Water, Drugs, a Police Shooting

By Gregg Wendorf
Advance News Journal

Four stories left to write for this week’s issue, and then I run into computer problems? Seriously? Just after I wrote this week’s Observations column (front page) about my decision to be happy every minute of every day, with no time spent worrying about things or fretting about them, something blows up.

Figures.

It’s like when you say, glad my headache went away, and then it immediately returns. Best never to put anything out there in the ether because it will always come back to bite you.

Have a long interview with local water advocate Sonny Hinojosa about the RGV’s water dilemma and how it might be resolved; a short interview with new Mission City Manager Mike Perez about the same issue, water; along with an interview with another water advocate, former McAllen Mayor Jim Darling, and my Mac decides to crash.

I can’t win. Can’t write that story or the others, so this short one will have to do. For now.

Hopefully, I’ll have the other four remaining stories uploaded online by Thursday (anjournal.com) and have them placed in next week’s print issue. Surely my IT problem will be resolved by then, but I probably shouldn’t write that either. Why curse myself… again? By the way, kudos to Mission for hiring Perez, who’s now got a two-year contract in hand.

Then I had a story planned about the recent drug bust of Progreso Mayor Gerardo “Jerry” Alanis, along with his brother, Frank. A lot to that story, and I wonder, what is it about Progreso? Is it something in the water?

Between 2005 and 2012, three brothers and a father (the Velas) were connected to Progreso ISD and the city of Progreso while engaged in a pay-to-play bribery and embezzlement scheme for approximately seven years (approximately 2005 to 2012) before the FBI finally decided a seven- year investigation was long enough to blow the whistle on overt wrongdoing and finally helped bring them to justice.

One of the Vela brothers, Omar, was the city’s mayor, while the other, Michael, served as the Progreso school board president. Their dad, Jose, served as the godfather, using a local restaurant to broker under-the-table cash transactions. Officially, his day job was school district director of maintenance and transportation, which gave him a regular paycheck.

The third Vela brother, the city’s ex-mayor pro tem, Orlando Vela, worked as the school district’s risk manager. He pleaded guilty to billing the school district for office supplies he never delivered. Orlando Vela’s wife, the district’s business manager, helped facilitate the crime by approving payment of the bogus invoices.

All four Velas pleaded guilty and were sentenced in a Houston federal courtroom in August of 2014 Their sentences ranged from 151 months (Jose, the dad) to 10 months (Orlando, the district’s risk manager). Their fines ranged from between approximately $310,000 and $13,000.

Now comes a new Progreso drug bust, and I’m still trying to find out if the two families are related – Alanis and Vela. And once again, the city and school district are tied together, since the mayor is (was) a district employee.

As in the case prior, the city and school district are tied together since “Jerry” Alanis now stands accused, also, of allegedly using a Progreso middle school as a drug depot of sorts. More on that when the computer problem gets resolved.

Just two years ago, June 2022, the local daily paper, The Monitor, published a glowing story about “Jerry.”

Who could have known? The story carried a glowing headline: “Next Man Up: Progreso’s Alanis thrives at helm, earns coach award.”

Apparently, he was also working a side hustle, according to the feds.

The story portrayed Alanis as the kind of guy any school district, community would want in its midst. From the story’s first paragraph: “Progreso’s Gerardo Alanis does it all. He serves as the mayor of Progreso, a husband, a father and does some work for the school district.”

Now, he’s even made national news, but not in a good way.

Last week, the New York Daily News carried this headline: “Mayor of Texas border town charged with trafficking cocaine.”

Poor Progreso. According to one source, more than a few residents are freaking out, worried that the feds are going to want to interview them as well. Even if one is innocent of any wrongdoing, a sit-down with federal investigators has to raise the stress level.

Then there is the story I had planned to write about the police shooting in Mission.

The story about the Mission PD sergeant who exchanged gunshots with a guy March 16 still lacks any relevant information. From the city’s FB page: “We regret to inform our community of an officer-involved shooting that took place today, March 16, 2024. The Mission Police Department officer is in stable condition. The other individual is in critical condition. Our hearts go out to all affected families and the entire Mission Police Department.”

During a phone interview Monday (March 25th), Mission Police Chief Cesar Torres said his department hasn’t yet interviewed the sergeant involved in the shooting because he hasn’t yet been discharged from the hospital but is expected to be released this week. Meanwhile, the other man with whom the officer exchanged gunfire remains in critical condition.

Oops. Another blooper. While writing the last paragraph, a breaker tripped, and I just lost all electricity. As I walked to the breaker box, to reflip the breaker, the nagging thought was racing through my head: when was the last time I saved this Word file? In other words, had I just written 900 words and almost all of it would be lost because it hadn’t been saved to the hard disk?

Which has happened way too often in my writing career. Like an idiot, I’ll be writing a relatively long story, forgetting to save it along the way. Power goes out, and so does the story, along with what sanity I still have left.

I bang my head against the desk, pass out, and then get back to the keyboard, re-writing the entire story.

Thankfully, in this case, I had saved this file, with the exception of the last paragraph tied to the Mission PD shooting.

I think I’m just going to give up while I’m ahead.

Until next week. More to come.