A tiny town of 1100 on the Edwards Plateau in the Texas Hill Country, founded at the spot where a spring was discovered flowing from a rock, is now dealing with a deluge of scandal that made news in a city 140 miles away and 1545 times bigger. (Hint: It's San Antonio.)
This story appeared on WOAI-TV in San Antonio -- YIKES! It's gotta be bad when a tiny town story makes news in a city of 1.7 million people. See (
visit link)
"ROCKSPRINGS MAYOR INDICTED ON OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT CHARGES
Updated: Tue, Sep 01 2015, 7:44 PM
ROCKSPRINGS - The mayor of Rocksprings has been indicted after officials said she hired her husband to perform remodeling work. Pauline Gonzales faces four County of Officials Misconduct charges. The city said her husband, Ramiro Gonzales, performed the work then billed the city $3,000 for labor, and nearly $1,500 for materials. The city said the mayor did not publish or post the job for bids and open it to the public.
Read More at: (
visit link) day Blasterz visited (23 Jul 2015), we met Mayor Pauline Gonzales as she was leaving City Hall. Since Mama Blaster is a former elected official we chatted with her about state revitalization grants and other municipal stuff for about 15 minutes. We liked her -- it seemed she had a lot of energy and was invested in helping her small town.
As we were writing this waymark, we discovered that in Sep 2015 Mayor Gonzales was indicted on four counts of official misconduct for hiring her husband to work for the city without permission of the council and without following job posting rules. :(
We found more details in a local newspaper, The Eldorado Success: (
visit link)
"ROCKSPRINGS MAYOR ARRESTED FOR OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT
Friday 09/04/2015 – 15:49 El Dorado1
Rocksprings, Texas Mayor Pauline V. Gonzales was indicted on four counts of Official Misconduct as a result of her involvement in hiring her husband, Ramiro Gonzales Jr., to perform work for the city of Rocksprings Texas.
A statement released by the Edwards County Sheriff's office alleges that Gonzales hired her husband without consulting or approval from the Rocksprings city Council and without publishing or posting the job for bids and opening the job to the public.
It was discovered during the investigation by the Edwards County Sheriff's office that Ramiro Gonzales Jr. was hired by the city of Rocksprings’ Mayor to remodel the City Transfer Station office that is located in the city of Rocksprings, Texas. Ramiro Gonzales Jr wasn't required, nor did he attempt to furnish, a bid for the remodel work prior to conducting the job. It was revealed during the investigation that Ramiro Gonzales Jr. remodeled the building and sent an invoice to the city of Rocksprings in the amount of $3000 for labor.
The Mayor allegedly instructed a city employee to meet with her husband, Ramiro Gonzales Jr., at the city transfer station so that he could figure out a material list. The employee told an Edwards County Sheriff's office investigator that when he saw the list of materials from Ramiro, he thought it was a lot of material, and that Ramiro didn't get all of it. After Ramirez Gonzales Jr. ran out of materials for the work he was conducting at the transfer station, the mayor told the employee to give her the city’s Lowes credit card which she then handed to her husband.
Ramiro Gonzales was then observed on video footage obtained during the investigation to have purchased additional materials from Lowe's without any representation from the City of Rocksprings, or any of its employees. There were material invoices revealed during the investigation totaling $1484.73.
Each of the actions conducted by the Mayor and her husband were accomplished without the knowledge and authorization of the Rocksprings city Council, nor was there any transparency to the public.
A complaint was filed with the Edwards County Sheriff's office in January 2015 from a Rocksprings citizen. An investigation was initiated by Capt. D. Mkmann into the allegations and both the Mayor Gonzales, and her husband, Ramirez Gonzalez Junior, were found to have violated laws of the state of Texas pertaining to official misconduct.
On August 31, 2015, the Edwards County grand jury indicted Gonzales on the following counts:
*Abuse Of Official Capacity: Penal Code section 39.02(a)(2), State Jail Felony;
*Misapplication Of Fiduciary Property: P.C. section 32.45(b)(1), State Jail Felony;
*Abuse Of Official Capacity: PC section 39.02(a)(1)(b), Class A Misdemeanor;
*Affidavit And Abstention From Voting, Local Government Code
Section 171.004(a); 171.003(a)(1); Class A Misdemeanors
On September 1, 2015, Sheriff Pamela Elliott went to Mayor Gonzales's place employment, served her with her indictments and arrest of her without incident on the active warrants.
A person convicted of a State Jail Felony can be sentenced to less than two years, but more than 180 days and up to a $10,000 fine for each count.
A person convicted of a Class A Misdemeanor can be sentenced up to a year in jail and a fine not to exceed $4000 for each count.
Gonzales was booked into the Edwards County Detention Center."
T