State Rep. Canales blasts county government ‘failure’

In two recent Facebook posts made last week, State Rep. Terry Canales (D-Dist. 40) released his seeming pent-up frustration over the current state of the new $180-million Hidalgo County courthouse that still isn’t open for business approximately six years after it broke ground Nov. 16, 2018, with an original three-year timeline needed for completion (November 2021).

Canales’s first heated FB post came the morning of Oct. 29, last Tuesday: “I’m so damn sick of the fact that no one can figure this out. There is still scaffolding on the building, broken windows, and who knows what else? No courthouse, no parking, no drainage, but taxes are at an all-time high. Where is the accountability? Who is responsible? When will it actually open? How much money have we lost?”

Questions, questions, questions, for which no one seems to have the answers.

The county is close to getting an occupancy permit, but just how close remains the million-dollar question.

The Hidalgo County Commission includes the county judge, Richard Cortez, and four precinct commissioners. Throughout this long ordeal – a three-year delay – the only one willing to speak publicly about this courthouse construction debacle has been County Judge Richard Cortez.

Of course, the courthouse construction began under former County Judge Ramon Garcia and two different commissioners (precincts 3 and 4), so it makes it hard to say exactly what the problem has been since so few county officials have been willing to speak publicly about it, despite the construction story that is apparently without end (to date).

In a story published this past August, Judge Cortez said he thought that the county would soon be going to the City of Edinburg to ask for an occupancy permit.

That didn’t pan out, but according to some elected county officials who didn’t want to speak on the record, it still looks like the county will move into the new courthouse before the end of the year.

“We keep waiting,” is the common refrain heard, along with references made about “frustration” and “embarrassment,” because this colossal construction snafu, if you will, places a black eye across all the county’s elected officials, both past and present.

If Travis County, for example, can get a new $328.5-million Civil and Family Courts Facility built, up and running, in four years’ time (2018 to 2022), which includes 448,000 square feet, what’s the hold-up with Hidalgo County?

After all, the new courthouse in Edinburg is sized at 344,000 square feet, approximately 100,000 square feet less than Travis County, and almost six years after construction on it began in January 2019, county staff are still occupying the old courthouse first opened for business in 1954.

Last week, Oct. 29th, Canales planted two posts on his public Facebook page. The first one was uploaded in the morning, followed by a second post that afternoon.

The Morning Post

“How much money do we lose daily cooling, lighting, insuring, and maintaining this building no one can use?

“As a practicing attorney, I will be the first to tell you the parking situation is an absolute disaster. A light shower means you might need a canoe to get to court. Judges want lawyers, jurors, and litigants and defendants on time, but you have to park five blocks from the courthouse. … the citizens of Hidalgo County paid hundreds of millions of dollars and continue to pay daily, and for what?

“If it was my job to make sure this project happened, I would have been fired, sued, or forced to resign. The taxpayers deserve more! It’s outrageous, unacceptable, and there needs to be a public reckoning up and down the chain of responsibility. What we can’t do is continue to play the finger- pointing game. For the love of our region, GET IT DONE ALREADY!!!”

Approximately 10 hours later, Terry Canales was back with a follow-up post made early that evening (Oct. 29).

The Evening Canales Post

An excerpt from Canales’s evening post on Facebook: “I believe the citizens of Hidalgo County have been graciously patient, but after the more than 50 phone calls and hundreds of messages I received regarding my post earlier today, like me, their patience has worn thin. Approximately three years shy of a decade, we are closer, rather than farther, to the 10-year anniversary of ground breaking of this project (November 2018).

“With no certificate of occupancy and a grand-opening date as elusive as an ocelot, the people (of this county) simply deserve more. More accountability, more transparency, more information, and a date more certain for completion.

“I asked several district judges today when they expected to move in...their responses varied from late December (until) sometime after the New Year. One in particular said they wouldn’t be holding their breath. I wouldn’t hold my breath either.

“Let me put this in a different perspective. My 13-year-old son was 6 when (Hidalgo County) started construction. I was around 38 when they started, and I will turn 46 in January. I find it impossible to believe that anyone can find this acceptable. I still don’t know what the hell’s going on.

“But I do know one thing -- this building could open tomorrow, and (the names of) everyone involved, from its inception till its completion, should be placed on a bronze plaque to forever memorialize the colossal disservice and monumental failure of county government they have taken part in.”

Final Note:

In January 2018, 10 months before the new courthouse broke ground, Canales, along with at least several other people, were voicing concerns about plans to build a new courthouse, wanting to know more.

At the time, or so it seemed, too many contractors, engineers, architects (many of them local), other vendors, were already lining up for a piece of the big-dollar pie, so to speak. It seemed to some that the pie, if you will, was already being divvied up before the contract to build had even been inked.

Former County Judge Ramon Garcia took exception to criticisms and issued an open letter to Canales that included this announcement: “The courthouse project has, for some people, caused some turmoil and brought personal motivations into what should be a logical and necessary project for the County.

“But regardless of what is represented thru social media, at campaign events and thru the media, the courthouse project has been thoroughly vetted and many options have been considered, nonetheless when facts rather than political motivations are considered, the answer is clear, the time is now to build Hidalgo County’s New Courthouse.”

Back then, the budget to build was set at $150 million. That escalated to $180 million. Where the price tag stands now hasn’t yet been disclosed.

It’s ironic, said State Rep. and practicing attorney Terry Canales: “Almost seven years ago, I raised serious concerns about the construction of the not- -so-new County Courthouse to the entire Commissioners Court. The response from the then-county judge (was that I was) misinformed among other petty accusations, and tried to paint my very valid inquiries in a bad light.”

The question remains: why has this relatively huge public project run into so many delays — from an original three years to complete to now six-plus?