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Editor’s note: This column reflects the views of the author. The Wimberley View has reached out to Judge Ruben Becerra for response and will publish it when received.
When I was 21, a man punched me in the face. It was at the holiday party of the Forestry Club at the University of Montana. His name was Mike, and he had been flirting with me but also forceful. I told him I wasn’t interested and went back to chatting with my friend. A few minutes later, a fist came out of nowhere and knocked me to the ground.
I couldn’t let him hurt me like that without consequences, so after giving the other party attendees a heads up, I called the police. They came, interviewed me, and arrested Mike. He pled guilty to assault and did probation. I was satisfied.But the Forestry Club and that group of friends? Most of them began avoiding me, and I no longer felt welcome at their events. Over the next few months, I floated away from that community entirely. I didn’t realize I’d broken a secret, unspoken rule: Speaking up against a problem often gets you labeled the problem.
But we can’t live that way. People do bad things, and we must have the courage to talk about it. Cultures of silence and punishing those who speak up only protect bad actors, those who lie and who treat others with disrespect.
We’ve come a long way from college but not far enough. Recently, an odd game that Judge Ruben Becerra has been playing came to a head. He, in his eighth year in public office, decided to engage on water issues. He brought a proposal to the Commissioners Court on water and data centers that had not been posted publicly or had legal review. Unfortunately, his proposal came with unintended consequences–it would have allowed industrial water users to sidestep the county development process entirely. When the legal team, other commissioners, and I (through a letter to the Court) pointed this out, the judge tabled his own proposal.
Then the judge announced a water summit and pointedly said he expected attendance from every Hays County state legislator…except me. The omission stood out to many Hays County residents, because I have been working on water issues consistently and fighting to bring more resources to our groundwater districts. When constituents asked why I was left off, he lied and said I declined to attend. I corrected the record and said I was not invited. Then he publicly invited me, and I said my office would try to participate. My staff RSVPed via an email to both the judge and one of his staffers.
But when my staff and I showed up, we were told we weren’t on the list and that the venue was at capacity despite folks inside saying there were several empty seats. The judge’s story for why has continued to change. Sometimes he says my RSVP slipped through the cracks, and sometimes he defends excluding me, saying I’m an agitator because I dared to criticize his approach on water issues. I have no reason to believe my exclusion was anything but intentional.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened with Judge Becerra. In 2020, when we were all scrambling to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the judge held conference calls for local leaders with briefings from the epidemiologist. I asked to be included to help bring needed state resources to the county. At first the judge acted like I was included but the information for the calls never arrived. When other elected officials sent me the call in information, he changed the call in time at the last minute. The judge implied in texts to me that I had nothing of value to offer and told me not to text him. When mayors and commissioners advocated for me, he yelled at them. He instructed county staff to not communicate with me.
I felt disrespected and angry, but it was a global pandemic, and the work was more important than one badly-behaved elected official. I pulled together medical experts and did virtual town halls for the community. The judge’s then chief of staff and I developed a backchannel about mask orders and federal relief money, which I believe he largely hid from the judge. I fought to get the state to bring the National Guard to Hays County for testing sites, going around the county to get the first week organized. I worked with mutual friends who still had a relationship with the judge to feed him information and ideas without my name attached.
I made myself smaller to make it work and to try (not entirely successfully) to avoid public disagreements between myself and the judge. But it was three times as much work for everyone to tiptoe around the judge’s utter refusal to work directly with me, and we accomplished less for the people of Hays County because of it.
When the judge exhibited such similar behavior last week, I wasn’t willing to make myself smaller anymore. Some of my fellow Democrats, even some of my friends, have criticized me for being divisive. But I can’t believe that calling out lies, gaslighting, and bullying is more divisive than the bad behavior itself.
This is the sad truth: Judge Becerra’s bullying and dishonest behavior has been an open secret in Hays County for years. You’re either with him or against him, and he publicly attacks those whom he considers to have opposed him. County staff and contractors report fear of retribution if they speak out. Local nonprofits, elected officials, business owners, and even many within the Hays Democratic Party have the same fear.
Just because someone is theoretically on the same side of an issue or in the same political party doesn’t mean we should accept bad behavior. Bullying and lying make true unity and collaborative work impossible in a time when we need everyone’s talent and time at the table. We must break the culture of silence, of using the idea of “everyone getting along” as a shield from accountability. I hope that my speaking out gives others the courage to do the same.
