CHINKS SHOW IN THE ARMOR OF THE MACHINE

By Juan Montoya

They're listening.

After the public outcry against the expenditure of $640,000 for a mural that would be paid by the $68 million bond issue approved by TSC voters for facilities construction, UTB-TSC president Juliet V. Garcia backpedalled and said her board will seek private donations to fund the project.

And up north toward FM 802, Fred Rusteberg and his Imagine Brownsville cohorts felt the heat for discussing public issues behind doors closed to the people, and extended an invitation – and an olive branch – to local media representatives with an invitation to attend and represent the unwashed masses.

To their credit, the media types said "no." But, undeterred, Rusteberg and company continue to implement their plan of control with the help of their bought-and-paid-for flunkies on the different public boards.

Aside from representing the silk-stocking gentry, there is another characteristic shared by both Rusteberg and Garcia: they both want to use the public's money for their grandiose dreams of total control.

And it wasn't until they felt the heat from the people that they realized that they had underestimated the latent resistance in the local population. In Rusteberg's case, he had envisioned a shadow group of political appointees and business cronies implementing a wish list put together by his hand-picked consultants paid $900,000 by the taxpayers of the City of Brownsville.

All was going well until someone questioned why a group elected by no one was meeting behind closed doors to form a coordinating committee that would dictate the direction of the city for the next 10 years.

Nonetheless, Rusteberg and his paid hacks have convinced the city, PUB, BISD, GBIC and a few others to chip in $25,000 each to fund them for this year. If they have their way, seven entities will chip in $25,000 each year for the next decade to keep this plan alive. Without the public funding, the so-called "coordinating committee" would not operate.

When Rusteberg went before the Brownsville Navigation District's board of directors, he painted the committee in a "regional" light. Think region, was the mantra there.

But when he went before the city, it was a "citywide" approach.

This reminded some local observers to say that what Rusteberg and the Imagine Brownsville crowd was doing was "vendiendo gato por liebre." That is, they were selling the same animal with different stripes at each stop.

"And nowhere in this plan is there a role for community-based groups like Valley Interfaith, or for that matter, the Cameron County Workforce," said a critic. "Valley Interfaith has earned itself a place at any table that seeks to improve the socioeconomic and political condition of the majority of the people here. And without the representation of the Workforce to insure that retraining and employment take a high priority, it'll be more of the same economic development approach that Rusteberg and his fellows have implemented and got us where we are right now."

Garcia and Rusteberg will plow ahead with their schemes unless the public demands that they be held accountable. This recent demonstration on their part that they, indeed, have felt the heat, is an encouraging sign. Let's not stop.