Gomez Asks Deputies to Share Half of Their Raise With Supervisors

Constable Abelardo Gomez

As the Cameron County Commissioner's Court met Wednesday morning on the second floor of the Dancy Court Building, they were presented with a surprise request by Precinct 2 Constable Abelardo Gomez to allow half of $1,000 raise due each deputy in his precinct to be shifted to their supervisors.

An anonymous commenter shared this with us Wednesday:

And now Constable Abel Gomez is intimidating his deputies to "VOLUNTARILY" sign a petition that will deduct $500 of their $1000 raise to give himself and his ranking officers a raise in addition to the already $1000 raise they are getting. No joke, this was presented to commissioners court this morning but was tabled pending legal review. We all know this was not done voluntarily, if the deputies dont sign, they will be retaliated against. I thought the united states did not allow dictators. Please public, look into this. 

Sonia Leticia Solis

Calling Cameron County Judge Casco's office, we did learn that such a request by Gomez was submitted, but that it did not include shuffling monies from staff to Gomez himself, but only to his higher ranking officers.  

Interestingly, one of the officers for whom Gomez is soliciting a substantial raise, subsidized by his staff is Steve Berlanga, the son of Sonia Solis, the politiquera recently charged with election violations. Gomez gave the young man a supervisory position and, if his request is found to be legal and is approved by the Commissioners Court, the recent hire will get a substantial raise at the expense of longer tenured staff.  

Gomez may have gotten the idea of redistributing monies voluntarily from Precinct 4 County Commissioner Dan Sanchez, who last year, volunteered to donate $4,000 of his own salary to provide District Clerk Aurora De la Garza and County Clerk Joe Rivera with $2,000 raises each.  

While the contribution of monies by Gomez underlings is being considered for its legality, the Commissioners Court did to add two constables to Precinct 2, as well as a dispatcher and assistant auditor.