Target of Hond of Hondo recall seek specifics

By Zeke MacCormack - Express-News

HONDO — Surrounded by boisterous backers, three Hondo City Council members targeted by petitions seeking their ouster from office beckoned the threatened recall election Wednesday, saying they were proud of their record since being elected last May.

“Bring on the recall, because it’s going to fail,” said Councilman Chavel Lopez at the public hearing where he and council members Lucio Torrez and Virginia Gonzales rejected petitioners’ contention that they had failed to meet their fiduciary duties and placed the city’s financial stability at risk.

Precious few of the 690 voters who signed the petitions were in the crowd that yielded speaker after speaker who praised the work of the new council majority — which hasn’t shied from flexing its muscles as the new majority — and said “good ‘ol boys” must adjust to the new reality of a government controlled by Hispanics.

“We’ve been waiting a long time and it’s about time we have this new change,” said resident Isabel Luna, one of 11 speakers who opposed the recall referendum that’s expected to go before voters May 9. “I’m very proud of these new council people.”

Calling the petition verbiage vague, Hondo attorney Clyde Haak, one of the few non-Hispanic speakers Wednesday, invited anyone present to explain what conduct of the three newest council members threatened the city’s financial stability.

No one immediately stepped forward.

Mayor Jim Danner, when asked by Haak if he knew the grounds for the recall effort with which he has disclaimed association, only described the petition language as “fairly generic.” Councilman Vance Tomey, whose father, Jim, is active in the recall effort, said he knew of instances to back the claim, but wouldn’t divulge them. “I don’t choose to comment,” he said, drawing heckles from the crowd of about 50.

The petitioners’ designated spokesman, former councilman Bob Heyen, didn’t attend the meeting and declined earlier to cite any specific examples of the actions by the recall targets that he objected to.

“I’m not going to go too deep into this,” said Heyen Tuesday when asked to delineate actions to which petitioners’ objected. “The citizens of Hondo do not think they are doing a good job managing the city. They are not fulfilling their obligations,” Heyen said.

The lack of specific allegations in the petition prompted Haak to say, “Before we vote people out of office, we ought to know what we’re talking about ..... I don’t know what it’s about and you can’t tell by looking at it.”

He also questioned the mathematical aptitude of those behind the recall initiative — the first in the history of the municipality since it became an option in 2007 when a home rule charter was adopted — since those targeted were the top vote-getters in elections last May.

“It’s incomprehensible to me how the losing side in the last election is going to recall the majority,” said Haak.

Three backers of the recall stepped to the podium Wednesday to urge voters to closely examine the actions of the new council majority.

Resident Linda Hook criticized the council members for only achieving a balanced budget months into the new fiscal year, and for using certificates of obligation intended for long-term infrastructure project to do so. She urged audience members to go read the minutes of council meetings since last June to find additional causes for the recall effort.

Her husband, David Hook, posed questions — which he asked the council to later answer — to the petition targets about which campaign pledges they had met.

Juana Lopez was among several speakers who described the recall election as a devisive effort to roll back the clock and defy evolution in a city long controlled by Anglos.

“Change is uncomfortable for people,” conceded Lopez, the councilman’s sister. “But the wind of change is here. It’s time for change.”

She and others urged those with differences to come together, and abide by the democratic principle of “majority rules.”

“I don’t want to divide the community,” said Lopez, “I want a better community for my children. I want unity.”

The officials facing a recall defiantly defended their voting record, — which included holding the line on electric rates, boosting the pay of city employees and delaying the expansion of city facilities.

Councilwoman Gonzales told the crowd, “I take my responsibilities seriously, and I want nothing more than the best for Hondo and the community that my children will grow up in.”

Torrez asserted that the mayor, City Manager Robert Herrera and councilmen Tomey and Jay Gruber are helping push the recall intiative.

The recall effort means all six council positions are at stake in the May election because the office terms are expiring for Danner, Tomey and Gruber, who was absent Wednesday.

Chavel Lopez who has long alleged the city discriminated against its Hispanic residents, drew cheers from the crowd by declaring, “Their recall based on lies will fail ..... The ‘real change’ movement in Hondo has nothing to fear and victory will be ours.”