SAN ANTONIO – A Bexar County justice of the peace who stepped down late last month was sanctioned earlier this year for campaigning on behalf of his daughter in her failed state senate race, officials with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct confirmed Friday.
Judge Ciro Rodriguez, whose retirement as justice of the peace for Bexar County Precinct 1, Place 2 took effect Sept. 30, received a public warning in late February, after the commission determined he engaged in activities supporting his daughter’s 2020 campaign for Texas senate.
Recommended Videos
The Texas Code of Judicial Conduct forbids judges from campaigning on behalf of another person.
The commission’s three-page order on Rodriguez states that he publicly campaigned on behalf of his daughter, attorney Xochil Peña Rodriguez, during three different events in late 2019.
Judge Ciro Rodriguez public warning by Dillon Collier on Scribd
Peña Rodriguez, a former Democratic candidate for Texas Senate District 19, eventually lost in July 2020 in a primary runoff to Roland Gutierrez. Gutierrez later defeated Republican Sen. Pete Flores in last year’s general election.
A separate Defenders investigation found that a short-term 33% salary adjustment given to Judge Rodriguez in 2018, when the other J.P. in his precinct contracted a life-threatening bacterial infection, remained in place even after the other J.P. returned to work.
The increase boosted Rodriguez’s salary from $88,040 a year to more than $117,000 a year, according to figures provided last year by the Bexar County Auditor’s office.
Bexar County budget employees who questioned why Rodriguez continued to collect full-time pay were instructed to leave the increase in place, records later showed.
A county spokeswoman confirmed Friday that had Rodriguez not retired at the end of last month, his annual salary moving forward would have been $62,896.20, half of what he was being paid prior.
Rodriguez, a former U.S. congressman who was appointed to the J.P. position then later was elected to a full term, said he could no longer be part of a court system that lacks basic accountability measures.
“It is my opinion, and that of many in the community we serve, that too often government and those elected to serve are not focused on working for the people and instead are focused on serving themselves. That is not just a perceived problem, it’s a real and growing problem as the practice of nepotism and spending taxpayer dollars on salaries for employees who do not appear for work continues within this court,” Rodriguez wrote in his Sept. 30 letter to Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. “It is clear that there is a great need for increased oversight and accountability ensuring better representation and service for the people by this court that otherwise does so much good for our shared community.”
A judicial commission spokesperson said via email Friday that Rodriguez’s February sanction was inadvertently omitted from the commission’s website but was uploaded after officials saw Thursday’s story on Rodriguez stepping down.