MINNIE FOILED, PULLS PLUG ON UNITED B'VILLE $25,000 GIFT

By Juan Montoya
Last time it was the Brownsville Independent School District who pulled the plug on the annual $25,000 hit to the district's fund balance on behalf of the shadow government entity called United Brownsville.
At the time there was no mention on the district's agenda on who had placed the item for consideration.
The item read: 15. Discussion, consideration and possible action to pay United Brownsville annual membership fees to the City of Brownsville in the amount not to exceed $25,000 from budgeted Local Maintenance Funds.
Since the agenda item did not specify which trustee placed the item on the agenda, we have to assume that it was done by Superintendent Carl Montoya at the behest of one of the board members. We also assume that it was board president Enrique Escobedo, who along with Montoya form part of United Brownsville's 27-member board and "advisers."
A former BISD trustee pointedly asked how it was that the board could vote to pay United Brownsville, a nonprofit, through the City of Brownsville, as the item read.
"Is the district going to pay the city so that they, in turn, can pay United Brownsville the $25,000 in membership fees?," he asked. "What kind of arrangement is that? That is a poorly worded agenda item. It makes no sense."
At Tuesday's meeting the item read differently. It said16. Discussion, consideration and possible action on United Brownsville Membership Fees (MP, Board Member).
"MP," of course, means the item was placed on the board's agenda by Minerva Peña.
And just as the administration pulled the $25,000 hit from the agenda last January, the precocious Ms. Peña, seeing that no support existed to give away district money when it is at the same time considering a move to raise property taxes to pay off the BISD's debt, also pulled it.
Overall, Tuesday was a bad day for the schemers at United Brownsville. United Brownsville's anchor at UTB President Juliet Juliet Garcia was unable to get the city administration and commission to hand over City Plaza to UTB even though it was the only item placed on the special meeting agenda be her fellow United Brownsville colleagues Mayor Tony Martinez and Commissioner Rose Gowen.
Now, with the city's biggest employer out of the United Brownsville loop, and Cameron County refusing to give away taxpayers' money to that group, perhaps other taxpayer-funded entities will realize that the people don't want to see their money go to someone who is accountable to no one and is not elected by them.

MARTINEZ, GOWEN GO ON FULL SPIN MODE

By Juan Montoya

A day after they had to pull the only item from a special meeting of the Brownsville City Commission, Mayor Tony Martinez and commissioner Rose Gowen – who placed it on then agenda – called upon their mouthpiece the Brownsville Herald to tell readers that they really weren't ready to present it to the full commission.

Hu? Since when?

The public reason for pulling the item that read: A) Discussion pursuant to Section 551.072, of the Texas Government Code regarding real property (A. Martinez, Mayor and Commissioner R. Gowen  20 min.) made no mention of the mayor's plan to sell, lease or "transfer" the City Plaza building to Juliet Garcia's UTB who need administrative space even if its not on the Texas Southmost campus.
But the USS Brownsville is one leaky ship and the news traveled fast that Martinez and Gowen were ready to move the employees located at City Plaza to the empty hulk called La Casa Del Nylon which Martinez had the city purchase for $2.3 million from his buddy Abraham Golonsky.
But there was a few catches. The building will take months – and perhaps millions – to remodel to fit the needs of a municipal One-Stop Center being served so elegantly now. And there is no parking in contrast to City Plaza that not only has a three-story parking structure attached to it, but also a free parking lot across St. Charles. It is the epitome of convenience to the average citizen who wants to do business with the city.

In a play taken from her takeover book, UTB's Garcia stressed the urgency of her new appendage to the University of the Americas having the city property before classes began in late August. If not, Western civilization as we know it would crumble all around us.
We've seen this movie before. Remember when she placed a new partnership "agreement" before the TSC trustees and told them that this was of utmost urgency if it was to go before the UT Regents before their meeting? There was no need to quibble over details, she told them. But, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. And what details there were. Hand over all the TSC assets – real estate, buildings, equipment, bank deposits, etc. – to UTB and do away with the community college.
Well, that wasn't quite right. We forgot to add that TSC would remain around as a taxing entity until the outstanding bond debt – on the issue of $68 million plus interest – was paid by the district taxpayers. When the district taxpayers finished paying off the debt they would have nothing and UTB would have everything. Neat, uh?
Well, not everyone on the city commission was willing to fall on the sword for Juliet or Martinez.
This is the spin that the city (read Martinez and Gowen) put on the debacle:
"To all:

The decision to postpone the commission meeting, scheduled for this evening, was made at the request of our City Manager to better prepare to inform our commission of the details of the UTB request for lease space at the City Plaza and Cueto Buildings. Specific information as to the terms and length of lease are not available at this time . The university staff is working on details to present to city administration. If approved, relocation of city departments will be to vacate city-owned property such as Market Square etc., however, those details are pending and will not be ready today, thus, the request by our City Manager to postpone the meeting.
Before an important decision of this nature is made all the details need to be organized and presented to our commission and this will be worked on and presented at a later date to be determined."
Thank you.
This wasn't a smoking gun. This was the sound of the door being blown off the outhouse!
When was the last time we get this kind of detail on why a meeting was postponed?
Never. Are they waiting until after the elections Saturday and hoping Martinez's horse in the District 3 commissioner's race Deborah Portillo gets elected over local businessman Martin Sarkis gets elected before bringing it back?
This is not over yet by a longshot. If no one had known what Martinez and Gowen were trying to pull off, they would have gotten away with it just as Garcia tried to do to take $200 million in TSC assets.
The natives aboard the USS Brownsville, as Gowen and her hoity-doity friends would say, are revolting.

MARTINEZ, GOWEN GET COLD FEET, POSTPONE MEET

By Juan Montoya
Unable to get a majority on the City of Brownsville Commission to go along with their plans to lease, sell or donate City Plaza to the University of Texas of Brownsville for use as a administrative offices, Mayor Tony Martinez and commissioner Rose Gowen have opted to postpone the meeting where only that item would be discussed in executive session.
Commissioners had been bombarded with calls once the news got out that Gowen and Martinez were hoping to persuade a majority of the commissioners to agree to the deal. However, the item was simply postponed and not cancelled, a fine distinction that allows the item to be brought back at a later time.
"I guess that's only so much poison you can get someone to take," said a city administrator. "With Juliet Garcia going down the whirlpool, Tony and Rose couldn't get the majority of the commission to go down with her."
Political observers say that Martinez and Gowen apparently felt that waiting until after the District 3 city elections Saturday between the mayor's protege Deborah Portillo and local businessman Martin Sarkis might give them the majority they wanted if Portillo gets elected.
Either way, said one, "this shows the chink in the mayor's armor and lets him know few people are willing to go along with his plans to give away the city's assets."
When the item will come up again is anyone's guess. But Martinez and Gowen can be sure that opponents to the giveaway will be waiting for the issue to be brought for a public vote

BISD TO RAISE TAXES, GIVE $25,000 TO UNITED BROWNSVILLE?

By Juan Montoya
Less than two weeks ago, the administration of the Brownsville Independent School District announced it may have to raise the tax rate to fund the debt service portion of its budget in the coming school year.

Chief Financial Officer Ismael Garcia told the board and it was reported in the local daily that BISD has not adequately funded the debt service portion of its tax rate, called the interest and sinking fund tax rate, which depletes the district’s fund balance.

Garcia said that the rate increase is likely to be about 3 cents per $100 when all variables are factored in.

BISD's budget, closing in on a 2013-2014 operating budget of about $515 million, – withe the proposed tax hike, means that a home valued at $100,000 will pay taxes of $1,132, an increase of $40 over the $1,092 due under the current budget.

Now, Miss Wonder Girl trustee Minerva Peña, despite the shortfall in the BISD budge that requires this hike, wants her fellow trustees to go along with her – and board president Enrique Escobedo – and give away $25,000 to the shadow government known as United Brownsville.
Escobedo, by the way, is a voting member of the United Brownsville board. Will he abstain from voting?

The item in the agenda for today's meeting is titled: 16. Discussion, consideration and possible action on United Brownsville Membership Fees (MP, Board Member).

The last time that United Brownsville cam begging the district to give it its taxpayer money was last earlier this year during a meeting in January when trustee Lucy Longoria asked United Brownsville executive director Mike Gonzalez what the group did to educate children, the mission of the school district. Observers remember it well.
"During a meeting we had one trustee asking for more than a simple letter of acknowledgement that it was seeking or receiving a cash donation," said  BISD administration. "That was one of the reasons that the United Brownsville appeal for its annual $25,000 'membership' donation got stalled and pulled from the board's agenda."
Sources tell us that after trustees demanded specifics of what United Brownsville gave in return for them giving the nonprofit cash, its director Mike Gonzalez simply directed the district to the group's website. That website speaks in generalities and lacks specifics that did not tell trustees how many jobs, placements, or higher education opportunities UB afforded BISD students through its annual outlay.
BISD CFO Smiley (Garcia) pulled the item at the last moment before the meeting because the answers did not satisfy the board.
Now are the gremlins are back with a better, more improved justification for the $25,000?

"The district hasn't been able to procure printer toner for all the teachers who need it to make copies for their classroom and the board is being asked to give United Brownsville $25,000 while showing very little in return," the administrator said. "It's not going over well. It'll be interesting to see how the new majority reacts to that request."
We have beaten on this horse before on this blog, and if need be, we'll do it again. United Brownsville was a concoction by manipulators at all levels of Brownsville society to harvest an annual $25,000 donation from the different public entities and boards, among them the City of Brownsville, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, the Brownsville Navigation District, the Brownsville Independent School District, The University of Texas at Brownsville, Texas Southmost College, and the Brownsville Public Utilities Board.
No one elects the members or officer of this "board." They simply appoint themselves or others they feel will toe the line and go along with the program advocated by the likes of officers John Villarreal, IBC President Fred Rusteberg, UTB President Juliet Garcia, Rose Gowen, and other principals in the group.
What does a board made up of self-appointed members and officers have to do with the mission that the voters of the BISD elected its trustee to implement?
BISD Mission Goal Statement
"Brownsville Independent School District, rich in cultural heritage, will produce well-educated graduates who can pursue higher educational opportunities and who will become responsible citizens in a changing global society by utilizing all resources to provide equitable opportunities for students."
Finance Goal
"Develop, maintain, and evaluate a district budget that ensures equitable distribution of funds that supports district initiatives."
Now hat does UB have to do with the BISD's mission?
Board members would do well to assess the goals of the district in these lean economic times and critically decide whether they fit in with the plans these people have for the taxpayers' money.
How can any board member support these two goals by giving $25,000 of its taxpayers dollars to an organization headed by millionaires who do not have to answer to anyone, for whom no one has voted and no one can remove except themselves?
And while we're at it, isn;t this the same Minerva Peña who objected to any district expenditures because – as she is wont to wail – it would "take away from the children\?" What happened to that concern, Minnie?

MARTINEZ, GOWEN GIVEAWAY TO UTB'S GARCIA CONTINUES

By Juan Montoya
Two years ago, University of Texas at Brownsville President Juliet Garcia tried to ram through a new "partnership" agreement that would turn over some $200 million in Texas Southmost College assets (real estate, buildings, bank deposits) to the UT System and make the community college disappear into the bowels of the ravenous UT System.
Were it not for the votes of TSC trustees Trey Mendez, Kiko Rendon Adela Garza and Rene Torres, the community would have no junior college and local students would still be paying the highest tuition rates and students fees in the entire state of Texas.
These four trustees – elected by the residents of the community college district to represent them – told Garcia "no" and the college is well on is way back to provide an affordable, accessible education to local students who can get a technical-vocational certificate or finish their required courses and transfer to a four-year university for higher pursuits without them and their parents going broke.
Today, at 5:30, the City of Brownsville Commission – already committed to deliver 68 acres of publicly-owned real estate to the same UT System for the uses of the university – will discuss handing over the ownership of the hugely successful and attractive One-Stop Service Center at City Plaza to the same university system..
Unfortunately, there are no Mendezes, Garzas, Rendons or Torres to thwart the end-around being performed by Gowen and Martinez to dispossess the citizens of Brownsville of one of their most prized assets.
There is more. We have learned that Mayor Tony Martinez and Commissioner Rose Gowen are pushing for the rest of the commissioners to lease, sell, or transfer title of the City Plaza – at the corner of 11th and Levee streets – to UTB's Garcia for use as an administrative facility.
In other words, the former bank building which was purchased by the city from the same university because its administrators said it didn't suit their needs, might now be handed back to them compliments of Martinez, Gowen, if they can get two other commissioners to go along with their plan.
Already, there are strong rumblings against the plan.
Many see the One-Stop Center as one of the most successful and attractive assets owned and operated by the city. With the mayor and city commission giving the oil-and-gas wealthy UT System its "surplus" acreage for their university, why does the city commission want to give it its most prized asset when the UT System could just as well build its own administrative offices on the fallow land?
There are reports afoot that some administrators have already been told to start packing because they will be expected to make the move to the defunct Casa Del Nylon building which we understand will serve as the new nerve center for city services. The Casa Del Nylon, purchased for $2.3 million from Martinez pal Abraham Golonsky with representation by the mayor's law partner Horacio Barrera through the issuance of $11.3 million in Certificates of Obligation (COs), has no parking. In fact, when it was purchased, the word was that it would be used to build a parking structure to service the Intermodal Terminal traffic.
That has now changed apparently. It's not that UTB has no options. It can simply lease or rent from TSC. But there is bad blood between TSC and Garcia and that apparently has been discarded as an option.
Critics contend that the income generated by the various offices in the One-Stop Cent not only makes it accessible to the people of Brownsville, but also constitutes one of the city's most profitable and successful operations.
"I can guarantee that the income from the rental or lease to UT won't approach the amount of income generated by this attractive jewel of the city," said a downtown real-estate owner. "The city turned over the Capitol Theater Building to UTB for a dollar a year and it's still an eyesore. The place smells like piss and is surrounded by closed stores. What has the university done to improve it? After more than a decade, nothing.
With Martinez and Gowen running interference for Garcia, what will the rest of the city commissioners do?
Will they turn over the most attractive, most efficient city operation so that Garcia will have nice digs?
What say you Ricardo Longoria, John VIllarreal, Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa, Estela Chavez-Vasquez, and , yes, Melissa Zamora, about this?
Zamora, will be out this Saturday after the District 3 election. Will her successor – Martinez's protege Deborah Portillo or local businessman Martin Sarkis – voice an objection to the giveaway?    

A SURVIVOR'S MESSAGE: SHARE LIFE, BE AN ORGAN DONOR

By Raul Perez

Exactly five years ago June 18, I received a kidney transplant. I had been told that without one I would not survive.
My wife Juanita and my sisters Norma Tamez and Gloria Montalvo all proved compatible donors. Gloria volunteered to be a donor. I was blessed and cannot thank all three enough for their willingness to donate one of their kidneys to let me live. I was fortunate to have spent only one year on the waiting list.
The skilled medical staff of the Methodist Specialty Hospital in San Antonio performed the miracle and I cannot thank them enough.
Like me, there are other people waiting for the generosity of a fellow human being – relative or not – who will donate an organ to give someone else the gift of life. I hope that others – like these three wonderful women in my life – will share this priceless gift with their fellow man. Please help them. I encourage you to be an organ donor.

(Raul Perez is a retired firefighter from the City of Brownsville.)

MARTINEZ, GOWEN MOVING FAST ON CITY PLAZA-UTB PROPERTY DEAL

By Juan Montoya
City insiders say that the rumored move by Mayor Tony Martinez and city commissioner Rose Gowen to sell, lease, or transfer title free of charge to the UT System to anchor the university to the downtown area is not only true, but is moving through the rear rooms at city hall in record time.
No sooner had Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed Senate Bill 24 unifying the Edingburg Pan-Am campus with UT-
Brownsville, than the wheels were set in motion by Martinez and his real-estate speculation cadre to to acquire the City Plaza One-Stop Municipal Service Center to the university.
The move has bveen confirmed by some city commissioners, but no one wants to step forward to acknowledge the negotiations with UTB.
In Tuesday's 5:30 p.m. city commission meeting, in an executive session item, there is this description:
A) Discussion pursuant to Section 551.072, of the Texas Government Code regarding real property (A. Martinez, Mayor and Commissioner R. Gowen  20 min.).
Now, notice that it is not an action item, but the upshot of this item in the agenda – in fact, the only onelisted  – indicates that Martinez and Gowen want the rest of the commissioners to approve whatever course Martinez and Gowen may have concocted with UTB.
"I'm hearing that it may be as early as August that they want us out of here," said a city employee who works at City Plaza. "That doesn't give us much time to move everything and have the Case Del Nylon ready for all the departments to move in."
When the Casa Del Nylon was purchased for $2.3 million through the issuance of Certificates of Obligation, city administrators said that the purchase of the structure and the lots around it was made to provide parking for the Inter-modal Terminal at the corners of Madison, Adams and International Blvd. However, now that the university is looking for space on which to build its new facilities, it has targeted City Plaza, apparently with the acquiescence of Martinez and Gowen with the support of a majority of their colleagues on the commission.
Now even that has apparently changed.
"Let's see now," said a longtime city politics observer, "the city bought the City Plaza (Duffey Plaza) from the university because they said that it would not serve the school's needs. Now the mayor and some city commissioners want to move the main income-generating functions of the city to a place where there is no parking and which, in comparison to the City Plaza, is much less impressive to visitors. It's more like bargain basement store front than a municipal building. We're going one step forward and two steps back."
Other observers say that the availability of parking at City PLaza gives the One-Stop Center an advantage in the convenience for city employees and local residents to take care of business all at one time with plenty of parking available for all departments. There is no possible way, the say, for all the amenities to be
Since there is no action item on the agenda, it is probable that commissioners will take action to approve of the deal with the university at a later date. Whether it will be a sale, a lease, trade, or an in-kind gift from the city to UTB, is yet to be seen or decided.

PSEUDOCOP ROBBERS THUMB NOSE AT BOWNTOWN COPS

By Juan Montoya
Even after the word got out on the 14th Street beer joints that armed robbers were strong arming patrons as they left their favorite water hole there, yet another armed robbery occurred over the weekend.
Some workers at local bars say that the latest armed robbery happened near an alley parking lot behind El Capitan and La Catorce Bar and that the victim had just emerged from one of these establishments when he was accosted by three men in a dark pickup truck waving badges and showing off what appeared to be real handguns.
This time the elderly patron was beaten and his wallet ransacked resulting in the theft of some $500.
 Many local business owners and patrons though that the the rash of robberies would taper off after police acquired a photo of a suspect using a stolen credit card from a previous robbery at a local convenience store. However, it appears that although the cops have the image of the suspect, they have been unable to identify him.
In this latest robbery, the suspect was accompanied by two other men, one of whom the victim told said  physically assaulted him to make him give up his wallet.
In the past, the robbers had not assaulted their victims. But now it appears that the same suspects have decided they are free to commit the crimes since the police have not effected one arrest in the cases.
If these crime shad happened anywhere else, there would be police artists' renditions of the suspects from the convenience store video pasted up all over the neighboring business," said a bar manager. "So far, we haven't heard anything from the police on this. If this goes on, these people might end up hurting or even killing someone if he resists."
The modus operandi of the robbers is to waylay bar customers as they get ready to leave, most often as they make their way to their vehicles in badly-lighted parking spaces behind the bars. Then, sporting badges and realistic-looking guns strapped to their waists, they ask the mark for their wallet and identification. The victims are told to get back in their cars and then the "cops" jump into their trucks and leave with their money.
Several victims have later found their empty wallets dumped nearby. In once case, a driver fund a wallet from a victim wedged in the wiper blade compartment between the hood and the windshield.
Brownsville Police Department through their TIPS hotline has not informed anyone of any progress, if any, that has been made in these cases or if they even have a photo of the suspect for help from the public.
"The way it seems," said the bar worker, "is that they figure who cares what happens to the people who frequent these places. I hope someone doesn't get hurt soon if this type of thing continues."

AFTER MR. AMIGO POSTS, A TORRENT OF QUESTIONS

By Juan Montoya
Following the reports that many local residents and even some past and current board members with the Mr. Amigo Association have questioned the extravagant ways of outgoing president Yesenia Patiño and her coterie of friends, revelations contained in the group's income statements for the years 2008 to 2013.
This year the association invited Mexican soap opera (and Televisa star) Eduardo Yanez and reported spending $99,700 of their own cash and received some $20,000 in in-kind contributions from the city (Events Center rental, security, transportation, etc.), not including the 24-7 protective security detail provided by the Brownsville Police Department.
Among some of the expenditures that have raised eyebrows are included $3,016  lkisted as "president's expenses" while on the trip to Mexico City to give Yanez a lavish invite to come during the Charro Days events. We don;t have an itemized invoice for Patiño, but we are told that the expense was racked up to purchase outfits for her and her hubby and kids.
And the short bus ride that took the Mr. Amigo entourage from their hotel in Mexico City to the U.S.  embassy – 15 or 20 minutes away – cost $1,146.
In fact, the reception for Yanez cost $1,429, just $300 more than the short bus ride.
Former Mr. Amigo honorees have been heard to complain that the association does not include an honorarium for the selected guest. In fact, Eugenio Derbez turned down the invite from the group because he wasn't going to spend an entire week hanging out with the Brownsville folks and making no money. He is, after all, a working artist.
Some media people have said that the reason that the last two Mr. Amigo guests were from Televisa was because one of the members on the Mexican side has connections with Televisa Noreste and has been pushing for that network's artists to be showcased by the group.
"Television Azteca also has television stars," said a former El Bravo reporter. "But since there is a Televisa connection there, it seems that only that networks' stars are being invited."
It hasn't been cheap.
Yanez did not want to use a commercial flight to come to Brownsville and had to be flown in a chartered jet here at a cost of $13,218 paid by the organization. The Mr. Amigo Hospitality suite costs another $7,199 and included $586 in basketry, $536 in liquor, and $4,839 in room and food.
But Patiño was not to be outdone by Yanez. The President's Ball and Banquet featured $14,102 in food, $4,000 for music (The TSC mariachi band was free), $3,100 for decorations, and a few more thousand for knick-knacks and this and that to total $30,932 in expenses. Ah, what a night!
And when only some donors were invited to attend some of the group's private bashes, Patiño asked some members to remove the photographs of the events from their FB pages so the small donors would not complain about the snub.
Residents who have seen the Mr. Amigo celebration evolve over the years have complained that the group piggy-backing on Charro Days and SombreroFest annual events and using city resources to promote what has virtually become a private party, are asking whether it's time for the city to rethink its in-kind contributions to this group given the lavish ways of the past presidents, Patiño included.
If the group's stated mission is to foster international friendship, how does partying away for a week with a soap opera star contribute to that aim?
Incoming president Luigi Cristiano and concerned members (and donors) might do well to take a critical look at the group's performance and decide whether it's time to reform its wastrel ways.

WHY DID THE CITY BUY CASA DEL NYLON, AGAIN?

By Juan Montoya

Now that some commissioners have confirmed that the City of Brownsville is negotiating with the UT System to sell, lease, or transfer title of the City Plaza and is contemplating moving the municipal departments there to the empty Casa del Nylon which it purchased for $2.3 million, what happened to the plans to turn it into a parking structure?

When the city commission authorized the issuance $13.06 million Certificates of Obligation, $2.3 million tabbed for the purchase of the Casa del Nylon on 1304 E. Madison and the adjoining building and property next door at 655 E. 14th Street. The $3.2 million price tag for the 52,586 square feet listed on the CO issue amounts to about $44 a foot, an extravagant amount given real estate prices in the surrounding neighborhood.
When commissioner Ricardo Longoria found out about the fatc thaqt Martinez's law partner Horacio Barrera represented the seller in the transaction, he wrote a local blog:
"For the record: I did not know that Abraham Galonsky was represented by Horacio Barrera. The only reason I voted for the acquisition of the property was because of the location and its proximity to the Multimodal BUS Facility and the fact that in the future Galonsky would probably ask for more than what he is right now. "There are many things going on in this city that had not happened in a very long time," Longoria complained. "Many dealings are going on behind closed doors, contracts are being signed by an elected official without the consent of the City Commission or City Manager," he wrote.
There are even more suspect items in the CO issue to be considered Tuesday.
Unable to purchase the property next to the city-owned Cueto Building, Martinez and a majority of the city commissioners agreed to pay $2,500 a month over the next three years, or $90,000 in 36 months. After that, if the seller agrees to sell, he might settle for the appraised value, and pocket the $90,000 which would have the city in effect paying him $90,000 over the appraised value, a sort of subterfuge to get around the law that requires the city to pay only fair market value.
In fact, in the first two years under Martinez, the city has gone on a real-estate buying binge totalling some $3.24 million. Martinez has stated in the past that he planned to entice local property owners to sell the city the and as part of a package convince the University System to remain in the downtown area after the UTB-TSC separation.
Martinez – who urged local voters to believe in him and Imagine Brownsville under his tutelage – has turned out to be adept at spending other people's money like it was other people's money.
Now, some have said that the purpose of this would appear to be to create a land-locked university downtown that has no plan, no backing, and no approvals. Business as usual, right?
Some say this latest move will take the only city facility with adequate parking downtown and rent it to the university that owns nothing and move all the city departments into a converted, low budget department store building that has no parking, but was bought with other people’s money and likely from the reserve funds of the city.
Plus, nobody gets to park at the new university acquisition because to park in a visitor spot, you need a visitor parking pass. Catch-22, but who worries about such things?
This silly turn of events is occurring because the university refuses to rent back the buildings that they built with TSC money (read –property tax revenues) and would seemingly prefer to pay to convert buildings that were constructed for another purpose into university needed floor space as opposed to renting space that was built to their exact specifications in the first place.
We heard, among other things that equally sounded like lies claim that the Casa de Nylon was bought to provide parking for the Multimodal Terminal. If so, where are the wrecking crews to turn it into a parking lot? Perhaps they are just going to cave in the front and make it a one story parking garage, like a down payment on the downtown parking garage we were promised?
It matters not, really. Isn't it time to close the circle on this “deal” and have the city rent the brand new, but now excess floor space from TSC and move the city offices there?
Little in remodeling costs, new clean facilities, parking available, who could say no? The what used to be a university could have the downtown hub, the city departments wouldn’t freak out being shoe-horned into and old department store, the citizens wouldn’t be inconvenienced as badly, either. There would only be one question remaining: Why did the did the mayor really buy that building?

OJOS QUE LLORAN SIN SABER DE MI...

NAMESAKE
By Juan Montoya


And I won't be there
when disconsolate
you'll cry
Because
you pinched your hand
or
playing ball
got hit or hurt
or things just didn't go so well

Or to exult with you in victory
or soothe the agony of your defeats
While others turn and find someone
to share with them their joys
or pains
you'll be alone
I will be gone

Arrows that soar
from miles away
unseeing, find me
In sleep, I dream
of shielding you from all
Instead, I lie awake
and feel you from afar.

FULLER LAWSUIT FALLOUT FROM LOST 2010 BISD ELECTION

By Juan Montoya
On December 1975, the world was stunned when Richard Welch, the CIA station chief was gunned down on the streets of Athens, Greece.
At the time he was blamed by the Left for aiding the ruling military dictatorship. Amidst all the angst that followed, I still remember a statement that succinctly interpreted his assassination.
"You play the game, you take your chances."
And so it was with former Brownsville Independent School District CFO Tony Fuller when the new superintendent Carl Montoya came on board and – finding him wanting in financial adroitness and firmly connected at the waist to losing candidates Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez – placed him on administrative leave and replaced him at his position.
Now Fuller, who was placed in another job at the BISD, wants the district's money for having played the game and lost.
He wants "actual and punitive damages for his claims of injury to reputation and character, lost earnings, and diminished earning capacity, and past and future mental anguish., in addition to attorney and court fees."
Let's rewind the tape a bit.
It's October 2010. In less than a month, it will be election time for the BISD. Zayas and Cortez are reeling from the newspaper ads and campaign literature being spread all over town detailing their gutting the district's fund balance. They had Fuller go to reporter Gary Long, their  mouthpiece at the Brownsville Herald (which by the way published those ads and was provided with documentation) and he willingly sought to be a source for articles to counter the statements of the DefeatZayasCortezandPowers PAC. Those ads charged that the administration of Brett Springston and the majority of the BISD board had been fudging the truth with their interpretation of the budget numbers. Fuller agreed to be the spear carrier for the group.
Long and the Herald published a 50-inch screed that spilled over from a front-page banner headline story onto more than a quarter page on Page 9 with Fuller doing mental gymnastics trying to prove that if you have more expenditures than you have revenues in a budget and had to go to reserves, you couldn't call that a deficit.
Instead, it's called "amounts BISD designated for use from fund balances in each year's budget."
OK.
Let's get this straight. Under financial whiz Fuller;
In 2008-2009, BISD "designated for use from fund balances" $26.542 million.
In 2009-2010, BISD "designated for use from fund balances" $11.436 million.
In 2010-2011, BISD "designated for use from fund balances" $6.511 million.
Now, if you in your household economy were to operate in this fashion, you would have a "shortfall," a "liquidity problem," etc., but heaven forbid that you would call it a household "deficit."
Long, Fuller, Zayas and Cortez seemed to think that by dipping into reserves for three straight year and spending more than the district takes in is perfectly OK, as long as there was water in the well.
Fuller said that it was "incorrect" to characterize the figures as deficits "because by law BISD must operate under a balanced budget. Each year, revenues must match expenditures, so there can be no 'deficit spending."
Is is any wonder that given this proof the voters of the district overwhelmingly ignored the sage advice of this numbers man and opted instead to elect the opponents to his candidates in the election?
And, given the incongruity of Fuller's claims in face of the black-and-white numbers on the record, does he have a leg to stand on when he states that some trustees like Catalina Garcia-Presas and others made comments "publicly casting shadows over (his) as well as inferring acts of dishonesty and incompetency on him."?
And in spite of the fact that Long gave Fuller, Zayas and Cortez reams of copy where they made their case to the reading public, Fuller has the nerve to charge that he "was never provided a meaningful forum to clear his name nor an opportunity to examine his accusers."
The BISD forensic audit charged Fuller "of not possessing the competencies in both faculties and capabilities necessary for the position of CFO."
Zayas and Cortez listened to a self-styled legal guru who was stripped of his law license in Dallas and lost on every count. Every case where he has given advice to these people has been lost or dismissed. Fuller's lawsuit raising the red herring of Presas-Garcia's legal representation and the forensic audit that was performed bears that footprint. Fuller was no financial whiz and the guru has proven to be legal fool.
Zayas realized this and dumped him. He-She turned on him and accused him of corruption.
Why doesn't Fuller just face the naked truth?
You and your political allies played the game and took your chances, Tony. Y'all just happened to lose. Now you want the district's taxpayers you served so badly to give you money.
Verguenza no tienen.

"LA SALUD DE LOS ENFERMOS" WITH A LOCAL TWIST

By Juan Montoya
In Julio Cortazar's short story "La Salud de Los Enfermos" a family finds itself unable to tell a sickly mother that her son – and their relative – had died on his way to work in a neighboring country. Not willing to break the news to the woman and perhaps cause her to become sicker and perhaps die, they hide the truth from her.
Cortazar, the master story teller he was, weaves his tale around the deceit to the point where he has the mother writing letters to her son and – unbeknownst to her – read the return letters written by friends of the family in the distant city who had acquiesced to write them to keep her believing he was still alive. At the end, after the mother died of natural causes without seeing her son, the female relative who was helping to conceal his death, is at a a loss on how to answer the letter from the (dead) son asking about his mother's health. How can he write him to tell her she is dead?
It's not often that one comes face to face with a work of literature being played out in real life.
A variation of Cortazar's tale came alive to me just recently when I ran across a friend of mine whose father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and the doctors conducted exploratory examinations only to find out that the disease had progressed to the point where it was futile to perform surgery.
When he came out of the anesthesia, the patient asked his family how the surgery went. Unwilling to dash his hopes, they decided to tell him it went fine and that in time they hoped he would get better.
Now, my friend, knowing that will never happen, is standing by helplessly as the entire family makes believe for their patriarch's sake that he is going to recover. There's not much he can say. After all he is the father of his wife and the grandfather of their children.
The man will eventually succumb to the terminal disease. There will be medical costs associated with pain mediation and homeopathic remedios that will maintain his hopes alive that he will get better.
But between now and then he can only stand by be a character of the replay of the variation on Cortazar's short story as it unfolds in real life.

MARTINEZ'S PLAN: GIVE CITY PLAZA TO UTB, SHUNT MUNICIPAL COURT, SECRETARY, INSPECTORS TO C DEL NYLON

By Juan Montoya
For the past three weeks city employees at City Plaza on Levee Street have seen a procession of visitors from the UT System and the University of Texas at Brownsville touring the site and examining the premises.
At first they thought it may have been some public relations move by the city commission to showcase the transformation of a commercial building to public use. The city purchased the Duffey Building before it became City Plaza in 2004.
Now we learn that the plan that Mayor Tony Martinez has been nurturing all along was for the city to lease, and then to donate, the City Plaza to the UT System for use of the UT Brownsville. All this was done, say some city insiders, without telling any of the city commissioners or city administration or department heads about it.
"It's the Martinez style of government," said a disgruntled-level staffer. "He wheels and deals behind everyone's back, including the city commissioners, and doesn't tell them anything until he asks for their signature on the dotted line for their approval."
Such, they say, was the way that Martinez has handled the unprecedented binge on real-estate speculation that saw the commissioners give their approval to the $2.3 million purchase of La Casa Del Nylon building and its adjoining properties. Some commissioners complained that Martinez handled it all himself with the assistance of some city administrators and his longtime law partner Horacio Barrera who happened to be good friends with owner Abraham Golonsky. Golonsky has defended the deal saying he had been offered more money before he agreed to sell the former dry-good store to the city.
But others say that by the time the commissioners found out about the deal, tn appraisal had already been performed and the parties had already negotiated a deal.
"All the commissioners were asked was to give their vote and their approval," said the source. "The same thing is happening now. He wants to move out all the city employees and offices now at City Plaza and move them to a remodeled Casa del Nylon."
The building is now empty and stands across Adams Street from the new city bus station (or Multi-Modal Terminal as it is called). It will take thousands of dollars to renovate to bring it up to acceptable standards for a city facility, observers say.
Insiders say that it won;t be long before the item appears on the city agenda for the city to first lease the building to UTB and then find a way to donate it to the university.
"They spent thousands of dollars to remove two escalators from the Duffey Building before it became City Plaza," said one. "Now Martinez wants to give it to Julieta Garcia with UTB."
With a city commission who gives Martinez just about everything that he wants with little or no protest or dissent, it is most likely that he will get his way, they say. A win by his candidate Deborah Portillo, his candidate over Martin Sarkis in the District 3 runoff would only cement his plan, they say.
"No one has spoken out against his plans to engage in real-estate speculation, to issue millions in debt through certificates of obligation, or to approve utility rates to buy a quarter of the Tenaska electric plant," he said. "With another firm vote on the commission, he can do as he pleases and no one can say anything about it. So far no one has."

IN BROWNTOWN IT'S ALWAYS BEEN A MATTER OF PRIORITIES

By Juan Montoya
A few years back I was assigned to be an alternate to an elected official during a meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) as it was considering how to spent federal bucks funneled through the Lower Rio Grande Development Council.
When MPO staffers learned that I would be at the table to decide where the  bucks went, one of them took me aside and told me that there was a chunk of money available but that two proposals were vying for the cash. One of them was the construction of a state-of-the-art shelter for an old cast iron locomotive that had been weathering the elements for decades behind the Ft. Brown Civic Center. The other proposal was for the construction of permanent shelters for bus riders along Military Highway leading to the West End (Las Prietas.)

I voted (as an alternate) for the bus shelters. But the Brownsville Historical Society had lined up the votes and the glass casing for the locomotive won.
Today, hardly anyone stops to see the old locomotive in its impeccable shelter behind Plexiglas next to the Brownsville Historical Museum on Madison Street. And if you read the continual flow of press releases from the Brownsville Urban System, it has been forever on the verge of acquiring money to build bus shelters along the Las Prietas route. Meanwhile, about two decades later, one can still see the elderly and entire families under the merciless sun and the elements as they wait for the bus.
But the locomotive is doing just fine, thank you.
Something similar is happening at this very moment.
The City of Brownsville is submitting a "Substantial Amendment to the 2012-2013 Annual Action Plan" for funds the projects it is proposing for funds it receives from the state under its Community Development Block Grant. The changes should make everyone take notice. Our priorities haven't changed one bit, b'Gawd!
The city has originally announced that it would allot $750,000 for the construction of a Sports Park Community Center on city-owned land in the Southmost area, most likely Gonzalez Park. As you have probably heard, this is a dome-shaped building that doubles as a hurricane shelter and as a sports gymnasium and center when no hurricanes threaten the coast.
It had also allots $107,692 for improvements for the Portway Acres Community Park on Austin Road in front of Perkins Middle School, a worthy project. That park is already in use by a community soccer league and the people in the general area.
Another $150,000 were allotted for the construction of a skate park on Oliveira Park, across the street from Pace High School.
Well, once the initial public hearings were held, city planners found out that there wasn't enough money to fund all the projects and decided to move some of the cash around. Guess what they decided to do?
They decided that – with hurricane season upon us – they would gut the Southmost area hurricane shelter project and dole out $300,000 of those buck to build a newer, better, and improved skate park for the "skating community."
They promised to make the $535,000 they took from Southmost from next year's CDBG budget in October 1. By then, of course, if a hurricane strikes Brownsville, Southmost residents can drive to the dome at Charlie Atkinson's Sports Park off Stillman Road for shelter.
And they moved another $235,308 to make more improvements on the Portway Acres park.
Apparently, the hearing that the planners held in April that included contractors who would ultimately build the facility convinced them that the $150,000 planned for the skating ramps were "dangerous for skaters, as the sub-layers of the ramps can rot and/or become brittle in the heat. Concrete ramps are much stronger and safer. In addition, concrete ramps allow increased "skateable" features that what is offered in pre-fabricated designs" and if built, would end up costing the city more than it was spending.
With the additional $300,000 they took from the Southmost Dome project, the Skate Park will cost $450,000, $107,000 more than the entire budget  for the Portway Acres Park even with the $235,000 infusion from the Southmost project.
Parks and Recreation Director Chris Patterson submitted a letter of support for the "substantial amendment."
The city's planner also justified the "substantial amendment" by stating that part of the reason for the proposed changes in funding was because there had been a "delay in procuring architectural services" for the Southmost Community Service (Dome)."
That is somewhat disingenuous on their part because as we have learned, the state makes prototype architectural designs for these domes available online.
http://intellihub.com/2012/10/16/strange-domes-to-line-the-texas-coast-in-preparation-for-something-to-come/
In fact, there is one being designed as we speak for the Sports Park after the hoity-doity neighbors on Boca Chica objected to such a dome being erected on the First Brownsville Baptist Church property because it would draw "undesirables" to their Rio Viejo neighborhood seeking shelter from the storm in case of a hurricane. Despite the church congregation's willingness to have it built there, planners listened to the silk-stocking crowd and opted to move it miles north to the Sports Park.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/10/new-hurricane-domes-provide-shelter-across-the-globe/
And you dontt have to have all the amenities built into a dome. Without the frills, they cost considerably less than the deluxe models.
But all is not over. There is a 30-day public comment period from Monday, May 26 ending June 26, 2013.
Any instersted party may submit their written comments to Ms. Stephanie Reyes, Director of Grant Management and Community Development Department, Re: Substantial Amendment Public Input, 1034 E. Levee Street, Second Floor, Brownsville, TX 78520. Phone: (956) 548-6167; e-mail: stephanie.reyes@cob.us; fax: (956) 548-6161.
There are also at least two public hearings left where you can attend and make your wishes known, pro or con: The first one was held June 5 at the Brownsville City Commission Meeting held at City Hall; the second one will be held June 18 at 6 p.m. at the Brownsville City Commission Meeting, City Hall, Second Floor, 1001 Elizabeth Street (the old federal courthouse), in commission chambers.
The third, and final one where an action vote will be taken is also in commission chambers at 6 p.m. July 2.
Will history repeat itself?
Will the recreational needs of kids with $250 skateboards (and the contractors) who didn't want a run-of-the-mill skate park worth a measly $150,000 take priority over the lives and safety of poor families – some without transportation – from the Southmost area who need a place close to home to get protection from a hurricane?
Where is City Commissioner Ricardo Longoria when Southmost needs him?
You have a chance to make your voice heard. What will it be?

WIGHTMAN TAKES ROLE OF MR. AMIGO PLUMBER UNIT

By Juan Montoya
The Mr. Amigo Association is apparently under a full-court press damage control after revelations in this blog documented the clubby group's social incestuousness and spendthrift ways funded partially on outlays from public entities and unwary donors, some of who were shunned from high-brow social events open only to court favorites.
Now they have recruited local blogger Bobby Wightman to probe for the supposed mole that made the group's 2008-2012 financial income statement available to El Rrun-Rrun.
Wightman, a relatively recent arrival to our fair burg, immediately brught out his favorite ax to grind and started chopping away indiscriminately and set about to speculate and engage in his favorite past time: conjuring conspiracies.
No, Bobby, it wasn't the guys behind the grassy knoll. And it wasn't until you told your two readers that  former city commission candidate Zeke Silva had been booted out of the group (as had, by the way, Cindy Garcia), that we found out about it. As usual, Wightman put two and two together and came out with five.
Just a bit of journalism protocol for the uninitiated. When someone provides you with information in confidence, they do it with the assurance that the recipient will not divulge the source. To suddenly reveal the source is a non-no of the first magnitude and would have a chilling effect on the flow of information to the public. The recipient would lose all credibility.
Why should the public be made aware of what this "private" association does with its money? First of all, the Mr. Amigo Association has actively solicited (and received) money from taxpayer-funded entities. The fact that it is not a registered nonprofit has apparently not dawned on the public entities giving away the public's money. For example, it get a $10,000 annual donation from the Brownsville Public Utility Board, which is funded by ratepayers from throughout the city. Yet, its board of directors don;t feel they have to account to anyone for the way they spend their money.
The places the association uses to hold their fundraisers (Taste of La Fronters, Bienvenida y Despedida, Presidents Ball and Banquet, etc.) are held in public facilities (the Brownsville Events Center, Ft. Brown Civic Center, etc.) that are paid by the taxpayers and which are provided to the association as in-kind "contributions."
It piggybacks on the Charro Days festivities and parades and SombreroFest because it's much easier to have them gather the crowds than if the association had to do it on its own. That's why they changed their party from October to Charro Days a few years after they tried to do it on their own.
As usual, Wightman commits the novice's mistakes of confusing one character for another. Bobby, it was Joe Lee Rubio, not Silva, if we remember correctly, who has a "criminal Mexican past," who you claim was "hired by Saenz under the guise of community liaison.
"(DA) Saenz needs a professional con man to do his dirty work. This is why Zeke Silva, with a Mexican criminal past significant enough to keep him from running for public office in the United States, was hired by Saenz under the guise of community liaison."
Smells like a defamation lawsuit to me, even if an apology is forthcoming.
Anyway, that's no skin off my nose, although it my be a problem for someone else later on.
The problem with the Mr. Amigo Association has been festering for decades, long before Wightman or even Silva were in the mix.
Now he says that Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos is running interference for him with DA Luis Saenz.  We'll just take that with a grain of salt given the conspiracy theories and wild accusations Wightman has made against practically every pubic official from the lowest school board member to the president of the United States.
Let's see. I knew president-elect Luigi Cristiano when we both announced to run for the Port of Brownsville board of commissioners. I have known Robert Avitia when I worked for the Brownsville Herald as far back as the mid-1970s. And Who doesn't know past president Eliseo Davila, and current members Artemio Alvarez, Rolando Avitia (Robert's brotehr), Sergio Martinez,  Efrain Duran, Cindy Garcia, Nora G. Pompa.  Lucila Hernandez (former Herald colleague), Kevin Isbell (Bingo), Rafael Villalobos, and of course, my good buddy Rick Zayas?
Cindy Garcia, by the way, was held responsible for not being able to procure free performances by Jimmy Gonzales, of Super Grupo Mazz, by some executive board members. Jimmy went on to donate his performances to other groups and the Mr. Amigo crowd was miffed. Out went Garcia.
Everyone who knows Bob Torres Sr., Rachel Torres and Bobby Torres Jr. knows they are very upset about this latest turn of events concerning the organization they know and love. Eddie Hernandez Sr. (finance director of PUB) does the books. He and Lucila Hernandez were highly instrumental in acquiring the $10,000 donation from PUB. It is no secret Eddie Sr. and Eddie Jr don't like the way the organization has been run under outgoing president Yesenia or Sylvia Perez. Eddie Jr. is the customer service manager for PUB. Both he and his Dad are past presidents. Lucy Rodriguez is a current board member and also HR manager for PUB. Patiño has even wore out her welcome with affable Ralph Cowen, Brownsville's Ambassador of Goodwill and Port of Brownsville commissioner, who felt obliged to go along with her because he travels for free to Mexico. Still, Patiño baked in the glory and many felt Cowen was given short shrift when time came to extend members' contributions and give them the recognition for their efforts.
Want more suspects Mr. Plumber?
Eliseo Davil, also a past president, felt he got shafted with his pictures from Patiño after he gave her 1,200 pictures paid by the association to her when she was past president. Former U.S. Customs Director Jorge Flores, also a past president and a good friend, felt that he had been bad mouthed by Sylvia Perez when he complained of her manipulation of the board. How about past member Sergio Martinez, the UTB administrator who was upset that he wasn't elected on the executive board by Patiño even after he went with her and ran interference for her with UTB?
Kevin Isbell, from Bingo, is upset the association hasn't acquired the nonprofit status it promised as he has given donations for the last 15 years. It would not do for the IRS to audit those donations, would it? He was thrown a bone and made a member of the executive board to placate his mutterings and to have him continue to give Mr. Amigo thousands in donations.
Numerous past – and current – board members are very upset at what they see as Patiño and Perez's Patino outright abuse of power, almost bankrupting the association, and their total lack of respect for board members.
Now that the public has been made aware that the group has engaged in elitist "let them eat cake" politics to make themselves look good, the source of our information could be any or all of those who have been (and are)  involved in trying to reform this bunch.
(Clue: Without revealing our source, it is a current member or donor of the Mr. Amigo Association. Sniff them out Bobby.)

VOTING IN DISTRICT 3; INDEPENDENCE OR A POLICE STATE?

By Juan Montoya
Ask the average Brownsville resident is there's an election going on and you'll probably get a blank stare.
The runoff election for District 3 on the Brownsville City Commission kicked off yesterday and will continue until June 18, next Tuesday. Election day at the district's precincts is Saturday June 22.
United Brownsville protege Deborah Portillo is facing challenger Martin Sarkis for the spot.
Normally, a single district race would be inconsequential, but given the near-hegemony that Mayor Tony Martinez exercises on the pliant city commissioners, this election might be more important than people think.
On the commission now are Martinez drones Rose Gowen, John Villarreal, Estela Chavez-Vasquez, Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa, Ricardo Longoria, and outgoing District 3 commissioner Melissa Zamora.
Not one of these commissioners has been able to effectively present any opposition to Martinez's autocratic manner of governing, although it is well known that Longoria, Tetreau-Kalifa and even Villarreal at times have chafed under his rule. With a potential fourth vote in Sarkis, will they gather the courage to break the Martinez shackles?
Now, with Martinez clone and protege  Portillo running as the mayor's hand-picked candidate for District 3 against outsider Sarkis, this election takes on more importance to those who question the wisdom of Hizzoner's one-man rule.
Martinez, for example, reneged on his half-promise that he would liberate the people's airwaves and turn aside the gag on public comments on the city's cable channel. Once inside, he decided the gag was just fine. He used the justification of his ethics-challenged contract attorney Mark Sossi as the basis for his decision that someone might sue the city for the public commenter's statements. Ever hear of a priori censorship, Mark?
And in this past election John Villarreal sicced the local police, fire department and health inspectors against the supporters of Letty Perez-Garzoria and Sarkis by reporter her BBQ fundraiser and by removing their supporters from the sidewalk in front of early voting site of the Central Boulevard Library. Yesterday, Portillo's political campaign workers were on the library side and Sarkis' supporters with their signs were across the street. Talk about the chilling effect on the right of expression.
And Martinez has not made it a secret that he favors privatizing the operations of the Brownsville Public Utility Board and other city departments such as Public Works and others. We know he has already hired consultants from outside the state to tell him how to do it. Imagine, he' using the people's money to implement a program that will put them – taxpayers who own homes and sent their children to local schools – out of work. Has he asked them what they think of his plans? Does Portillo care what Martinez is doing?
So far, Portillo has not uttered one word on whether she will dissent from her former boss's style of governance. Will she go along with his style of presenting the rest of the commissioners with fait accompli projects like the massive multi-million speculation on downtown real-estate using millions in future debt (certificates of obligation) without going to the public for its approval?
Will she also go along with the encumbering of the city and PUB into a partnership with private energy company Tenaska that already cost the utility a downgrade in $425 million of it bonds from "stable" to "negative" without a peep like the rest of the commission?
Before the grand announcement of that "deal," the city commission had approved the hefty increase in rates for the next six years to pay for the Tenaska project without the city telling everyone what the increases were for.
Requests for specific obligations of the city and the energy company, tax abatements, incentives, etc., were not forthcoming to those who asked. Instead, the requests for information were contested before the Texas Attorney General and the AG accommodated the city and Tenaska by ruling that the deal was "competitive" in nature and the information on what encumbrances the citizens incurred under the "deal" could be withheld.
Why is it competitive since the deal had already been reached? No one else was in the running as far as we know. In other words, it was a deal that was reached behind closed doors between the city and a private energy company and they didn't want to know, or didn't care what the people who would eventually pay for it had to say.
Does the term taxation without representation have a familiar ring?
Portillo's newspaper ad on Monday – when early voting began – recycled an endorsement by the Brownsville Police Officers' Association PAC for her candidacy. The PAC said Portillo's "honesty and ideas for moving the city forward" set her apart from other candidates.
What, pray tell, are those "ideas" if not a rehash of the flowery, self-righteous drivel spewed by United Brownsville – her former employer – to dazzle the peasants of Brownsville into acquiescing to accept the rule of puppeteers pulling the strings that loosen the City of Brownsville treasury without having to account to anyone and dipping their grimy paws into the public's  pocket?
There were only 80 votes cast in the election yesterday at the Central Library site, the busiest of the two. And with politiqueras effectively staying away from this election after the Margarita Ozuna scare, every vote is important and could prove the crucial difference in this race.
If only for the sake of having one voice dissenting and speaking out for the rest of us, we go with Sarkis.

A REAL CENTURY PLANT, OR A FLOWERING SPANISH DAGGER?

By Juan Montoya
A friend of mine and I – neither of whom are botanists – have been trying to find what the name of this plant that suddenly sprouted a stalk and began to bloom in his back yard could be. It's going on 20 feet high and growing.
For years all that showed above the ground were the bright green (yellow?) spears bordered by a dark green. I've heard of the century plants that are supposed to grow this stalk every 100 years (or so the myth goes), but he insists it's just a blooming spanish dagger variety.
The "blooms," is they can be called blooms, are rather like aggregates of small bulbs with red pistils as far as we can tell from the ground. We're sure that there are others like it in someone else's yard who could tell us exactly what variety of plant this is. Does anyone know? And what happens after it blooms? Does it shrivel up or continue to grow?

CHEESEBURGER AND FRIES, EASY ON THE MEESES

By Juan Montoya
Some visitors to the Gladys Porter Zoo this weekend who decided to have a burger and coke at the palapa-like food concession immediately to the right (The Asian Grille?) after you get in the gate and in front of the Komodo Dragon exhibit got to see more wildlife than they bargained for.
They said that after they received their order of burger and fries they heard a scurrying noise around the tables and were aghast to see numerous mice darting in and around the tables looking for food scraps. Disgusted, they were even more reluctant to touch their food when they saw numerous rodents climbing on the branches of nearby trees.
"There were lots of small mice, not rats, but lots of little mice running around the hamburger stand," said one of the visitors. "We were disgusted and threw away our food. It was awful."
It's no secret that local animals are attracted to the food served the animals in the zoo as can be witnesses by thousands upon thousands of blackbirds that congregate on the power lines around the zoo at suppertime. But the mice crawling around the hamburger stand left some of the visitors disconcerted.
"I know the City of Brownsville just closed down a couple of restaurants because they had problems with rodents," said one of the visitors. "But the zoo has a lot of people working there getting paid well and getting city contributions. Someone should do something about this problem. We knew the gorilla had died, but we didn't know they had so many mice in that place.

LINDA AND ERIN'S WEDDING-BELLS GRAVY CATFIGHT

Justice of the Peace - Marriage License Report

Office of Joe G. Rivera

County Clerk

Cameron County, Texas

Justice of the Peace                                        2012             2013
Cascos, Carlos County Judge                         7                      2

Ochoa, Bennie III, Pct. 1                               102                   38

Salazar, Linda, Pct. 2 PL. 1                         584                    237

Hodge, Kip Van Johnson Pct. 2 PL. 2        387                    N/A

Garcia, Erin H., Pct. 2 PL. 2                         25                    145

Flores, Manuel Jr., Pct. 3 PL. 1                         31                   50

Sanchez, Julian Jr., Pct. 3 PL. 1                          43                  N/A

Garza, David, Pct. 3 PL. 2                                102                  58

Mendoza, Juan Jr., Pct. 4                                  119                  40

Gonzales, Sally, Pct 5 PL. 1                              122                   65

Cano, Eloy Jr., Pct. 5 PL. 2                                98                    39

Trejo, Mike, Pct. 5 PL. 3                                  N/A                   13

Gonzales, Adam, Pct. 7 PL. 1                             40                   N/A

TOTAL                                                          1,660                 687

By Juan Montoya
Take a gander at the numbers above released by the office of Cameron County Clerk Joe Rivera.
What jumps at you almost immediately is the fact that of the 1,660 weddings performed in 2012 by the 11 justices of the peace in Cameron County last year, 584 – more than one-third, actually 35.18 percent – were performed by one judge; Linda Salazar.
Now, the county judge can also perform weddings, but they are far and in between and wew understand Cascos doesn't charge his friends.
But if you take a look at the statistics for this year, 2013, you can see that Linda is at the head of the pack maintaining a blistering 34 percent pace with 337 weddings of the 687 reported so far.
Now, do the math.
For 2012, At an average of $200 a shot per wedding (584) that goes directly to the pocket of the particular JP who performs the weddings, that means that Linda pocketed a cool $110,000 last year on wedding ceremonies alone. This is being conservative because we are giving her credit for performing, say 34, perfunctory complimentary ceremonies for political friends or relatives of friends of friends.
At the pace she is going today, she has racked up at least $47,000 for the 237 weddings on record so far.
Her closest competitor last year was – believe it or not chingado calladito – Kip Van Johnson Hodge, who served as interim JP until Erin Garcia Hernandez won election for that office in a runoff with Yolanda Begum. Our little Kip performed 387 weddings last year before Erin took over in December. That amounted to $77,400 and we know that dour Hodge is loath to give up anything for free.
But his successor – Erin Garcia Hernandez – is proving to be a quick study and Linda must feel hear the wedding bells ringing behind her. While Linda's 237 has her far ahead of the pack for 2013, Erin isn't lagging far behind with 145 so far. That's a cool $29,000 for little Erin. And guess what? That equals exactly to 21 percent of the weddings in the county, the same percentage that Kip was making in 2012 before he had to leave. Who needs a law degree for this, anyway?
There are many ways to play the Wedding Bells Game, and Linda is a star at it. We remember getting a photo of one of her clerks who she had posted in the corridor next to the County Clerk's window to steer couples to her office. Now we understand that Erin is being shortchanged in her share of $200 nuptial gravy. Anyone want to bet who wins at the end of the year? I got $200 on Linda.
Someone told us that JPs prefer to be paid in cash so they won't leave a paper trail for the IRS to sniff around. We wonder, in addition to the $40,000-some that the JPs pick up as salary, do they also report the income from the weddings on their annual income tax reports?

LET THE CHILDREN PLAY BY THE RULES, CHARLIE

By Juan Montoya
Last Wednesday was a day that local organizers of the East Brownsville girl's Little League would rather forget.
It was the day of the All-Star tryouts and the players and their parents had been told  in advance that if they didn't show up for tryouts then, they would not be considered for inclusion on the team. Ah, but the organizers and coaches weren't thinking that among some of the parents would be included a bull in a china shop in the person of former city commissioner and BISD coach Charlie Atkinson.
Charlie has a daughter who plays ball and her prior commitments didn't allow her to make the tryouts. That is, until Dad got personally involved and causes a ruckus with the coaching staff.
Charlie showed up and insisted his daughter be allowed to play, and for good measure, he produced a video camera and threatened them that he would film them denying him his special treatment or he would send the tape to Waco, the league's headquarters.
We're sure that this little lesson in life will not be lost on the young Atkinson, or on the organizers of the team. It's called throwing tour weight around and getting things done your way because of who you are.
And they say baseball doesn''t teach you about life.

CHILTON, HERALD, CONTINUE TO PUSH THE GORGAS BIG LIE

By Juan Montoya
Here we go again.
Frank Yturria calls his book about Don Francisco Yturria "The Patriarch" even though he knows that the original Yturria and his wife were never able to conceive children.
Today's Yturrias are the offspring of a second child that the couple adopted after paying his mother compensation. A first adopted child died.
How Frank could have conceived of the title "The Patriarch" for a man who had no blood children has never been questioned by those fawning over this millionaire pillar of the community.
Carl Chilton, too, has single-handedly taken over the task of glorifying local families and personages that are obliquely related to progress in South Texas. He, as did other local historians like the late Bruce Aiken, has made it his life's work to mythologize pedestrian characters that slinked their way through our historical panorama and explode their achievement way out of proportion.
Whether it's Charles Stillman, Richard King, Mifflin Kenedy, or other early Robber Barons, if we believe this coffee-table historians, they walked on water and gave alms to the poor.
I don't know how many times we have called on local writers and the local daily to stop propagating myths that make their way to the news columns of the newspaper where they are taken as truth. Perpetrating these fibs is not only intellectually dishonest, it also keep the population in ignorance of the real truth.
In today's (June 9) Brownsville Herald, Chilton once again weasel-words his historical column to say this:
"In 1883,a young Army medical officer, William Crawford Gorgas, arrived at Ft. Brown, where he encountered yellow fever for the first time. The cause of the disease was not known. Gorgas treated his patients with whiskey, brandy, and mustard seed. He studied the disease and began research which several years later led to the discovery that yellow fever was carried by the mosquito."
Now, notice that Chilton doesn't say that Gorgas discovered that mosquitoes were the carriers. Instead, he says that Gorgas' research "led to the discovery" several years later.
It is a lie.
Chilton knows it. The medical community know it. And the editors of the newspaper should also know it.
Why are they allowing this drivel to pass off as history? Why is that Big Lie still etched in the granite marker in front of the Arnulfo Oliveira Student Union Center at Texas Southmost College? Why is the Gorgas Society at the college still permitted to repeat these ignorant statements?
The real discoverer that the disease was carried by mosquitoes was Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay, a Cuban, or to be more PC, an Hispanic.
His discovery led researchers like Walter Reed and other leading medical investigators of the time to re-examine their thinking and consider Finlay's meticulous research.
The Philip S. Hench Yellow Fever Collection web page states that:

"For twenty years of his professional life, renowned Cuban physician and scientist Carlos J. Finlay stood at the center of a vigorously debated medical controversy. The etiology of yellow fever – its causes and origins – had puzzled medical practitioners since the earliest recorded cases of the disease in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Periodic epidemics of yellow fever ravaged the population of Finlay's native Cuba, particularly affecting the citizens of Havana, where he set up a medical practice in 1864. Finlay was intensely interested in epidemiology and public health, and his initial work on cholera – the result of a severe outbreak of the disease in Havana in 1867 – challenged the perceived wisdom of medical authorities.

His conclusion that the disease was waterborne, though later verified, was rejected by publishers at the time. Finlay soon afterwards began research on yellow fever, publishing his first paper on it in 1872. Here the same keen observations and logical deductions which informed his analysis of cholera lead him to propose in 1881 that the Culex mosquito be "hypothetically considered as the agent of transmission of yellow fever."

(By the way, Gorgas received a medical degree from New York's Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1876 and joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps in 1880, eight years after Finlay published his first research paper on yellow fever linking mosquitoes to the transmission of the disease. He didn't get to Ft. Brown until 1882 and stayed until 1884.)
When the Walter Reed Yellow Fever Commission decided to test the mosquito theory, Finlay provided the mosquitoes, and with the Commission's first scientifically valid success, Walter Reed wrote triumphantly, "The case is a beautiful one, and will be seen by the Board of Havana Experts, today, all of whom, except Finlay, consider the theory a wild one!"
The full run of experiments at Camp Lazear vindicated Finlay's two-decade-long struggle. In the glow of that early success, Reed acknowledged that "it was Finlay's theory, and he deserves much for having suggested it."
Gorgas, who later applied the results of the experiments to a public health campaign which made possible the construction of the Panama Canal, characterized Finlay's contribution in this way: "His reasoning for selecting the Stegomyia as the bearer of yellow fever is the best piece of logical reasoning that can be found in medicine anywhere."

NOW A WORD FROM ERASMO ZEUS IN MOUNT AUSTIN

By Juan Montoya
I hate to break the news to you, my faithful three readers, but you are reading a non-existent blog.
That goes for those other three readers who may peruse Jerry McHale's Brownsville Blues, Jim Barton's Mean Mister Brownsville, Bobby Wightman's Brownsville Voice or even, errant Hill Country blogger DPM in Dos Frias.
According to cybercon Erasmo Castro, the self-proclaimed Head Cheez of Brownsville Cheezmeh, his and only his is the True Voice of Brownsville, irrespective of the fact that his nonprofit "grassroots" organization Bringing Brownsville Change is listed as having Erasmo Castro as its head on the required Texas Ethic Commission reports he must submit to the state.
He lists his home in an apartmetn complex in Austin, Texas, where – as the Greek gods did from Olympus – reigns and rules and issues edicts to his dwindling Kool Aid drinkers.

http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/campaign-finance/filer/00067425-bringing-brownsville-change/

We now understand that there has been a complaint against that little moneymaker with the TEC. Erasmo, who piosts the office of the nonprofit at his family's notary public office on Madison Street, also lists himself as treasurer and lists an Autin address. (Click link on "View Filings with the Texas Ethics Commission website" on site above.)

It's blatantly apparent that Le Gran Fromage is polishing up his cult for the upcoming elections and those next year. The core of his group fled from his grasp en masse when it became apparent that it did not turn out to be a progressive community voice for change as advertised, but rather could – and did – reach an accommodation with the notorious Hernandez vote harvesting machine, turning a blind eye to the brazen abuse of the captive elderly in day cares and the Brownsville Housing Authority High Rise which Norma Hernandez and her minions consider their personal domain. They suck votes from the unwary elderly tenants there as if it was their personal ATM.

We have in these cyberpages documented the trials and tribulations of the Castros in Brownsville, and of Erasmo in particular, ranging from his conviction in forging a clearance from the Brownsville Police Department to retrieve a BMW from a local impound lot to getting named in federal lawsuits alleging that they ran their notary public service as a continuing criminal enterprise (RICO).

Throughout all this, the "Head Cheez" has maintained a nonchalant attitude, interspersing facile pseudo christian sayings to cover his true designs: to flees the unwary and to paint himself as a purveyor of peace and culture.

Others have pointed out that Castro's group and His Holiness the Head Cheeze have fared dismally on the local political scorecard. Not only is their influence on local political stock minimal, but it has actually become a detriment to those who heed the Erasmo's sermon from the Mount in Austin.

Buyer Beware.     

FROM THE ASHES OF A DISASTER: ARTEOLOGY BY PACE GRAD

By Juan Montoya
Remember the Hill Country fires that burned down people's homes, investments and dreams in a blazing inferno?

Well, out of the ashes, a former Pace High School graduate has crated an art form. It's called Arteology, an is defined by her as "the creation and thought-provoking works from the material remains of artifacts dug up from the rubble left after a disaster.
She named the work on the left "Fistful" and is composed of kitchen utensils she found in the rubble that used to be her home.
That artist in Maria Hohenstein, Ed.D, who in 2011 lost her home in the Bastrop Complex. As is usually the case, her art was created out of necessity.  She created her first piece after after sorting through broken glass, fractured ceramic and rusted metal in order to preserve memories.
"Once they were lost, but now they are found," she said. These objects that contain the memories of a homestead with all its accompanying memory and remembrance have become an obsession with her that has resulted in scores of works.
Her works of art take the material remains of ordinary artifacts and breathe new life, grant dignity, and assign added value to found objects. Dubbed "Arteology," the technique she created involves taking three-dimensional found objects and placing them in a two-dimensional
setting. All materials used, including frames, have been reclaimed, reused, and upcycled.The work on the right is called "Precariously Perched."
She's been an award-winning participant in Bastrop's First Friday and has shown in Art on the Green and at the Bastrop Art Gallery. Her work is currently displayed at the Arts Connection Gallery. Maria resides in Bastrop and has lived in Brownsville, Austin, San
Antonio, Corpus Christi, Sioux City lA, and Cupertino CA.
A Trinity and Baylor grad, she is currently an Associate Superintendent for Area 2 in the Austin ISD.
If you're in Austin this weekend, make sure you go the the wildly popular Heart of Texas Green Expo at 1408 Chestnut Street, Bastrop, Texas. The show will be from Saturday, June through Sunday, June 9, from 10 a.m. through 5 p.m.
If you go, say hello to my little sister.