“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
These are the final words to our new nation’s Declaration of Independence, under which the signers affixed their names. Their devotion to this revolutionary country was so complete that they pledged, in writing, their financial resources.
Indeed, throughout our country’s mostly agrarian history many of our founders and those who comprised the first administrations suffered financially for their service, reducing or even abandoning the fields and orchards upon which they built their livelihoods. Public officials are expected to be willing to invest their time, energy and yes, some of their profitability in the service of their constituents and the bodies to which they are elected.
That principle applies at all levels, as Harlingen Mayor Pro Tem Richard Uribe recently learned.
Uribe, who owns a restaurant, secured a contract in October to sell food to the city jail. He ended the sales Jan. 19, the same day the Valley Morning Star reported on the sales. The contract was issued through the traditional bidding process and Uribe’s restaurant submitted the winning bid.
Uribe and other city officials told our reporter that former City Attorney Ricardo Navarro had issued a legal opinion that allowed the commissioner to have a vending contract with the city. When we submitted a formal request for the opinion under the Texas Public Information Act we were told that it didn’t exist, as the opinion was verbal and not written.
Navarro was fired last September after city commissioners said they didn’t trust his legal advice.
Anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of law recognizes the importance of documenting any legal opinion.
Officials should not be able to enrich themselves through their public offices; to allow it would invite people who seek to use their positions to get rich at taxpayers’ expense. Before Donald Trump’s presidency his successors, and most members of Congress, routinely removed themselves from companies they ran or in which they were invested and placed assets in blind trusts, to separate themselves from such temptation.
Regardless of a non-written green light given by an official who isn’t around anymore, the City Charter specifically prohibits commissioners from vending to the city, and it’s a common clause in other city charters.
With good reason. Commissioners have a distinct advantage over other bidders, as they know details of the project and could influence the wording of a request for bids terms to benefit themselves.
People seeking elected office should know that any use of their position for personal gain is frowned upon, and in many cases prohibited. Some might consider such lost opportunities to be a disadvantage, but the risk of allowing unscrupulous profiteers from gaining access to taxpayers’ money would be much worse.
Restrictions on officials’ business dealings with their agencies are needed to ensure that people seek election for the right reasons.
