The Commissioners Have Spoken...There, There, This Won't Hurt A Bit...

I was set to begin a blog this morning regarding the state of so called "watch-dog" groups here in the Valley. My theory is that these watchdog groups have their own agendas, and they're usually not looking out for people they claim to be looking out for. But that will be my next blog tentatively titled "Death of the Watchdog Groups...R.I.P...Did we really need you anyway?...Part One". Okay, so on to today's business which leads us to a report in today's issue of The Monitor. As we learned last week, a couple of candidates vying for the County Clerk position have raised the question of whether Deputy County Clerk Arturo Guajardo Jr. is using company time for political purposes. To wit, they claim that Guajardo's political website is in violation of Hidalgo County's policies regarding time spent campaigning for office by a county employee. According to the report, county policy "only requires civil service employees to resign if running for office and does not permit campaigning at work-end of discussion". That last part of the quote, "end of discussion", is in all likelihood not part of the policy verbatim, but here in Hidalgo County, it is nonetheless implied. As Guajardo concludes in the report, "I'm campaigning, let them throw rocks if they want." So where does that leave us? Does it even raise a question that needs to be answered? Apparently, the commissioner's court doesn't think so, and neither should we, eh? Nonsense, the powers that be have spoken, and there's no use in arguing with a brick wall, not now and not anytime soon. So swallow it people, that's the medicine with no "spoonful of sugar" to wash the baby down. It's life six years into the new millenium, and if we can't question our national government, what makes us think we could raise a legitimate question about how a candidate for County Clerk is spending his time, or strategy, to win the race. "End of discussion".