WESLACO — “This item is to replace the headworks at the South Wastewater Treatment Plant,” Pete Garcia, director of the city of Weslaco’s Public Works Department, said as he introduced a request for an equipment purchase during a Jan. 17 Weslaco City Commission meeting.
It was a seemingly innocuous request — one that the commission had no qualms about approving.
In most cities, such a request would be perfunctory. Routine. Unworthy of notice.
But not in Weslaco.
And Garcia’s words gave hint as to why.
“This piece of equipment has been down for many, many years, and so, we’re requesting to finally purchase the equipment to get this section back into operation,” Garcia said of the $153,000 purchase.
Many, many years. Back to 2011. Perhaps back even further than that.
Back to 2008, when the state’s water regulator — the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ — had begun to send Weslaco increasingly urgent warnings that its water treatment facilities were not up to par.
As TCEQ increased the pressure, a group of compadres began to develop a plan. Weslaco needed water, yes, but why couldn’t a little bit of profit be made at the same time?
A man named Leonel J. Lopez Jr., who then served as the Rio Grande City municipal judge, steered the plan.
Lopez fashioned himself a “consultant” for several engineering and construction firms. Ostensibly, he facilitated above board introductions between the companies and local officials.
In reality, however, Lopez served as the so-called “mastermind” of the bribery scheme, federal prosecutors would later say.
The companies paid Lopez to get them an “in” with Weslaco — to assure they not only got the contracts to repair the city’s water infrastructure, but got them at a premium price.
In exchange, Lopez greased the palms of others — either for their ability to cast votes on the city commission, or to influence those who could.
LASTING LEGACY
Fifteen years after the quid pro quo plan first began to take shape, three of its participants stood in McAllen federal court awaiting sentencing for their roles in capitalizing on Weslaco’s water woes.
It took a jury about four hours last October to convict Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar, former Precinct 1 Hidalgo County commissioner, and Ricardo “Rick” Quintanilla, a businessman.
The jury found the pair guilty of a combined 70 counts of bribery, wire fraud and money laundering.
A third man — former Weslaco District 2 city commissioner John F. Cuellar — had served as the government’s key witness at trial.
In August 2019, John F. Cuellar pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and eventually testified against his own cousin, Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar.
Lopez died prior to the trial.
And 15 years later, Weslaco is still dealing with the fallout left by the corrupt contractors who did incomplete or shoddy work, according to city officials.
The inoperable headworks at the South Wastewater Treatment Plant are just one example of how Weslaco continues to feel the impacts of the $38.5 million bribery scheme.
DAY OF RECKONING
However, just one day after the commission approved the six-figure purchase for the equipment, the federal judge who was responsible for handing down Quintanilla’s and the two Cuellars’ sentences was left with little more than speculation to consider.
That’s because no one from the city of Weslaco attended the Jan. 18 sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez.
“I’m sorry that the city isn’t here,” Alvarez said.
She had hoped to hear from Weslaco officials about the financial and more intangible repercussions the scheme had on the city.
The courtroom gallery was full that day.
Much of the Cuellar family, as well as friends and even a priest, filled the benches to support Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar.
Quintanilla, too, had support as his wife and children looked on quietly.
Then there were the FBI and IRS agents who had testified at trial. They sat at the front, waiting to see the denouement to their years-long investigation.
In the well, a coterie of defense attorneys surrounded a large table with Quintanilla and Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar sitting nearby.
John F. Cuellar, meanwhile, sat alone on a bench in the gallery while members of his family resolutely kept their eyes away from him.
And for Weslaco?
A lone Justice Department prosecutor who had traveled here from Washington, D.C. — William J. Gullotta — was the sole person to speak on behalf of the city.
The remainder of the prosecutors’ table sat empty save for the young FBI agent, Jason Malkiewicz, who had cut his investigative teeth on the Weslaco case, dubbed “Tarnished Water.”
Gullotta said the government had had trouble calculating the so-called “loss amount” — or the financial damage done to the city — as a result of the scandal.
Part of that was due to incomplete or missing financial records from the defendants, especially from Quintanilla, who failed to turn over his banking records.
But it was also due to an incomplete picture from the city itself.
MISSING VOICE
Weslaco, through its attorneys, submitted a restitution form stating a loss amount of approximately $10 million.
However, the city declined to be more specific due to a pending lawsuit against the contractors who were in charge of the water plant project — CDM Smith, Briones Engineering and LeFevre Engineering.
That lawsuit is also why city officials shied away from the courthouse the day of the sentencing.
“We get our advice from our city attorney, right? And we do have a civil litigation pending regarding this incident and trying to recover some of those monies back to the city,” Weslaco City Manager Martin Garza Jr. said Saturday.
Another face that was notably absent that day was that of Garza’s predecessor, Mike Perez.
Perez began working as the Weslaco city manager in 2013, just as public scrutiny of the water plant project had reached a fever pitch. Then newly elected Mayor David Suarez brought Perez in to clean house.
And it was under Perez’s leadership that Weslaco began to right itself financially, took the steps to pursue the civil litigation and cooperated with federal investigators as they served a host of subpoenas on the city.
Perez retired in 2021, two years after the indictments came down.
“I’m no longer working for the city of Weslaco, so I didn’t know if it would be appropriate for me to attend,” Perez said.
In hindsight, Weslaco Commissioner Gregory “Greg” Kerr says he wishes someone from the city had attended the sentencing.
“It affected the poorest of the poor in our community more than anybody else. And they’re still affected by that today,” Kerr said.
It was the irregularities with the water plant project that had prompted Kerr — then a political novice — to first seek public office. Kerr intentionally ran against — and ultimately unseated — John F. Cuellar in November 2014.
Just days after the election loss, Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar’s bribes to John F. Cuellar ceased.
Asked what he would tell the judge about how the bribery scheme had impacted Weslaco, Kerr said it destroyed the public’s trust in city leaders and saddled Weslaco with debt it continues to contend with.
“It affected the city’s ability to grow and complete other projects and do other things that the city needs. … It affects our ability to borrow money,” Kerr said.
The commissioner said the impact goes far beyond the $10 million loss estimate, or the $4.1 million in restitution that the judge ordered the three defendants to pay.
“It’s a lot more than that because of the inflated price of the water plant itself. The contractors who got paid out on a lot of that stuff. … We’re paying for that. We’re paying for the bribes and we’re paying for the inflated cost,” Kerr said.
ONE SIDED
But no one from Weslaco was there to share that with Alvarez, who mentioned more than once that she wished she could have heard the city’s side while weighing her decision.
Instead, she heard only from the defendants’ lawyers, who pleaded for leniency.
Cynthia Orr, a San Antonio attorney who joined Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar’s defense team just a few weeks before the hearing, asked for a “reasonable” sentence.
Meanwhile, Quintanilla’s attorney, Jaime Peña, asked for probation.
“The fact that one (defendant) is requesting probation shows that he is not taking this seriously,” Gullotta, the prosecutor, said.
Alvarez listened to the attorneys’ arguments for more than an hour before pronouncing their clients’ punishment — 20 years in federal prison for Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar and 16 years, eight months for Quintanilla.
Almost immediately, several people in the gallery erupted with emotion as Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar and Quintanilla were led away.
The commotion forced Alvarez to briefly halt the proceedings while U.S. Marshals ushered the defendants’ distraught supporters out of the courtroom.
Once the room was emptied, one Cuellar remained — John F. Cuellar.
The cooperating witness. The man who — according to the judge — had made the government’s case.
The family that had come to support Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar chose not to stay to see what would happen to his cousin.
“He used you and when you were no longer of service, that was the end,” Alvarez said to John F. Cuellar in reference to Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar.
“Testifying against him was a difficult choice, but it was the right choice,” the judge said.
Alvarez then sentenced John Cuellar to three years.
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