This opinion piece must be prefaced with the fact that it is not about an arbitrary person for the sake of cruelty. This article is about a man who tampered with the lives of 4,000 people, lied to them, marginalized them, and mislead them.
As the Chairman of the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks, Pedro Orduno is responsible for the creation of the City of Sandy Oaks. His goal of creating a city was achieved foolishly, without regard to the long term consequences that everyone in the city must now suffer through.
There are 2 sides to every story, but that’s the primary problem. Orduno’s side of the story involves happy rainbows, cute bunnies, and unicorns. For Orduno, the creation of a city meant all problems would instantly vanish and that unity and cohesion would be achieved by all. Orduno’s side of the story is about delusions and fantasies where as my side of the story is about cold hard facts, budgets, and reality.
A Fool’s Knowledge
Creating a city means taking on responsibilities, especially when it comes to money. It is very easy for a government to slip quickly into debt. Orduno himself used San Antonio’s debt as a way to provoke fear in people in order to get them to vote in favor of incorporation. Because of this, I thought he would have a hypothetical idea of what a future city budget would look like, what he suspected taxes would need to be, and what the general cost would be to run a new city.
It turns out that Orduno didn’t have a hypothetical budget. When I asked him before the Incorporation vote, his response was “It’s impossible to know something like that ahead of time.”
I asked Orduno what the overall property value for the proposed city limits of Sandy Oaks was. He told me it was impossible to know because those sorts of records are only accessible to city officials and regular people can’t access them.
But people certainly can access what property values are, they’re public record. The Bexar County Appraisal District has its own website at BCAD.org where anyone in the world with internet access can check the property value anywhere in Bexar County.
I next asked Orduno how many pieces of property were in the city limits. To this he became exasperated at my questions claiming that I was asking things that were impossible to know until we incorporated.
But it’s quite easy to know the number of properties. 18,000 years ago someone came up with a really nifty tool called a map. Google maps offers a free map service and anyone can sit down and count the number of properties in the proposed boundaries. It took me about 30 minutes.
In 3+ years of working to get San Antonio to release a portion of its ETJ, Orduno never once bothered to spend 30 minutes in an attempt to find the number of properties he was wanting to inflict his ambitions on.
Budgeting
The reason why the number of properties is important is because it gives an idea of what it would cost to run a city as well as what the average person would have to pay in property tax. For example, say that a city needs to spend $400,000 (of property tax revenue) to operate and the property value in the city is $60 million. To get the $400k the property tax rate would have to be 66.6 cents. This is a rather important figure that needs to be communicated to people before they participate in an incorporation vote.
But there’s a chance that Orduno was lying when he said it was impossible for him to know the estimated property value. Mayors Jim Clement and Art Martinez de Vara both stated later in the year at the Budget Hearing that the Bexar County Appraisal District told CISO as early as January 2014 that the estimated property value was about $64 million.
Martinez de Vara also told the city council in September that San Antonio had done a tax assessment of the area in Januray 2014. But Orduno told me in April, days before the vote to incorporate, that no preliminary financial assessment had been done. It was impossible, he said.
Or maybe it was impossible for Orduno to share important information with voters before they participated in a vote on incorporation. Like Nancy Pelosi wanting congress to pass a bill and then worry about reading it later, Orduno wanted people to vote in favor of creating a governing body that would last for the rest of all time, but worry about how to fund it after it passed.
Foolishly Secret
Pedro Orduno and Jim Clement created a meeting for the members of the Sandy Oaks Political Action Committee shortly after Incorporation. The meeting was supposed to be a closed meeting for SOPAC only, but Orduno foolishly published the meeting date and time on his Incorporation website. The same website he marketed to the community as the go-to place for people to get information.
At the meeting, Orduno used a projector to present various notes. He had done the same thing a month prior when he and CISO presented information in a public meeting and he included that presentation on his CISO website. So after the “secret” SOPAC meeting I asked Orduno as we were leaving when he would have the notes ready to look at on his website. He replied
I don’t want to maintain the website anymore
That wasn’t a problem for me because I have plenty of email addresses. I told him he could email me the information instead. His response was
I’ll have to talk to our lawyer
This sent up red flags for me. Why would Orduno, as the Chair to the Committee to Incorporate, need to be secretive about the creation of the city government and information that the community should be involved with?
This led to a heated argument with Orduno who then took the line of “They’re my notes, my property.” And he’s right, they are. But he had just shared them to a room full of people not 5 minutes prior. In the end, Orduno told me that if I wanted information then I could go look for it myself.
The man who worked for 3+ years to create a city government did not want anyone else involved or included in the implementation of that government. The lack of communication from CISO about incorporation and about the deadline to apply to run for office wasn’t because CISO sucks at communication. It’s because they purposely chose not to involve the community.
Pedro Orduno tampered with the lives of 4000 people, and did so with the foolish attitude that only he knew what was best for them.
Disregard For Others
At the first city budget hearing, Mayor Clement presented a budget that would have taxed the community retroactively and would only have given people a few weeks notice before the tax bill arrived. After hearing this, Pedro Orduno stood up and had this to say:
We’re still in the process of eliminating the assessment fee from the Waterwood Development Company, right? So from my perspective, if we eliminate the $180, the maintenance fee, I always hope for a break even for myself personally.
One of Orduno’s goals in tandem with creating a city was to eliminate the fee that Waterwood Development Company imposed on the community of Waterwood. He is correct that it would be a break even for himself. But what Orduno doesn’t fully understand is that the City of Sandy Oaks doesn’t encompass only the Waterwood subdivision. It includes people who were not already paying $180 a year. Orduno was completely comfortable with forcing the community to pay a new property tax (that would more than double the current property tax) because it wouldn’t effect him at all.
Gate of Integrity
During the political campaign leading to the election of the first city council, 8 candidates ran for the 5 Alderman slots. 5 of the 8 were members of the Sandy Oaks Political Action Committee, which included Orduno. Art Martinez de Vara, the adviser to CISO, and SOPAC, created a newspaper called the Sandy Oaks Chronicle, which had a 2 page “voter’s guide” that only featured SOPAC candidates. The newspaper lied about inviting the other 3.
When the 3 Outsiders learned about the lie they asked around to see why they hadn’t been included. SOPAC candidates admitted that they either gave their bio’s to Martinez de Vara or Orduno. When Orduno was asked by an Outsider why the newspaper lied and didn’t include everyone, his response was
We drove to your houses and the gates were all locked.
I know for a fact that David Tremblay’s gate is often open because I personally walked through it, introduced myself, and obtained Tremblay’s contact information so that he could be informed about the deadline which is why he was able to run for office.
Cathleen Recio has two gates, one is a piece of chicken wire so short that the average man can step over it.
Micki Ball’s gate, however, is probably the most intimidating gate in the entire county. It’s one of those gates that’s so formidable looking that whenever you gaze up at it thunder clouds instantly form and flashes of lightening streak across the stormy sky. Its frighteningly huge.
Just kidding. Ball doesn’t have a gate because Ball doesn’t even have a fence. Orduno is full of bullshit. Orduno foolishly lied, again.
Orduno’s sense of integrity is about as solid as Ball’s imaginary gate. These three people aren’t half way around the world from Orduno. They’re people who live only a few blocks away. They’re citizens participating in the new city that Orduno created. They’re neighbors who Orduno purposely excluded for his own personal gain while trying to run for office to represent the exact same individuals.
Pot Calls Kettle Black
Also during the campaign season, Pedro Orduno filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission against Cathleen Recio. The homemade campaign signs she posted in the community didn’t have the legal required footnote saying who payed for the signs. The official complaint didn’t go through because Orduno didn’t file it properly, but Recio took her signs down anyway.
When Recio confronted Orduno about the complaint she pointed out that his own “Vote to Incorporate Sandy Oaks” signs had been up illegally for 2 months. Later, in the dark of night, Orduno went around the area collecting the signs to avoid the same legal repercussions he tried to inflict on someone else.
The Foolish Pawn
The reason Pedro Orduno gave to Recio for the ethics complaint was that Jim Clement suggested to him that he should be the one to file the paperwork. Like a good boy, Orduno did as he was told.
The Pawn Placed by Clement
Clement is retired and Orduno works full time. Yet it was Orduno who was the official Chairman of the Committe to Incorporate where as Clement was only Vice-Chair. This is odd considering Clement gravitates towards positions of power like a mentally retarded moth to a flamethrower.
Jim Clement has been POA president numerous times, was elected to the Board of Trusties for BexatMet Water District, and was even the Vice President of the board leading into the destruction of the entity for mismanagement. Considering the amount of wreckage left in his path, Clement is politically savvy enough to know he needs a Fall Guy.
The importance of having a Fall Guy was made clear on August 28, 2013, when Clement told the Express News that to incorporate at 2.4 square miles would mean the city wouldn’t survive because it wouldn’t have enough commercial revenue.
But incorporating at 2.4 square miles would (and did) benefit Jim Clement. It created the need for a City Council; 6 brand new positions of power. And because the Committee to Incorporate didn’t announce the deadline for people to apply for office like they said they would, Clement was able to run unopposed for mayor.
Clement strategically placed Orduno to be the Fall Guy. If and when things go wrong with the entire idea of city-hood, Clement will shove the blame of creation onto the shoulders of Orduno, regardless of Clement’s mismanagement as mayor.
The Pawn Moved By Martinez de Vara
The person Orduno turned to for information on incorporation was Art Martinez de Vara, who led the incorporation efforts for the City of Von Ormy. Martinez de Vara ended up becoming the legal adviser to CISO, as well as the legal adviser to the Sandy Oaks Political Action Committee. SOPAC’s official address, after all, is a Von Ormy PO box.
Martinez de Vara told Texas Public Radio on November 22, 2013, that to incorporate at 2.4 square miles would make property taxes “astronomically high.”
But Martinez de Vara helped Orduno file paperwork with Bexar County to have an election for incorporation anyway. Later, for his effort in helping CISO create a city and lying to help members of SOPAC get elected, Martinez de Vara was hired as City Attorney at the first City Council meeting. Clement’s idea, of course.
At the Budget Hearing September 18, 2014, Mayor Clement presented a budget that would have allocated $36,000 to Martinez de Vara. When asked who created the budget, Clement replied “the attorney did.”
As Mayor of Von Ormy, Martinez de Vara allocates only $12,000 for his own City Attorney.
Art Martinez de Vara used Orduno to create an entity that benefits Art, at the cost of a community that Art doesn’t live in.
The Pawn Sacrificed By San Antonio
Orduno and CISO originally requested San Antonio to release 9 square miles of its Extraterritorial Jurisdiction. San Antonio declined. Then CISO requested 4 square miles and again, San Antonio declined.
But San Antonio did offer 2.4 square miles. San Antonio looked at the amount of future commercial revenue at the corner of 1604 and 37, and looked at the amount of expenses that the Waterwood area would cost them, and created a deal that would benefit both San Antonio and Orduno, but would harm the residents of the future City of Sandy Oaks. San Antonio took the worst part of the area, the part that was 100% cost and 0% revenue, and gave it to Orduno who was desperate to accomplish the creation of a city at any cost.
At the San Antonio city council meeting November 21, 2013, Director of Planning and Community Development John Dugan put it this way:
Alternative is to approve the portion of the town or the area that is around the existing manufactured homes, mobile home park of Waterwood there located off the intersection at Priest Road.
Mobile homes, building code violations, streets in disrepair, septic systems, crime, poverty. All things that would cost San Antonio money to address. Giving up 2.4 square miles meant that San Antonio had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The same day as the approval for 2.4 square miles, Pedro Orduno was actually outraged. His direct quote from the Express News:
We’re no fools. We need a commercial tax base
San Antonio offered a lemon and Orduno was foolish enough to think he could make lemonade. But every sweet part of the deal was removed with the loss of commerce, ensuring a bitter taste for all of us as we are forced with higher property taxes.
Blind to Lasting Repercussions
Orduno is no stranger to yellow liquid. He quickly becomes dismissive and evasive when faced with questions that demand details he didn’t bother to research ahead of time. Because of his foolish actions and ambitions, Orduno not only placed the community on a perilous cliff of debt, but did so in such a way that leaves the community leaderless.
CISO was angrily asked on April 24, 2014, if they were planning to be the ones who were going to be the city council. Orduno stood up and answered that the community would be told about the deadline to apply to run for office so that everyone could be involved.
Announcing the deadline to the community would have been of great benefit to the city. It would mean that the best and brightest would have both the invitation and the opportunity to participate. Which would result in a more functional City Council which would make a better city.
But CISO didn’t announce the deadline. Instead, Orduno and Clement gathered together people who would follow their lead. That is, Clement’s lead.
The Road Paved to Sandy Oaks
I want it to be clear that I don’t think Pedro Orduno is consciously evil. I don’t imagine him sitting at home feverishly rubbing his hands together while salivating at the thought of the massive amounts of money he’s going to swindle from people. But Orduno is an example of how the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Orduno doesn’t do evil things because his heart is bad. He does evil things because he’s an incompetent fool who doesn’t understand the implications of his actions and his desires.
A 20-year retired Air Force E6 sat on Orduno’s shoulder and Orduno allowed himself to believe the sweet whispers he was told. On his other shoulder sat a greedy lawyer who filled Orduno’s ear with enough “facts” that Orduno felt he didn’t need to lead himself and could simply do what he was told.
Orduno purposely blinded himself to the sins he needed to commit and the liberties he needed to trample on to work his way towards what he selfishly wanted. Orduno is a fool because he allowed himself to be so; by believing in the cute dreams fabricated by men much more evil than he.
One of Orduno’s stated motivations in creating a city was to create a better place for people to live. The problem is that he only focused on the ends and didn’t consider the importance of the means. If Orduno truly wants a better community then he has the opportunity to repent and be forgiven. But that will also require the courage to stand against the people he worked with for 3 years to create Sandy Oaks. Forgiveness is in the undoing of the injustice.
Pedro Orduno and I do believe on one key point. I believe Orduno was correct when he suggested we would be fools to incorporate. And if we’re fools, then Orduno should forever shoulder the responsibility of leading us here by being our official Town Fool.
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