Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 231
significant yearly profits. Like every other health provider in the country, St. Joseph’s
was riding the wave of rapidly accelerating healthcare prices.
Overcoming my objections, Sister Gretchen achieved bright success in her tenure. She
garnered the complete confidence of the central board from Ohio and from the local
board. Under her direction, the hospital entered an unprecedented program of
expansion and improvement of medical care in the community, bringing it almost to par
with much bigger urban areas of the state. Without a doubt, the significant surpluses
went into strengthening the financial structure of the multi-hospital system, but that also
impacted the quality of life in my community. My differences of opinion not withstanding,
I remain very proud to have been a close observer of such an effort.
In the mid-1980s my personal financial world had been severely damaged. Due to the
devastating implosion of the banking system, the collapse of the real estate industry and
the precipitous drop of prices in the oil and gas business, the macro-economic
environment necessary to support new entrepreneurial initiatives was non-existent. As a
result, my renewed inclinations toward self-reliance were on hold and I was busy trying
to pay debts. Though my credit repair efforts required a lot of attention, I yearned for
other responsibilities. I succumbed to another public service opportunity. In the spring of
1989, Phil Adams asked me if was interested in serving as a director of the Brazos
River Authority (BRA). It seems that he had been queried about possible candidates by
the appointments office of then Governor Bill Clements. A few days later I was invited to
an interview in Austin. I had never met the governor or his appointments officers but the
following week I was nevertheless offered the job. It was a six-year term. I accepted it
gladly and my State Senator, Kent Caperton, a Democrat, endorsed me effusively. I
took the oath of office June 7, 1989.
Between Reconstruction and Bill Clements’ election as governor in 1984, Texas had
been a one party state. Due to privileges carved out over time by the Lieutenant
Governor’s office, in Texas the governor’s powers over legislative issues are somewhat
diminished. Thus, one of his more evident means of influencing the affairs of the state is
through his power of appointments. For about a century, most appointments went to
male Anglo-Saxon citizens who shared the same political bent as the governor in office.
With the advent in 1985 of a two-party state, Governor Clements changed that practice.
The first woman appointed to the Brazos River Authority was Deborah Bell, from
Abilene, two years before me. In my class of seven new directors there were a couple of
other ladies and a black businessman. We were some of the chosen conductors of
public agencies at the dawn of a new era in the state.
Texas river authorities are constitutionally empowered to oversee the protection,
development, use and broad-stroke management of water resources within the river
basin, or part of the basin assigned to them. As Texas grows in population, industry,
agriculture and affluency, the needs for more water also increase. In the year 2000, the
Texas Water Development Board estimated that by the year 2050, the state’s
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