 after the fact that the defendant had prepared its answer to the original complaint filed on February 21,2017 which did not include the temporary injunction language.

   “The reason this is not found within her petition is that there are adequate remedies at law for her alleged claims and there is no need for a temporary injunction nor for a mandatory injunction.”

    Both parties presented their final arguments before Judge W.C. Kirkendall. The judge then denied the plaintiff’s motion for temporary injunction relief on the facts and claims presented by both parties. The legal process on the issue has certain procedures that will be forthcoming in the future.

Staff Reports

Maverick County Judge David Saucedo and Eagle Pass Mayor Ramsey E. Cantu joined another 27 elected and business leaders along the Texas,

In response to criticism and inaccurate information

By: County Judge David Saucedo

  It is important to let you know what has happened over the last few months here in your County government.  Also, you need to know what will happen, if a certain group is successful in the tax rollback petition.   This same group continues with false claims and inaccurate information, as to actions taken by your Commissioners including me as your County Judge.   First and foremost I want you to know that all actions taken by your Commissioners regarding the tax rate, is what the law requires us to do, and nothing else.    Despite all the outright lies and misinformation, your Commissioners court did not raise your taxes.  The action that was taken by Commissioners Court was to rescind the tax rate when it was discovered a mistake had been made by the County Tax Assessor.  It was an honest mistake, self-reported by the Tax collector and corrected.

 Maverick County Commissioners have found the petition submitted by Ethelvina Felan invalid for two reasons.  First:  Maverick County did not raise taxes above its published rollback rate.  In fact we adopted a rate that was 4 cents lower than last year’s tax rate.   Second:  Invalid signatures, which included obvious forgeries, double signatures, lack of signatures, people who are not registered to vote, and a dead person.  The review was conducted under supervision of the Elections Administrator.  The process followed by your Commissioners is exactly the process required by the law.

  Ethelvina Felan turned in this petition after the law gave her 90 days to do so. It is not the Commissioners fault that she did not check her signatures thoroughly. With respect to the obvious fraud in not only false signatures and non-voters, the dead persons signature submitted by Ms. Felan has been reported for investigation.  The fact that Ms. Felan attempted to turn in more signatures after the deadline is not allowed by law, and were not accepted.

It is also important for you to know the services that would be lost if Ms. Felan and her group were to have a rollback. Services would be cut by up to 40%. What does that mean? It means you would have to shut down Maverick County Road & Bridge two days out of the week. It would probably be opened Monday-Wednesday .  No trash and brush pickup, no vector control, and no permits administered. You also would have less patrolling by Sheriff’s deputies.  All county departments serve all the residents of Maverick County.  You would also have to cut back on food pantry services, and support that is given to our elderly at the Maverick County Nutrition Center.  This program would also be cut one to two days a week.  As for all Maverick County employees, we would be forced to cut 1 out of every 4 jobs (25%) for the remainder of this year, and the employees who do remain would be cut to only 30 hours a week,  working from Monday-Wednesday.

Your County Commissioners have a responsibility to all the residents of this county, not just a select few who are acting for their own self-interest.  Although we have respect for those that legitimately signed the petition, we have a responsibility to all the residents of Maverick County to protect and defend your interest.  That is our oath and that is what we are doing.

Respectfully,

David R. Saucedo

Maverick County Judge