Salinas reflects on first year as Hidalgo County judge

EDINBURG — A copy of Bill Richardson’s autobiography sits on a shelf behind Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas’ desk.

He’s never read it.

A friend of Salinas works for the first viable Hispanic presidential candidate and scored him the autograph on the inside cover, he said. View a Monitor multimedia piece on J.D. Salinas)

“I’m a big fan of Bill Richardson.”

Although Richardson is hovering at the bottom of the polls for the Democratic nomination, Salinas said the New Mexico governor is one of the few guys that could stop him from running for the county judge’s seat again in 2010.

“(Only if) Bill Richardson calls me and says he wants me to run as vice president,” he said, laughing.

Salinas has one year down and three to go before the Hidalgo County judge election cycle rolls around.

But he says his name will be on the ballot.

“I’m always running for re-election,” he said. “I have to. That is the one thing that I don’t like.”

At the helm

One year ago, Salinas took the reins of the most populous county in southern Texas after spending more than $492,000 to campaign against the incumbent, Ramon Garcia — a debt Salinas said is still not paid off, but earned him a razor-thin win of fewer than 300 votes. Salinas receives an annual salary of $105,000 a year as county judge.

He doesn’t hesitate when asked what sets him apart from Garcia: “I am a full-time administrator. I worked myself through the ranks, too. I was a county employee before a county judge. I respect him and he’s a great attorney, but this county needs a full-time judge.”

Salinas denies that either local or state politicians are grooming him for something bigger and better outside of Hidalgo County.

“I think he is constant,” said Hidalgo County Precinct 4 Commissioner Oscar Garza. “I think he came in with the right attitude, because he would make calls to the different commissioners and say, ‘You know, I am thinking of doing this. What do you think?’

“That type of setup that we have, I think, is very beneficial to the county and also for our own sanity, because we have to work together and make sure we are on the same page. I think he’s done a good job. I would say that it is an extremely good relationship that he has with the commissioners.”

Garza said he hasn’t been disappointed with Salinas’ performance since he took office and that his communication with the commissioners is the biggest difference that sets him apart from Garcia.

“I didn’t have that relationship with the previous judge,” he said

All of the county commissioners backed Salinas prior to the election.

Garcia, for his part, declined to respond directly to any contrasts made between him and Salinas or to otherwise discuss Salinas’ performance as county judge.

“Whatever I would say would be critical,” Garcia said. “For me to be critical at this time would not be the right thing to do.”

Although Salinas has made several trips to Washington, D.C., throughout the year to talk to congressional representatives about levee repairs and the border fence, Garza said there is no such thing as “too much lobbying and too much work when you consider the size and scope of the job that he has and the responsibilities of the county. Yes, he travels, but we need the presence out there. If you look at the standpoint that the squeakiest wheel is the one that gets the grease, you have to maintain the presence.”

Raul Lozano, Salinas’ assistant chief administrator, has worked for several county judges during the past 19 years and said Salinas stands out from the rest.

“He is probably the most hands-on county official that I have ever worked for as far as (wanting) to help everybody,” Lozano said. “I knew J.D. for quite a few years, but I didn’t know this side of him. I never worked directly under him. I see that he is genuine, his humbleness. …

“He is a genuine politician — no, not politician — servant, public servant. He has taken the county judge’s office to another level.”

Lozano said for as long as he has been with the county he has never seen a judge fight harder at the state or federal level for funding. And he also has never seen a judge be able to get Rio Grande Valley leaders to want to work together like Salinas did during the potential Hurricane Dean evacuation last year.

“We saw something there that we had never seen before, and it took somebody taking the lead to coordinate all this,” Lozano said.

Lozano said Salinas’ knowledge of county government through his years of employment also sets him apart from previous judges.

“When you throw something at him, he can grasp it right away because he has been there,” Lozano said.

He added that department heads never looked toward the county judge for leadership and direction before.

“I think there was no respect from this office when it (came) to the department heads,” Lozano said. “That was missing, and that has really turned around now.”

What’s next

The 38-year-old Salinas has found himself waist-deep in two sensitive federal matters — the border fence and levee repairs — which he said have occupied about 80 percent of his time from Day 1 on the job.

He said the dire state of the county’s flood protection system was the only thing that surprised him after taking office. He spent the first three months working out the timeline and funding for levee repairs.

Then, after the federal government announced in the spring that sections of a security fence along the border with Mexico would run through Hidalgo County, he spent the remainder of the year advocating at the state and federal level to combine the levee and fence projects with an eye toward maximizing efficiency in both the construction and the use of federal dollars.

That campaign was interrupted briefly when Salinas was faced with one of the hardest decisions of this past year: whether or not to evacuate 700,000 residents in August as Hurricane Dean headed toward the Texas coast.

But it was also one of the proudest moments for the county judge — the ability to effectively communicate and coordinate with leaders across the Valley and help to mobilize 3,000 buses and 4,500 military personnel.

Although the hurricane never reached South Texas and the mass evacuation never occurred, the experience and the lessons learned from what went right and what went wrong are invaluable, according to Salinas.

With 2007 under the belt, now it’s time for Salinas to face 2008.

The federal government insists a border fence will be constructed in the Valley by the end of this year — but details on the timeline, the final locations or what the structure will look like have yet to be determined.

Meanwhile, construction is set to begin on a $100 million voter-approved initiative to rebuild the county’s faulty flood protection system — just in time for the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1.

This year, Salinas said, he needs to focus on constructing bypasses at four locations along Expressway 281 to improve the highway’s chance of being designated as an interstate.

He also plans to rally for legislation to allow primary healthcare at seven of the county’s health clinics, and to try to elevate the skill level of the workforce here to attract higher-paying employers.

“I think we are in a better position than last year,” he said. “But we are not where we need to be.”

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Jackie Leatherman covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments at The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4424.