Voters in troubled La Grulla asked to judge divisive mayor

RIO GRANDE CITY — There are two very different Oscar Gonzalezes.

The 41-year-old mayor of La Grulla describes himself as the last bulwark in his tiny Starr County town against a tide of local and county-wide corruption.

In court documents and the words of his growing list of political enemies, he's an insane obstructionist, a public official gone wild whose actions have only worsened La Grulla's reputation as a crooked backwater.

On Saturday, voters will have a final say on which Gonzalez they believe is the real one. Each member of the polarized three-man City Commission is up for re-election, with Mayor Pro Tem Arnoldo Solis Jr. and Commissioner Joel Zarate hoping to retain their positions and replace Gonzalez with ally Brenda Villarreal.

During the run-up to the election, Gonzalez has been the target of a series of lawsuits and one criminal charge.

They allege that he threatened to "beat (Zarate's) face in," blocked city employees from issuing commission-approved checks, claimed to have executive veto power over routine commission decisions and even tried to cut off water service to the new Rio Grande City high school construction site because of a dispute over the name of the future school.

Gonzalez doesn't deny he did most of the things the suits accuse him of - although he flatly denied threatening Zarate - and he has seemingly reasonable explanations for each situation.

The high school under construction just west of his city, he said, had two water meters, one of which was temporary and connected to a fire hydrant used to tamp down dust on the site.

He told city water plant employees to remove the second meter, he said, because the releases from the fire hydrant were decimating water pressure in a nearby colonia. A contractor on the site told him the second meter wasn't necessary.

The city eventually replaced the meter under court order.

The father of five said he wants the new high school named for La Grulla, because his city deserves it. But he claims the school district's attorneys lumped together the water issue and his dispute with school board president Basilio Villarreal over the school's name even though they were unrelated.

"They tried to put everything together in there," he said of the suit, which was filed late last year.

Starr County Attorney Victor Canales, who is opposite Gonzalez on several of the cases, said the mayor's erratic behavior has cost the city thousands of dollars in legal fees.

On Thursday, Gonzalez said he was confident he and his slate - rounded out by two local businessmen with large families - would triumph in the election.

"We have a lot of people, a lot of ammunition to fire back," he said. "I'm pretty confident we're going to win."

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Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4472.