EDINBURG, Oct. 24 - J.D. Salinas says his first official engagement as administrator for Region 7 at the General Services Administration will be a Texas Border Coalition conference in Laredo on Nov. 13.
Salinas made the announcement at a news conference called Friday afternoon to confirm he was stepping down as Hidalgo County Judge to accept a post in the Obama Administration. He starts work for the federal government on Nov. 9.
“It’s a great honor to have been asked to serve. I accept with pleasure and with great hopes for fulfilling the agency’s vision of achieving excellence in business of government,” Salinas said.
The Texas Border Coalition’s conference is titled ‘Balancing Security, Trade and Travel: A Looming Crisis at U.S. Ports of Entry.’ It takes place at Laredo Community College on Nov. 13.
As Region 7 Administrator, Salinas will, among many other things, oversee the procurement and supervision of federal resources for some of the nation’s busiest inland ports of entry. Region 7 covers the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. It is headquartered out of Fort Worth.
As the title of the TBC conference implies, Texas border mayors are particularly concerned that ports of entry are not receiving the funding levels necessary to keep up with growth in international trade. About 80 percent of U.S. trade with Mexico goes through Texas ports. Bottlenecks at the ports are hampering international commerce, the lifeblood of border communities, Texas border mayors have long argued.
“I’m sure I will listen to a lot of the mayors there about some of the things… about how they feel,” Salinas said, referring to the TBC’s upcoming conference.
Salinas speculated that the White House may have factored in the fast growing border region when making their decision to appoint him a regional GSA administrator.
“I’m glad they recognized that it takes someone from here to know the area. The southwest border is growing fast. I grew up here and I know the area well,” he said.
Salinas said his appointment to the GSA would not have been possible without the strong support of U.S. Reps. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi. In April, they secured the endorsement of the Texas congressional delegation to recommend Salinas to the White House. “I say thank you, thank you, thank you,” Salinas said, referencing the three South Texas congressmen.
Salinas looked a little tired at the news conference. He acknowledged it was a “bittersweet” moment to be leaving Hidalgo County government to take up the GSA post. He first went to work at the county courthouse as an administrative assistant to the county judge in 1991. At age 29 he was elected county clerk in 1998 and in 2004was honored by his peers as Texas County Clerk of the Year. More than once at the press conference, Salinas called county employees his “family.”
“It’s a bittersweet moment in my life personally and my wife Janie and the kids but my father always said, ‘you’ve got to minimize missed opportunities’,” Salinas said. “I am really honored that the White House selected me and my family to serve in this capacity. I think it is a voice for South Texas and a good opportunity for us to be directly involved in the policy making of some of the decisions that get made federally.”
Salinas thanked his colleagues on Hidalgo County Commissioners’ Court for their work on many “extraordinary projects” that have benefited not just the county but South Texas generally. He said millions of dollars have been secured for first responder vehicles, economic development planning, disaster relief, new trails and ‘green’ projects.
Salinas noted that the Prescription Discount Card that the county kicked off last year has helped save half a million dollars for local residents, particularly those who struggle to buy medicines because of a lack of insurance.
Salinas said the region was closer to getting an interstate quality highway after the county helped secure $115 million for removing bottlenecks along U.S. 281. He also predicted economic prosperity would flow from the decision to fund the Education First project because employers would have a more talented workforce. The recent formation of the Rio South Texas Economic Council would also help, Salinas said. A regional alliance of 18 stakeholders across the four-county Valley region, the RSTEC plans to market the region nationally and internationally to help attract new investment.
One of the most controversial projects in Hidalgo County while Salinas has been county judge has been the construction of a series of concrete levee walls. If the levees had not been fixed the county would have been at great risk of the Rio Grande flooding in the aftermath of a hurricane or tropical storm. FEMA was threatening to issue new maps showing the county in a flood zone. As well as deterring new investment, designating much of the county as flood prone would have resulted in much higher flood insurance for residents and businesses.
Over the years the federal government had been allocating small amounts of money to the International Boundary and Water Commission to fix the levees. At the rate the money was coming in, the IBWC would have taken decades to rehabilitate the levees. Salinas and the county commissioners took a bold step. They agreed to enter into an agreement with the Bush Administration to speed up repair of the levees through construction of concrete walls, which satisfied the Department of Homeland Security’s push to erect stronger border barriers to deter illegal immigration and drug smuggling. The agreement required Hidalgo County to spend millions of local tax dollars that was to have gone towards drainage repairs. The county is still waiting for Congress to reimburse it.
“I’m proud to have also worked and accomplished on the levee barrier rehabilitation project by forming an historic partnership with local, state and federal leaders,” Salinas said of the project. “We get over $300 million of funding to fix the levees, avoid a border fence; protect residents from the threat of flooding and (having) to pay mandatory flood insurance.”
Salinas pointed out that the Texas Association of Counties recently awarded Hidalgo County a Best Practices Award for the innovative way it had secured funding for the levee-wall project and the speed at which the project got moving. The county received two Best Practices awards from the TAC during Salinas’ time as county judge. It had never previously been honored in this way.
The business community in particular was pleased with the way the levees were repaired so quickly. Last December, McAllen Chamber of Commerce President Steve Ahlenius presented Salinas with the Chamber’s Teddy Roosevelt Award. “Twenty five years from now, people are going to say thank goodness people had enough foresight today to fix the levees,” Ahlenius said, at a luncheon honoring Salinas.
Environmentalists and some landowners are less happy with the levee-wall project. Eloisa Tamez, a landowner in Cameron County, said of Salinas’ appointment to the GSA: “So after we give land away to the federal government, we can get a position to look over federal land. Not bad.”
Salinas said he would continue to serve as county judge for the next few weeks, during which time he and county commissioners will appoint an interim county judge. Voters will elect a new county judge next year. That person will assume responsibilities in January 2011.
When Salinas defeated incumbent County Judge Ramon Garcia in 2006 he argued that the position required full-time attention. He made the same point at Friday’s press conference, stating that a “full time” county judge was needed to ensure that the county budget is balanced and every county department gets the resources it needs.
“I am confident great things will continue to happen in Hidalgo County, especially if you continue with a full-time county judge,” Salinas said.
Asked by a reporter about that comment, Salinas said: “I’m not going to lie to you. This office took a lot of time. But it was very, very, enjoyable and educational.”
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