INSIDE INFORMATION IS MORE POWERFUL THAN MONEY MY FRIENDS

Thursday, March 13, 2008

THE REAL POLITICAL PULSE: THE POWER STRUGGLE BETWEEN LENCHO VERSUS THE EDC



HOW THINGS WORK. LET'S BREAK THIS VERY COMPLEX BEAST OF THE EDC (POWER GROUP A) AND LENCHO (POWER GROUP B) AND THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER IN NUECES COUNTY FOR ALL OF US TO UNDERSTAND. UNDERSTAND THE PLAYERS AND THE POWERSTRUCTURE. WE NEED TO KNOW THE SET UP AND WHY THINGS HAPPEN HERE IN TOWN.










CONNECTIONS: EDC, HUGO BERLANGA, RUBEN BONILLA.























THE ENEMIES TO EDC: LENCHO RENDON TRYING TO UNDERMINE EDC. LENCHO AND KAELIN REAL CLOSE. WILLIE VADEN AND LENCHO RENDON RUNNING PIPELINE FROM MEXICO TO U.S.


LENCHO WHEELING AND DEALING WITH REPUBLICANS?

LENCHO THE STAUNCH DEMOCRAT! WILLIE JUST HIRED HIM IN INGLESIDE. WHAT'S GOING ON? LENCHO IS TRYING TO CONTROL THE PORT. THE PORT COMMISSION IS NEEDED FOR SHAMSIE TO REPLACE ONE OF THE PORT MEMBERS. THE EDC HAS THE MIKE CARROLL ISSUE TO CONTEND WITH. THERE ARE 7 MEMBERS: 4 CONTROLLED EDC AND 3 BY LENCHO AND SOLOMONISTAS. THEY ARE GOING AFTER MONEY, OF COURSE. LENCHO CONTROLLING COUNTY. OSCAR ORTIZ IS PRETTY MUCH COUNTY JUDGE AND SHAMSIE IS STILL PULLING STRINGS ON THE COMMISSIONERS COURT. BUT AS FAR AS THE PORT RUBEN BONILLA, JUDY HOLLY(?), MIKE CARROLL (HEAD OF FROST BANK AND MEMBER OF EDC WAS MOVED OVER TO THE PORT), AND THE ELDERLY ANGLO GENTLEMAN WHO'S NAME ESCAPES ME IS APPOINTED BY THE CITY. AN APPOINTMENT IS PENDING AT THE END OF THIS YEAR. THE CONTROVERSY IS THAT MIKE CARROLL (HENRY GARRETT APPOINTED MIKE CARROLL PRIOR TO THE ELECTION ON THE CITY COUNCIL). EDC FEARED THE BALANCE OF POWER WOULD HAVE BEEN AFFECTED. NOW, THE OTHER PEOPLE OF LENCHO, YOLANDO OLIVAREZ (SOLOMON ORTIZ HELPS HER WITH CONTRACTS), KEN BERRY, BOBBY GONZALEZ. LOOKS LIKE BOBBY GONZALEZ WILL BE REAPPOINTED. YOLANDA WILL LEAVE SO THEY ARE TRYING TO PUT SHAMSIE (HE HAS JUST PUT IN AN APPLICATION). KEEP IN MIND THAT RENE RODRIGUEZ HAS SUBMITTED AN APPLICATION.

THE OTHER ISSUE IS THAT SHAMSIE IS WANTED ON THERE BECAUSE HE IS WITH LENCHO. NOW, OSCAR ORTIZ CONTROLS PEGGY BANALES AND BETTY JEAN. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COMMISSIONERS COURT YOU HAVE CAZALES AND NEIL. BUT STRANGELY CAZALES HAS BEEN VOTING WITH ORTIZ. MIKE HUMMELL ON THE CITY COUNCIL SIDE IS FRIENDLY WITH LENCHO SO THEY WILL TRY TO GET ANOTHER MEMBER ON THE PORT APPOINTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE REASON THE PEGGY BANALES RACE WAS SO IMPORTANT WAS TO GET THE PORT.



NOW, LETS LOOK AT THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: TERRY CARTER IS RUMORED TO HAVE HIS DAYS NUMBERED ON THERE. EDC CONTROLS PORT NOW BUT LENCHO IS PUSHING TO CONTROL THE PORT. THE MAIN ENGINE THAT CONTROLS THE ECONOMY IS THE PORT SO THAT IS WHY SHAMSIE AND LENCHO COVET IT.



HUERTA CONNECTION: HUERTA IS TIED IN WITH MIKAL WATTS. THEY SIT ON SEVERAL BOARDS THAT THE EDC CONTROLS. MIKAL WATTS IS IN THERE. WHAT REMAINS UNCLEAR IS WHETHER LENCHO HAS ALLIANCES WITH WATTS.
BONILLA CONNECTION: BY RUBEN BONILLA GETTING HALF A MILLION FROM ONE, A QUARTER OF MILLION FOR FEES OF CITY ENTITIES FOR LEGAL FEES (FED TO SHAMSIE AND RENE RODRIGUEZ BACK WHEN TERRY SHAMSIE RAN). THAT IS WHY RUBEN BONILLA AND SHAMSIE NOT ON FRIENDLY TERMS BECAUSE RUBEN WAS RAKING IT IN. WHEN SHAMSIE CAME IN AS COUNTY JUDGE HE WAS IDEALISTIC AND WAS LOOKING AT THE FUNDS AND MONEY. RUBEN BONILLA MAKING OVER A MILLION FOR REPRESENTING SEVERAL ENTITIES.
NOW EDC AND RENDON/SHAMSIE FACTION: BOTH GROUPS ARE EXCLUSIVE.
LENCHO GROUP IS SO CLOSEKNIT. THE GROUP DYNAMICS IS THAT THEY ARE NOT INCLUSIVE. THE CIRCLE IS TIGHT. WHEN HILLARY CAME IT WAS EVIDENT. THEY CONTROLLED THE MEDIA WHICH ANGERED THE MAINSTREAM. IN THE LENCHO CIRCLE MIKE RENDON AND SARAH SALDIVAR (WHO WORKED WITH SOLOMONS DAUGHTER) ARE A PART OF THE GROUP.


THE BROTHER IN LAW DAVID MARTINEZ IS IN RTA, NOW SARAH LEAVING SO JOSEPH RAMIREZ IS ENTERING RTA. WHO APPOINTS THE RTA PEOPLE? THE MAYOR OF ROBSTOWN THROUGH THE SMALL APPOINTMENTS COMMITTEE. NOW DO WE UNDERSTAND HOW THE COMMUNITY CAN GROW WITH THIS OLIGARCHY? IT IS TOO EXCLUSIVE. THEY DON'T SHARE THE WEALTH WITH ANYONE.


SHAMSIE IS TIED IN WITH ALL THESE BIG DOLLARS, CONSULTANT WITH THE CITY OF ROBSTOWN, THE SCHOOL BOARD BUDGET OF ROBSTOWN.THE SHAMSIES AND LENCHOS DO THE PATH OF PAST RESISTANCE. SHAMSIE FIRST LATCHED ON TO FIL VELA, THEN RENE RODRIGUEZ, NOW LENCHO. SHAMSIE TRIED TO BE VERY ACCOMMODATING WITH EDC BUT THEY REJECTED HIM SO THAT IS WHY HE STARTED AWARDING THINGS TO DOS LOGISTICS AND OMEGA TO CURRY FAVOR WITH LENCHO AND NOW IS TRYING TO HELP MORE OF LENCHOS COMPANIES WHICH IS THE NEW ONE LR GLOBAL AND ASSOCIATES. REMEMBER THAT LENCHO YOU NEVER SEE HIM MUCH IN PUBLIC.

RECENTLY HE HAD A SEMINAR CALLED OCEAN SECURITY CONFERNCE WITH 34 COUNTRIES AND BROUGHT IN MILITARY PEOPLE AND THERE ARE DOLLARS BEING PUT OUT BY THE GOVERNMENT. SOLOMON SITS ON COMMITTEE TO AWARD MONIES THROUGH CONTRACTS. BY BEING RETIRED MANY OF THESE GENERAL AVOID BEING CONFLICTED. THE GENERALS USE THEIR INFLUENCE TO INFLUENCE THE PRESENT MILITARY PEOPLE WHO REPLACES THEM AND LENCHO FINDS A WAY TO PAY THE RETIRED GENERALS AS CONSULTANTS. HE MADE IT LOOK LIKE HE BROKE UP WIHT SOLOMON IN 2006 BUT IT WAS TRULY TO AVOID THE CONFLICT. THAT IS WHY HE IS USING HIS NEPHEW JOSEPH...TO AVOID CONFLICTS. SHAMSIE: AS COUNTY JUDGE HE WAS IDEALISTIC AND THEN BECAME REALISTIC AFTER THE EDC REJECTION. HE SAID, PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE BUT HE WENT WITH LENCHO. HE IS LIKE A WILLOW. HE HAS THAT CLASSIC BEHAVIOR AND GIVE IN AND DIVIDE AND CONQUER INSTEAD OF CREATE. THAT IS WHY HE JOINED WITH LENCHO IN ORDER TO BE WITH SOMEONE STRONG. HE ACTS LIKE A DEMOCRAT BUT PRACTICALLY BEGGED TO BE WITH EDC AND THE WHITES BUT AGAIN, THEY SPURNED HIM. DOS LOGISTICS MADE MILLIONS. THEY BOUGHT SHAMSIE A HOUSE. HMMM. THINK ABOUT IT. DID HE ACCEPT GIFTS LIKE THIS WHILE IN OFFICE? NOW YOU ARE SEEING THE PAYBACK THEY OWE SHAMSIE.

LR GLOBAL OPERATES LIKE PART MARKETING PART BUSINESS (CONSTRUCTION, PUBLIC RELATIONS ETC). PARTICULARLY FOR MILITARY CONTRACTS. THEY ARE BRINGING IN SHAMSIE AS A CONSULTANT. THEY ARE CLEVER. SHAMSIE IS BEING PAID BY ENTITIES. THINK OF SOLOMON ORTIZ WHEN HE WAS YOUNG, GETS OUT OF ARMY, RUNS FOR CONTSTABLE, COMMISSIONER, SHERIFF, AND EVERY SINGLE PUBLIC POST IS ALWAYS PAYING MONEY. THEY NEVER HAVE SERVED ON SCHOOL BOARDS, CITY COUNCIL. THEIR WHOLE MENTALITY IS TO PIMP OFF SYSTEM. SAME WITH LENCHO. HE DOESNT HAVE TO PAY SHAMSIE, THE CITY AND SCHOOL BOARD OF ROBSTOWN FUNNELS MONEY. ROD RAMON AND ABEL HERRERO ARE A PART OF THE CLICK. NOW GRANTED, WE ARE ALL TRYING TO MAKE MONEY AND FEED OUR FAMILIES BUT THIS IS PIMPING OFF THE SYSTEM. THIS IS POLITICS.REMEMBER BORCHARD? HE APPOINTED TO THE PORT THE SAME BANKER WHO HIRED HIM. THE PEOPLE AT THE PORT NOW BUY THE INSURANCE IS BOUGHT WHICH BILL DODGE WAS ASSOCIATED WITH (BILL DODGE BANKER AT ROBSTOWN. SAME INSURANCE COMPANY IS BEING SUPPORTED BY LOBBYING EFFORTS OF HUGO BERLANGA AND RUBEN BONILLAS IS THE LAWYER! WHAT A RACKET!CONSULTANTS EVERYWHERE.
NOW EDC: PRIMARILY ANGLOS BUT CURIOUSLY MORE PLURALISTIC. THEY SHARE MORE OF THE WEALTH. THEY ARE MORE SOPHISTICATED AND NOT SO HEAVY HANDED AND PROJECT HIGHER STANDARDS. AL JONES, MIKE CARROLL, JOE FULTON, BERRY CONSTRUCTION AND ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF, BUT WHAT HAPPENS ITS A SMALL MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. ALTHOUGH NOT SO TIGHTKNIT AS LENCHOS THEY ARE STILL SOMEWHAT EXCLUSIVE.THE EDC'S FORMULA IS SIMPLE. ITS A SHADOW GOVERNMENT. ROOTS GO BACK TO HAYDEN HEAD. HAYDEN HEAD WAS AN ATTORNEY. NEVER RAN FOR OFFICE. HE WAS INVOLVED WITH THE PORT. HE MADE SURE THAT CITY COUNCILMAN WERE BUSINESSMAN. WHEN THINGS WANTED TO BE DONE, HE WOULD GET PEOPLE WHO WANTED A CONTRACT, AND THE MEETINGS (LIKE THE MARKETING PLAN FORWARD CORPUS CHRISTI) AND WOULD SAY THE CONTRACTORS WOULD PAY FOR THE MARKETING, LOOK FOR CERTIFICATES OF OBLIGATION FROM THE PUBLIC (HAYDEN HEAD STARTED AMERICAN BANK IN THE 1970'S WHICH AL JONES IS THE HEAD OF NOW). A THREE PART OPERATION BEGINS: YOUR BUILDERS(THEY PROVIDE THE FINANCING FOR THE MARKETING TO SELL THE PROJECT), THE POLITICIANS LIKE MAYOR (LOOK WHO CONTRIBUTES MONEY TO THE POLITICIANS DAVID ENGOLS TO JUAN GARCIA EXAMPLE) AND THEN THE BANKS FUNDS IT (AL JONES IS THE MODERN DAY HAYDEN HEAD, FINANCED PACKERY, AMERICAN BANK CENTER, WHATABURGER FIELD).POLITICAINS SELL IT, BUILDERS MARKET IT, BANKS FINANCE IT. ON THE FOOD CHAIN POLITICIANS ARE THE LOWEST. HERE YOU HAVE THE EDC (NONPROFIT) WHICH IS A DEFACTO POLITICAL MACHINE. THEY CAN'T BE AUDITED BY THE CITY!!! THE CITY CAN'T LOOK AT THEIR BOOKS. ANOTHER THING, THE CITY GIVES THEM AUTHORITY FOR THE EDC TO DECIDE WHERE ECONOMIC GROWTH IS BEST, WHERE LAND VALUE SHOULD BE RAISED. THESE GUYS ON EDC KNOW WHERE LAND WILL RAISE VALUE, THEN THEY GO BUY THE LAND! THIS IS INSIDER TRADING. OVERNIGHT A PIECE OF CRAP LAND BECOMES GOLD. (INSIDE INFORMATION IS MORE POWERFUL THAN MONEY MY FRIENDS). THE EDC IS A POLTICAL MACHINE. WHO GETS THE CONTRACTS? 90 PERCENT OF PROJECTS, WHATABURGER FIELD AND AMERICAN BANK CENTER: JOE FULTON! MIKE CARROLL, ED MARTIN (HEAD OF BERRY CONSTRUCTION) CHANGE LEADERSHIP ROLES (DON'T CONFUSE KEN BERRY THE SOLOMONISTA WITH THE MAIN FAMILY).
CITY AND COUNTY CONSTRUCTION PROJECT DIFFERENCES. JOE FULTON WAS LATE ON PROJECT HE UNDERBID EVERYONE ON. HE SAYS "I CAN'T DO IT WITH WHAT I BID, NEED MORE MONEY(THIS IS KNOWN AS COST OVERRUN). AMERICAN BANK CENTER, WHATABURGER FIELD. HE HAS SELDOM IF EVER COMPLETED A PROJECT ON TIME AND HAS DONE COST OVERRUN BIG TOWN. THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT THEY ARE ON, THE EDC ALLOW THESE COST OVERRUNS AND THE CITY HAS NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT.CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP: APPOINT PEOPLE ON EDC BECAUSE THE CITY AND COUNTY CAN ONLY APPOINT SO MANY.LET'S LOOK AT NUMBERS. LESS THAN 1 PERCENT JOB GROWTH (WORKSOURCE) THEY GET INSIDE INFORMATION AND EVERYONE MAKES MONEY AND THE COMMUNITY RARELY BENEFITS. IF YOU DESTROY THE EDC, THEY WILL JUST BUILD ANOTHER ORGANIZATION. LOOK AT THE AMERICAN BANK CENTER BOARD AND YOU WILL SEE MANY BIG PLAYER. THE HEAD OF CCISD IS THERE. WHERE DID HE WORK? AMERICAN BANK. WHO HAS MARKETING CONTRACT: CAROL SCOTT (WIFE OF MARK SCOTT). JOHN LONGORIA: HE SITS ON ADVISORY BOARD, NELDA MARTINEZ ON CITY COUNCIL SHE SITS ON ADVISORY BOARD OF AMERICAN BANK TOO.
SAME THAT SHAMSIE AND LENCHO DO THE EDC DOES. THEY GO AFTER ENTITIES OF GOVERNMENT AND GO AFTER PUBLIC DOLLARS (WE ARE CREATING JOBS SAYS JOE FULTON IF YOU BUILD WHATABURGER WITH CERTIFICATES OF OBLIGATION? YOU CREATE NOTHING.

YOU ARE PASSING ON A BILL TO FUTURE GENERATIONS. THIS IS WHAT LENCHO/SHAMSIE ARE DOING AND EDC IS DOING. LESS THAN 1 PERCENT JOB GROWTH. ALL THE TAXPAYERS MONEY WENT TO THESE PEOPLE THIS IS THE IGNORANCE OF THE TAXPAYERS OF NUECES COUNTY.
PACKERY CHANNEL: THE CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI BORROWED 9 MILLION. HOW MUCH INTEREST DID AMERICAN BANK CHARGE IN INTEREST? 99 PERCENT INTEREST AND YOU AND I ARE PAYING FOR IT. USURY, NO LESS. IT WAS ON LOYD NEILS WATCH.
CONCLUSION: THE FLOODGATES OF OPPORTUNITY. THESE GROUPS MONOPOLIZE POWER AND HOPE. THESE PEOPLE CREATE NOTHING AND PROFIT AMONG THEMSELVES.PEOPLE OF CORPUS CHRISTI, CHECK IT OUT. DO THE RESEARCH. YOU DON'T NEED A COLLEGE DEGREE TO COMPREHEND THESE THINGS. I CARE ABOUT MY COMMUNITY AND THESE GROUPS UNDERESTIMATE THE PEOPLE IN THIS COMMUNITY AND THEY THINK WE WOULD NEVER FIGURE IT OUT. BUT WE ARE FIGURING IT OUT.


MORE TO COME. COMMENTS PLEASE.





Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Regulations change, county colonias don't

No action so far on developer rules; no new grant funds received by Nueces

By NANCY MARTINEZ Caller-Times
June 12, 2006

The thought of border-style squalid living conditions on the outskirts of the Sparkling City by the Sea didn't seem to cross legislators' minds almost 20 years ago when they authored laws to do something about those conditions.

That changed last year when state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa's bill recognizing colonias in Nueces County became law.

The law gave county commissioners the authority to impose and enforce stricter rules on the developers of unincorporated land, requiring them to provide paved streets, water and sewer lines. The law also exempted Nueces County from a statistical quirk that made the county ineligible for state funding despite the plight of the people in the colonias. Previously, because Corpus Christi accounts for most of the county's population, the city pushed the county's median income too high and its unemployment rate too low to qualify for colonia assistance, throwing a statistical mask over these pockets of poverty.


What is a colonia?

Politicians, state agencies, social services and people who live there all conjure different images for colonia. According to the Texas Secretary of State, a colonia is a community along the Texas-Mexico border that may lack some of the most basic living necessities, such as potable water and sewer systems, electricity, paved roads, and safe and sanitary housing.
Another law also was passed last session that made funding available to all areas that met the new criteria - that median household incomes not exceed 75 percent of the state average.

So far those laws haven't changed anything for the people of the colonias in Nueces County. The aid requires action by county officials - action that hasn't occurred. They must adopt and enforce the rules for developers.

Commissioners have said for months that they were going to take a vote on whether to adopt the model subdivision rules. Since the laws were passed last June, County Engineer Glen Sullivan has said his staff was working on fine-tuning the rules for developers. The new laws went into effect Sept. 1.

"(The proposed new rules) are almost ready," Commissioner Betty Jean Longoria said Friday. "A lot of it is the legality that you have to go through to put them together. It's just really a matter of someone looking into it and deciding what we need."

Commissioner Chuck Cazalas said he thought Longoria was working on it. "I really don't know," he said. "I don't think I have any colonias in my precinct."

Commissioner Oscar Ortiz said he was unclear about the laws and what was the next step for commissioners. But he did say he was aware of the problems in colonias and that "we need to look at the funding to make sure that the state provides money for their mandates."

"The county has to decide what it is that we want and what we can afford as far as enforcing any rules and regulations that we may adopt," Ortiz said. "Eventually we will come up with a plan."

Attempts to reach Commissioner Peggy Banales and County Judge Terry Shamsie were unsuccessful.

Even if commissioners vote to adopt the new rules, Sullivan pointed to another obstacle. He says he has no staff to enforce the rules. The funds - from the state's water development board, of which neighboring San Patricio County has received millions in the past two decades - are available only if these rules are enforced.

There are myriad definitions for colonias. Politicians, state agencies, social services and people who live there all conjure different images for colonia. Other definitions include exact distances from the border or a measure of income and unemployment rates found there.

According to the Texas Secretary of State, a colonia is a community along the Texas-Mexico border that may lack some of the most basic living necessities, such as potable water and sewer systems, electricity, paved roads, and safe and sanitary housing.

Beginning in the early 1990s, the 1,600 colonias along the border began receiving help from state officials.

One of the most active state agencies in helping colonias is the Texas Water Development Board's Economically Distressed Areas Program, established in a 1989 law to provide water and wastewater services to colonia residents who couldn't afford them. The law also required that new rural residential subdivisions have water and wastewater services.

Border colonias have received $501 million in Economically Distressed Areas Program funds for 93 projects that cover 781 colonias. More than $44 million more remains available, according to state reports.

San Patricio and Bee counties, though not on the border, were included in the long list of counties approved for state funding for first-time water and wastewater projects. That's because those two counties met low-income and unemployment requirements.

Not so for Nueces County, until Hinojosa's sponsored exemption from those requirements.

Although people in the colonias were poor, the overall numbers for Nueces County weren't low enough to qualify because Corpus Christi's employment and income rates skewed the picture. To be eligible, the entire county needed a per capita household income of 25 percent below the state average and unemployment rates 25 percent above the state average.

Qualifying for the funding only was part of the process, said Josephine Miller, who was San Patricio County judge when that county qualified. She said getting the millions in grants for colonias in San Patricio County wasn't easy. She and her colleagues had to make it a priority.

Miller said she recalls the commissioners sentiments while working on the county's budget: "One of the people on the court said they didn't think it was too much of the American Dream, at the end of the 20th century, that there ought to be running water."

Nueces County grants administrator Roxana Hunt said the county always is looking for grants to help colonia residents.

The county was awarded a $90,000 comprehensive planning study grant in 1998 from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. That study, which found and analyzed 36 colonias in the county, recommended a five-year capital improvement plan.

No further work has been done on it because the two grants the county applied for were denied, Hunt said.

So far, the county has used $3.1 million in funds for colonia projects through programs such as the Office of Rural Community Affairs, the Texas Community Development Program and the South Texas Water Authority. A small part of that total amount was paid in matching funds by the county.

Hunt said the estimates of colonias are not accurate because colonias have grown since the study. She said there is much more work to do. Part of that job is educating people about the conditions that exist in colonias.

"There are so many people out there who believe it isn't anyone's problem to correct these issues - and there are even more who have no idea Nueces County has colonia issues," Hunt said.

Before last year's law was enacted, county officials didn't have the authority to enforce the laws at Tierra Grande, near Petronila, or any of the other colonias in the county.

Hinojosa used conditions at Tierra Grande to explain the need for the law.

"Septic tanks overflowed with human waste. Parents carried their children through the wastewater to the county highway so they could catch the school bus. Mail was not delivered for a month. Cars and trucks were ruined. Tests showed that well water - the main water source for cooking, washing and bathing, had three times the acceptable amount of E. coli bacteria. Conservative estimates numbered some 10,000 persons living in 40 to 50 colonias, in third-world conditions," his bill read.

Tierra Grande was born when siblings Birdie Yvonne Messer and the late Winston White Jr. sold their deceased father's ranch- and farmland in 1978. The developers then divvied it up to people who wanted a place to call their own.

These people arranged to pay the developers for the land a little at a time, in contracts for deeds. Residents moved trailer homes or built modest dwellings with whatever materials they could scrounge. They would allow other family members to set up their dwellings on their land, and soon the situation became too many homes on too little land.

All of these residents had no electricity, clean drinking water or flushing toilets. Many of them say the developers gave them empty promises of providing these services.

Documented minutes from county commissioners court meetings in 1978 noted the substandard conditions. The documents also note that county officials tried to force developers to improve the standards. Threatening letters were sent to the developers. And once, the county sued the developers. Some residents ended up with free land after that suit.

Hinojosa's bill called for:

Allowing Nueces County to prevent future substandard housing from springing up;

Providing the assistance of a colonia ombudsman; and

Making Nueces County eligible for Economic Distressed Areas Program funds from the state.

So far colonias still are proliferating in Nueces County. Signs advertising farmland for sale can be seen next door to the Tierra Grande colonia and in other places along the county's rural roads.

Keta Caballero, a Secretary of State's Office colonia ombudsman who works on the border, has come to Corpus Christi a few times this year to oversee meetings by the county's grant department where a mix of state and local officials gathered to figure out what needs to be done next. Only Commissioner Banales personally has attended a meeting.

Officials with the Texas Water Development Board said the agency is waiting until the current projects are complete before taking new applications for the more than $44 million in funds available. Those projects need to be beyond the design phase before funding new ones, said program administrator Amanda Lavin .

"Adopting and enforcing the model subdivision rules is the first step in a detailed and complicated process," said Neil Haman, another water development board employee who works in the Harlingen office. Haman recommended the county hire someone with experience to help apply for the funds.

So far, Nueces County commissioners haven't put colonias on their meeting agenda.

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