Hondo still unsettled after bitter election

By Zeke MacCormack - Express-News

HONDO — The new era in this city's governance that dawned a year ago — then quickly devolved into nonstop feuding — ended abruptly this month with the recall of the three Hispanic City Council members who'd promised to enact “real change.”

Whether their ouster was the result of a race-tinged power struggle between Anglos and Hispanics or just the budget and spending politics of a small Texas town is a question the U.S. Justice Department is evidently asking — federal monitors watched the election, though the agency won't say why, when its scrutiny would be finished or even if the findings would be made public.

The Justice Department enforces the Voting Rights Act, which ensures racial fairness in elections — and claims of racism and voting irregularities were still being made as a recount Friday failed to change the election outcome.

Council members Chavel Lopez, Lucio Torrez and Virginia Gonzales were recalled by a vote of 1,084-1,041, the recount showed. Voters also kicked out two Anglo incumbents running for re-election.

The election is unlikely to restore calm to the fractured community of about 10,000 people, about 60 percent Hispanic. Both camps already are lining up candidates for a July 14 special election to fill the vacancies.

Tracks, but no clear line

Some say Hondo is mired in ethnic strife. Others say it progressed beyond such divisions years ago.

The city manager, police chief and city secretary are Hispanic.

After the city incorporated in 1942, it took 26 years before the first Hispanic was elected and 10 more before the first woman joined the council, according to published reports.

Since 1986, however, Hispanics have been elected to a council majority 10 times, twice with all-Hispanic councils.

The recall's petitions accused Lopez, Torrez and Gonzales of undermining the city's financial stability, but Lopez contends the true aim was to wrest the council away from the Hispanic majority.

“It's an issue of racism and control,” said Lopez, a labor organizer who founded the Hondo Empowerment Committee, a local residents action group.

Among those contesting that claim is former four-term councilwoman Carmen Hernandez, who backed the recall after seeing the trio enact initiatives — often without debate — that she called financially irresponsible.

She cited the decision to cover a budget shortfall by using certificates of obligation meant to expand city facilities.

“I don't think it's a racist community,” said Hernandez, 79. “They dwell in the past.”

She said Lopez's empowerment group initially backed her, but then called her a “coconut” — brown on the outside but white inside — when she didn't adhere to its agenda.

There was surprise on both sides in an election in which neither could claim victory. Only Mayor Jim Danner retained his seat, beating challenger Jamie Johnson.

William “Sarge” Ney, 93, said backers of those who lost last year's election undermined the new council majority and that the recall has torn the town “up one side and down the other.”

Beverly Garza said the recalled officials did “a great job,” citing a citywide cleanup that removed piles of appliances and tires and a vote by officials to limit an electric rate increase.

Locals are split geographically by railroad tracks that bisect town, she said, with affluent neighborhoods to the south competing for city resources with more modest ones to the north, such as hers.

“It's not a matter of a racist thing,” said Garza, 48. “It's a matter of what gets done where.”

South-sider Connie Harrison backed the recall for pocketbook reasons.

“They wanted to spend a lot of money that didn't seem necessary to me,” said Harrison, 79, citing initiatives to help lower-income residents insulate homes and replace energy-wasting appliances.

But she added that some of her acquaintances had deeper concerns. “My neighbors were scared that the city would be taken over by Hispanics,” she said.

Mayor Danner and Jim Barden, who held the post from 1995 to 2002, say infrastructure spending in recent years has been concentrated in the older northern sectors.

“I don't think there are racial problems more than in other communities,” said Barden, now Medina County judge. “But there are elements that will trade on that.”

Unsettled issues

Tensions ran high Friday at City Hall, where a record 2,121 ballots were recounted, even as officials struggled with issues unresolved by the election results.

City Secretary Yolanda Benitez expressed confidence in the integrity of the election day polling she oversaw.

“There may have been a couple of minor mistakes here and there, but we corrected them,” she said.

The recount added to Mike Sanchez's narrow victory against incumbent J. Gruber, with the result now at 1,059-1,053. Gruber and Councilman Vance Tomey, who was also defeated, often clashed with those recalled.

Lopez said he's considering legal action to contest the recall election, which he said was illegal because of the ballot format.

Residents should have been able to vote whether to recall each individual, he said, instead of voting for or against the single proposition that ousted all three.

Danner said the city attorney is examining that claim, as well as whether those ousted can run for a council seat other than the one they had occupied — as Lopez and Torrez say they plan to do. The council will discuss it at a special meeting Monday.

Another item on the agenda is whether Sanchez, due to be sworn in later Monday, is ineligible to take office because he owed the city money when elected. Noting that Sanchez had paid off the outstanding fines, Danner said, “I think it's a dead issue.”