With election season upon us, the two candidates for Cameron County judge, Democratic incumbent Eddie Trevino Jr. and Republican challenger Carlos Cascos, in separate interviews with the Brownsville Herald discussed why they think they’re the best choice to lead the county for the next four years.
Cascos, a certified public accountant and former Cameron County commissioner, served as county judge from 2006 until 2015 when he was appointed Texas secretary of state by Gov. Greg Abbott, a position Cascos held until 2017. He has Abbott’s endorsement in the current race. Trevino, an attorney, served as Brownsville city commissioner from 2001 to 2003 and as mayor of Brownsville from 2003 to 2007.
Trevino, who first became county judge in 2016, defeated Cascos by a 60 to 40 percent margin in the race for judge race in the November 2018 election.
Trevino has served as chairman of the Texas Border Coalition for the last five years and is incoming chairman for the Texas Conference of Urban Counties. He touted the county’s progress during his tenure, citing a number of successful projects including the renovation of county parks such as Isla Blanca Park and Adolph Thomae Jr. Park, construction of the Cameron County Amphitheater and Event Center, opening of the South Texas Ecotourism Center and a number of transportation projects.
Cascos, however, took aim at a project Trevino had pushed for this year but which did not come to pass: the proposed Cameron County Arena. Voters in two separate elections rejected ballot propositions that would have allowed county Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) revenue to be used to help leverage financing to pay for the $100 million project, which Trevino and other had argued would be beneficial to the county from an economic development standpoint.
Cascos said the “numbers didn’t make sense” on the arena project, that the county would need to double the amount of HOT revenue it generates for the plan to be viable, and that he got involved both times the proposition was up for a vote to make sure it failed. Trevino said the HOT revenue was meant as one source of revenue to fund the project and that “we still had work to do.”
“There were a lot of things left to be done, but this was the basis for us to get started moving on developing the plan for the project,” he said.
Trevino noted that Cascos himself supported construction of a county arena during his time as county judge.
“At the time there was no visitor tax so I guess he was planning on using property taxes and general fund dollars, whereas that was exactly the opposite of what we were going to do,” Trevino said.
Cascos said the regional-type arena project he backed “called for every community having skin in the game.”
Focusing on Trevino’s role in the failed Tenaska Brownsville Generating Station project, the subject of a forensic audit released earlier this month, Cascos questioned the amount of money — roughly $1.9 million over nearly five years — that Trevino’s (former) law firm collected providing legal services to the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, whose management the audit accuses of misrepresenting the project’s viability for years. Cascos questioned how Trevino had time to lead the county with so many hours per year devoted to providing legal counsel to BPUB.
“When did you spend time working on county business other than a meeting every two weeks, or ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings?” he said.
Trevino responded that his two-man firm was expected to be available 24/7 as counsel, that law firms obviously charge clients for their services, and that he ultimately stepped down as BPUB counsel because of the amount of time involved.
“I gave up my professional relationship with PUB about a year into being county judge, because I realized that the time commitment to being county judge was going to prevent me from being available for PUB work,” he said. “I was going to be available to the citizens of Cameron County who elected me rather than having to dedicate more time to my private practice.”
The county’s pandemic response, which Cascos charged was “mishandled,” Trevino characterized as good or better than anywhere else in the state. Cascos criticized county-imposed mandates, curfews, business and beach closures, and limitations on gatherings as excessive, as well as long lines and confusion over vaccination administration once a vaccine became available.
Trevino countered that, in dealing with the first global pandemic in more than a century, “there was no rule book for us to follow” and that the county “listened to the health professionals” and other experts in responding to the COVID-19 crisis.
“The overriding concern was trying to save lives and make sure that everyone was safe,” he said.
On SpaceX, Cascos accused Trevino and county leadership of “rolling over” and giving SpaceX whatever it wants in terms of beach and highway closures for testing.
“I will not be held hostage to that,” Cascos said, noting that as county judge in 2014 he signed the original contract with SpaceX.
At that time, the company’s stated intent was to conduct 12 commercial rocket launches a year from Boca Chica, with much less powerful rockets than the Super Heavy boosters SpaceX is now developing at Boca Chica. The original contract allowed for 12 days of beach and highway closures per year for launches, plus three alternate days, Cascos said.
“Is that happening today? No,” he said. “I support SpaceX. I still support SpaceX, but I do not support the noncompliance of the contract.”
Trevino said the county authorizes fewer closures than SpaceX asks for and that it’s easy for Cascos to criticize from the sidelines.
“The reality is many, many communities worldwide would love to have SpaceX developing the next spaceship in their backyard,” Trevino said. “We’re cautiously optimistic that this venture, that this investment in our community, will spur future jobs and future technological development, and help our community grow in a way that we’ve never seen.”
Both candidates agreed that SpaceX’s presence is good for the county economically and that the county’s relationship with the company requires “give and take.”
Still, in questioning some of Trevino’s decisions as county judge, Cascos said that “it’s not so much what I’m going to do, it’s what I’m not going to do. To me that’s a lot more important.”
“I believe that people need to have a choice here,” he said. “If people are happy with what has transpired over (Trevino’s term), so be it. That’s OK. I don’t think that that’s the sentiment right now. I think that there’s a lot of upset people.”
Trevino, in his pitch to voters, said that as county judge he’s tried to move the county forward rather than sitting on his hands and trying to avoid criticism.
“I thoroughly enjoy being county judge and I think Cameron County and the (Rio Grande) Valley as a whole is experiencing some major growth and potential in spite of the obstacles that we’ve had to face lately, including the pandemic,” he said. “Sometimes people get tested under fire, and I think I’ve proven my mettle and my commitment to this community.”
Early voting starts Oct. 24. Election Day is Nov. 8.
