By Juan Montoya
After getting a good old fashioned cuff behind the ears for excluding t
he people from the process of implementing a shadow government to oversee the vision of what their city should look like in the next decade, local banker Fred Rusteberg and his cronies are ready to compromise.
he people from the process of implementing a shadow government to oversee the vision of what their city should look like in the next decade, local banker Fred Rusteberg and his cronies are ready to compromise.Well, sort of.
Our sources indicate that negative public perception of stories appearing in the Brownsville Herald under Emma Perez-Treviño's byline and in blogs that showed the so-called Comprehensive Planning and Coordination Board was meeting behind closed doors and out of the public eye, has prompted some members of the committee to approach journalists to attend their meetings.
However, we understand that these entreaties have been met with firm responses that unless the public is allowed to attend these meetings where the future of its city is to be decided, media types aren't willing to compromise the people's right to know.
"They want the newspaper people to attend, but they don't want the public at large to have any say so or sit in on the process where the leadership of the CPCB is to be chosen," they say.
The CPCB is the creation of local banker Fred Rusteberg.
It is the crown diamond of the $900,000 Imagine Brownsville pipe dream that was paid for by the people of the City of Brownsville in the waning days of former Mayor Eddie Treviño's term.
It is the crown diamond of the $900,000 Imagine Brownsville pipe dream that was paid for by the people of the City of Brownsville in the waning days of former Mayor Eddie Treviño's term.
Its draft budget calls for $381,000, of which $206,000 would be in in-kind services that participating entities would provide, including $85,000 for an executive director.
The plan also calls for each of the seven participating entity to chip in $25,000 each to fund Imagine Brownsville's staff and projects for a yearly total of $175,000.
Additionally, Mayor Pat Ahumada said the bill should include another $800,000 already spent in city services and staff time.
The plan also calls for each of the seven participating entity to chip in $25,000 each to fund Imagine Brownsville's staff and projects for a yearly total of $175,000.
Additionally, Mayor Pat Ahumada said the bill should include another $800,000 already spent in city services and staff time.
"It's basically a group that has no transparency and is asking the public to fund it without accountability to anyone," he said.
Already, four entities have approved a so-called "Memorandum of Understanding" where they agreed to fund its operations for at least the first budget year. But as public criticism of Rusteberg's secret planning grows, the board members apparently felt that they had to quell the rising tide of criticism of its secret proceedings.
"It's stung them," said one source. "Now they're looking for a way to appease the public."
4 comments:
Juan who voted for this on the city commision
www.carebrownsville.org
everyone but ahumada.
...was "part of" Imagine Brownsville for several meetings, and then quit! Felt like school drills, with the answers already known; I NEVER felt that Imagine Brownsville made an effort to TRULY involve the various demographics of the city; what's more, similar surveys had already been done; finally, Imagine's silence on the West Loop Porkway is appalling; same for its silence on opening the weekend-closed public-school playgrounds and fields .... Quite a week plus it has been for various heaps on arrogance dropped on the populace ..., though to be fair, does the populace care ...?
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