The continuing saga of the ethics complaint filed against County Judge Anthony Cobos by City Rep. Emma Acosta has highlighted the importance of a strong ethics code. One thing is certain -- the ethics code doesn't define right and wrong.
There is a universal truth that most people know in their heart. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should do it.
Cobos' legal team of Theresa Caballero and Stuart Leeds are making the argument that it was completely legal for Cobos to give the now-infamous employment applications of Acosta to his buddy Jose Alexandro Lozano. Maybe that's true, and maybe there really was an official open records request made by Lozano, but just because it was legal for Cobos to do, he clearly should not have done it.
The ethical thing to do would have been to forward the request to another department, like say Human Resources that normally handles this type of request anyway. Cobos would have ensured that Lozano would have access to the documents in accordance with the law, without having the appearance that he was getting any favors from Cobos or benefiting from the relationship.
So while Caballero raises the legality issue in court, the people will make up their mind on whether Cobos' actions were right or wrong. It might be legal, but it sure looks like dirty pool.
Turning the Tables
Theresa Caballero wrote in her blog about filing an ethics complaint against County Commissioner Veronica Escobar. Here's example No. 1 of Caballero getting caught undermining her own argument. Cobos has said from the beginning that the complaint against him filed by Acosta was frivolous.
Now his attorney turns around and makes essentially the same allegation against Cobos' political rival. Caballero alleges that Escobar violated the exact same section of the Ethics Code and alleges Escobar "has used her official authority and influence to discourage, restrain, deter, prevent and interfere with County Judge Anthony Cobos’ political activities. Commissioner Escobar wants to be El Paso County Judge and take over that position from Judge Cobos. She has used her authority and influence to interfere with his re-election campaign by making public comments on his request to have El Paso County pay his attorney fees in defending himself against the Ethics complaint Emma Acosta filed against him."
So we are supposed to believe that Acosta's complaint is frivolous and Caballero's isn't?
Aside from this undermining Cobos' claim of a frivolous complaint, something else jumped out at me. Did I miss Cobos' re-election announcement? Does he honestly think he's going to be re-elected? Nero was more popular than this guy.
There are obvious factors working against Cobos in a re-election bid that will make it impossible for Cobos to be re-elected. But Cobos will make his chances even worse and probably have Jaime O. Perez run his campaign. Perez didn't win a single election in the city of El Paso that he was associated with in the last round of elections. The "O" stands for "O-for."
The Chewbacca Defense
There's an episode in South Park where Johnny Cochran shows up in court and presents an argument that has nothing to do with issue at hand and is only meant to confuse and distract the jury. [link]
Looks like Caballero must've seen how well it worked in that episode and is employing that strategy for Cobos.
Later in the complaint, Caballero aserts that it all comes down to one question, "Did Cobos rightfully or wrongfully release a copy of Acosta’s job application to her opponent in the recent election?” Caballero continues, "This question was fully answered in Court, with Commissioner Escobar being present, on June 8, 2009, when El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez stated that Cobos released the copy of Acosta’s job application pursuant to a Texas Open Records Act request; that he did so in his official capacity as County Judge and custodian of the records and that he did so upon the expert legal advice of the County Attorney’s office that said the records were not confidential."
Caballero is a smart lawyer, so she must've realized while she was going over all the documents related to the case that the County Attorney's office never responded to an open records request, they responded to an email from Human Resources as a result of a query by Judge Cobos.
Two El Pasos
So let's go back to Caballero undermining her own argument. I wasn't around to see Caballero's glory days berating her father in public during City Council meetings but I did get to see her go after District Attorney Jaime Esparza pretty hard.
One of her central arguments in that campaign was the fact that she believed there were two El Pasos. One where the elite were treated differently by the system than regular folks. I think part of me agrees with her on that one.
Caballero said she wanted to put an end to that kind of system in government.
According to County Commissioner Anna Perez, an open records request would not normally be handled by the County Judge. It's the kind of mundane administrative request that gets forwarded to the County Attorney's office or the department related to the request, not something that gets personal attention from the County Judge himself.
That is, unless you are a friend and political ally like Jose Alexandro Lozano.
Funny how Caballero's now defending someone who may have done exactly what she was campaigning against.
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Abeytia writes the Lionstar blog and is a political animal who spends way too much time traveling the wilds of El Paso politics. Reach him at lionstar@thelionstarblog.com.
