AT LINCOLN PARK HEARING, A NEW VERSION OF EVENTS

By Juan Montoya
We all thought that we were going to attend a hearing for a motion brought by Luis Saenz asking for a Temporary Restraining Order before 138th District Court Judge Arturo Nelson on the sale of Lincoln Park to the University of Texas System.
Then city contract attorney Mark Sossi said there was no sale the city has not agreed to sell the park yet.
He also contended that City Commissioner Rose Gowen – director of the UT Health research clinic – is not a UT System employee and that her vote in favor of going though with the sale did not constitute a conflict of interest on her part.

Instead, what we heard was Sossi informing the court that the city has not decided whether it's going to sell the 48-acre park to the UT System for $6.5 million so that the amenities there can be moved to a new location directly across from the sewage treatment plant across the expressway.
"They jumped ahead of the game," Sossi argued before Nelson against the granting of the TRO.
Sossi argued that there were still many things to be considered before the city commission actually takes a vote on whether to sell the park to the UT System such as the cost of relocation of the assets, expenditures of funds, and the city staff to come back to the commission on what the final price would be.
"A TRO cannot be based on speculation," Sossi said. "It's a little more complex that that."
Sossi and Texas Attorney General attorney William Deane confronted Michael Cowen – Saenz's legal representative in his  motion made as a private citizen – saying that the resolution passed by the commissioners only authorized the city's staff to negotiate with the UT System and bring back the results to the commissioners.
That would probably be a surprise to the UT System Regents who approved the “bargain purchase” of the land during their regular meeting Nov. 5.
On  Nov. 4, one day before, the city commission had passed the resolution on a 4-3 vote. Gowen, one of four commissioners who were present at the public hearing at Gonzalez Park voted to go forward with the sale.
Even the fact that Gowen is employed by the UT System was being contested by Sossi and Deane.
Cowen argued that Gowen – as the medical director of a UT Health research clinic in Brownsville – should not have voted on the issue. Gowen submitted a disclosure with the City Secretary on November 13, nine days after her vote. She stipulated on the disclosure form that she got more than 10 percent of her income from her employment with the UT System.
Sossi claimed that the UT research clinic where Gowen is employed falls under UT-Houston, and not under UTRGV or UT-Austin.
"She is employed by UT-Houston, not UT-Brownsville or the Regents," he argued. "They sued the wrong entity. They are an entirely different entity."
Cowen countered that all the UT System campuses and facilities fall under the UT Regents, effectively making it one entity.
The suit also questions the city’s findings to satisfy the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code before giving away parkland and questions the sale of land below fair-market value without an election.
"You have to have an election to sell it," Cowen said.

An appraisal by the UT System shows the land is worth at least $8.8 million with other private appraisals suggesting the land is worth in the neighborhood of $11 million. Former mayor Pat Ahuamda, who performed his own appraisal, said that recent comparable sales of land showed the park should fetch approximately $230,000 an acre and – after adjustments for size and location and what the market will bear – arrived at the $11 million figure.
Deane and Sossi sought to attack the methodology of Ahumada's appraisal, only to be countered by the former mayor. The two city's attorneys charged that his comparables – some of which were located on the expressway frontage road and in different parts of the city – were not credible comparisons. They objected to Cowen introducing him as an expert witness for property appraisals.
"Have you ever appraised a city park?" Deane asked.
Ahuamda replied that he had appraised the land only, not as a park, but as real estate that a buyer and seller could negotiate given the market conditions, the location and the size of the property.
"I don't appraise parks," he said. "I appraise land. The buyer or investor can put anything he wants in there, from apartments, or a business, or even a university. This is a very unique property. It is a wildlife corridor, access is very good, it has baseball fields and an education building. It is a beautiful park."
Nelson said he would take the exhibits and testimony into consideration and said he would consider Cowen's request that the sale of the park not be allowed to occur until the lawsuit filed by Saenz concludes. He promised to have an answer by tomorrow – Thursday – Nov. 20.
 After the hearing, some in the audience questioned the city's tactic of objecting to the property prices compared by Ahumada in his appraisal.
"When the commissioners decided to pay Abraham Galonsky $2.3 million for La Casa Del Nylon with only half a city block and a shell of a building, the appraisal they used included properties from as far away from the site as Alton Gloor, Price Road, and the frontage road that they are objecting to now," said one. "Talk about a double standard."