Alamo’s War of Words

ALAMO – Say what you will about Alamo, but one thing is for sure: Over the decades this newspaper has been covering this city of (now) approximately 27,000, the politics has seldom proven boring. Take last week, for example. A simple request for a budget change by Police Chief Baudelio Castillo, voted down by a 3-2 city commission vote, sent City Commissioner “Trino” Medina to his computer where he went, pardon the pun, ballistic.

The police budget for Fiscal Year 2019 included a training line item budget of $27,000. That was depleted in less than two months, so the chief wanted to move $27,000 from “maintenance” to “training.” Commissioner Robert De La Garza made the comment that given the fact that there is so much free training for police agencies now in the Valley, with cop synergy in full swing, there are free courses around that the Alamo PD could use. So why spend another $27,000?

For the past year following the November 2017 election, Medina has enjoyed a commission majority vote, with De La Garza and Mayor Pro Tem Pete Morales voting with him most of the time. It’s clear that there is no love lost between Medina and the woman who beat him out for mayor in 2015: Diana Martinez. The two are expected to shoot off fireworks again next November.

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