Last we checked on San Juan Mayor Mario Garza, he had JUST “walked out” of his job of 15 years at the Hidalgo County Adult Probation right before the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office had opened an investigation into the department. Garza had called the timing of his departure “so wrong” and told reporters that he had been “burnt out.”
Turns out, he lied.
According to a memo retrieved by KGBT/Valley Central’s Dave Hendricks, Adult Probation director Arnold Patrick fired Garza on June 16th.
From the memo:
In accordance with CSCD Personnel Policy Manual, which explains the basis for employee discipline, your employment with the Community Supervision and Corrections Department of Hidalgo County is terminated, effective this date. This action is taken as a result of your violation of CSCD Policy…On or about April 13, 2015 April 5, 2017, you processed Motion Order Waivers and Early Termination Orders without following department protocol and necessary documentation. Additionally, you entered into a personal or business relationship or other interaction with a person under the direct or indirect supervision of this department that was outside the scope of necessary duties and job-related tasks.
Mario Garza Hidalgo County Adult Probation Termination of Employment by The Bench Wire on Scribd
Unfortunately, Garza’s exit was significantly less dramatic than most of us thought, or hoped, it’d be. In part, yes, he was terminated due to a strange circumstance where a woman who worked on Garza’s running mate Rubio Muniz’ campaign, directly asked Garza for help with fees, but Garza was let go largely because he was just shitty at his job.
From KGBT:
Administrators discovered Garza hadn’t properly documented 8 to 12 cases involving people who requested early release from probation, Patrick said, adding that he didn’t know the exact number of cases with missing paperwork.
So the story here is that Garza got fired from his job and was too proud to admit it. It’s the classic “YOU CAN’T FIRE ME! I QUIT!!!” story that we’ve all played in our heads after WE’VE been let go from a place. On some level, I get it and we’ve all been there, but then again, most of us haven’t ran to be the top executive of a city. After digesting this story, I don’t know what’s worse: walking out of a job where most people believed you had committed some crime or being caught in an embarrassing lie about getting shit-canned from that job.
Either way, I still implore our San Juan resident readers to send Mayor Garza your thoughts at [email protected] since it seems that he now has all the time in the world to read your emails.
