PAT GOES BALLISTIC ON ARGIE

By Pat Ahumada

Mayor, City of Brownsville

To: Argelia Miller

Dear Argelia,
Having the utmost respect for you, it disappoints me that you would write a ‘My Turn’ letter without getting your facts straight and in some instances what you pointed out is very petty. Obviously you are misinformed and you are not a Team Player.

As part of a team you have the right to disagree, but one must do so based on facts, not emotions, and not based on what someone tells you without checking it out.
Unfortunately I will be using my very valuable time to respond to a letter that will be exposed as coming from someone who is totally misinformed and sadly not credible. Instead of using my time to rest or do something productive, I have to respond to a ridiculous and misleading letter printed in the paper.

Had you taken the time to get the facts, you would have been ashamed to make the statements you have made in the paper, thus creating damage through misinformation. Either you seek attention or just do not understand the city as a whole, or the issues facing our city are too complex for you to understand. Perhaps those who are now laughing at you for being so gullible are using you.
I will take the time to get all the facts and respond one by one to expose the pettiness or the misinformed perception you have just tried to create against your own team.

You deserve a mayor like Eddie Trevino who did nothing other than leave a financial mess, cut a sweetheart deal for “Imagine Brownsville” and many other self-serving things that adversely impacted our city that we are still having to deal with today.

You deserve commissioners like Atkinson who raise your utility rates to balance the budget. It does no good for me to fight hard for you because you then turn around and use incorrect information or leave out pertinent information to create a false perception by writing a letter and speaking as if you were well informed and with authority. For example:
1) I opposed the $2.5 million grant from PUB and last year’s $3.0 million grant when the city demonstrated it had no plan to correct the shortfall budget problems I inherited. Next year the financial hole will be bigger and they will need another grant and again raise your utility rates and force PUB to cut back on projects, which hurts both the city and PUB. Just the 5% utility rate increase for this year by the commission will be more than the proposed $0.03 tax increase I proposed.

For the average household the 3 cents represents a $24.00 annual increase on property taxes, while the 5% utility rate increase alone on a $200 electric bill translates to $10.00 per month. This rate increase equals $120.00 per year. If you have any reasoning and can add, what do you think is costing citizens more? The 3-cent increase at $24.00 average per household annually or the $120.00 annual utility rate increase?

This does not include the other increases approved by the commission that Melissa Zamora and I voted against. Some of the other increases you are in essence lauding over the tax rate increase are the monthly PUB Service Charge fee by $1.00, which equals approximately $50,000 monthly, or $600,000 annually, which you support against my plan to balance the budget and keep utility rates and taxes to a minimum. Then add the increase of 1% on late fees the commission approved, which is another astronomical number that has to be paid by our poor and disadvantage citizens. Thank you for the pat on the back. (This alone shows how uninformed you are).
2) The famous tax rate increase you accuse me of voting for is as follows: In 2010 the tax rate was 0.654189 and for 2011 is 0.657556, which is mandated by the Cameron County Appraisal District assessments to generate the same revenue as the year before for our city to balance the budget. How much of an increase or decrease is the rate difference? Do the math! It is 0.003 parts of a penny.

To call it an increase is very petty with no understanding that the property assessments and the County Appraisal District dictate this formula. If you call this a tax increase, then call out the Tea Party revolt against higher taxes. All this is a mechanism prescribed by law through the property assessments to adopt a budget based on prior year tax assessments on property to ensure cities do not lose revenue and are forced to lower and raise taxes every year. It is so insignificant that it is not even worth mentioning.

Figure out how much this will impact your property, then get back to me and tell everyone your taxes were raised by the mayor... Ridiculous!
3) Then you chastise me for blaming former mayor Eddie Trevino, which if you had done your investigation and gotten the facts you would have found out the following: The tax rate in 2005 was 0.68000 and in 2006 it was lowered to 0.650235. This was done knowing the decrease would cause a shortfall to the budget, forcing the commission to dip into the reserves to balance the budget.

This was the year I was campaigning for mayor. I believe this was done to get Ernie (Hernandez) and get him elected by lowering and keeping the tax rate below the 0.6800. This action has proved to be irresponsible because it has caused us a growing deficit every year. Trevino's administration lowered it 3 cents and it sounded great, but ever since the budget has been in the red and the hole has grown tremendously with a deficit of $6.2 million.

By lowering the tax rate by 3 cents and keeping the tax rate at this level, Trevino made sure as he left office we were left with a mess, along with leaving “Imagine Brownsville” on my plate upon his exit (another costly mess!), but of course you must like this kind of leadership. I inherited this mess and it is impossible to balance the budget unless we go back to what it was and that is to responsibly restore it to the 0.6800 it was before he cut it and caused all these shortages.

Tell me where Trevino's tax policies make sense? Where in God's mind do you find that lowering the tax rate, dipping into reserves every year to balance the budget and now taking $5.0 million from PUB and sacrificing projects is helpful to our city? Please enlighten me! Tell me how you reconcile these things in good government?

Then you blast the only two people (and me particularly) who are standing up for responsible fiscal planning and calling for the responsible thing to do to get out of the mess before the deficit grows so big that we will be forced to raise your taxes by 10 cents, instead of 3 as proposed. The commission has refused to correct the problem, has dipped into reserves and obtained costly grants from PUB thus raising utility rates and fees to make up for the grants.

Unfortunately, it is not until we correct the problem that we can stop the deficits from growing. What are you going to do next year? Pray! We will need another grant, which will cause more utility rate increases. Where is your logic and reasoning to balance next year’s budget? Are you the type that plans by not worrying about things until next year comes or let someone else worry about it? Tell me! PLEASE TELL ME!
Then let's go to the pennies and nickels you are complaining about, which is petty and really insignificant in the overall big picture of the city's financial health.

You criticize the hiring of Mark Sossi and his salary. I agree! I brought this out publicly, but this is insignificant and we have a right to disagree with my colleagues. They wanted Sossi and I did not have the votes to block it. I am not going to spend the remainder of my time fighting over this, but will work with what I have until I have the votes to bring about the change we both seek.

This is not management's fault, nor mine. This is a choice voted by the majority and we must respect it, even if you and I disagree, until we have the votes to change it.
Then you refer to the check register without getting any of the facts. This is dumb and dangerous because if you had bothered to check further, you would have learned the expenses like Gold's Gym are pass-through expenses paid by our employees and not by the city.

The city deducts pays for their membership to get a discount then deducts it from the employee’s check, which is good for the employees and the city to maintain a healthy moral and physical fitness program at no expense to the city and a savings to the employee. You will also find these types of expenses on the check register but you should look further for the whole story.
You accuse me and rant about what I should do about the Mr. Amigo delegation and expenses incurred to go to Mexico City. Madam, Mr. Amigo has fundraisers and pays for all their expenses. This is a tradition that has been going on for decades, which is justified and necessary to promote our city, but Mr. Amigo pays for their travel and lodgings, etc.
You go on and on with all these petty accusations that really are pathetic. You do more damage than good by working against your own team without being informed. I do not mind criticism, but get your facts straight.

The problem with you and others like you is that you want to micromanage from afar, without having your facts or bothering to call the finance director, management, me or whomever you can to get the facts before printing it in the newspaper. Many will believe what you say to be true because it sounds like you speak with authority, but if the facts are exposed, they show an entirely different reality.

Unfortunately the damage is done! You got the attention you wanted and our city pays the price for bad information you put out.
Sorry to be so harsh but it is reckless to hear people write or make public comments on city issues without taking the time to ask before speaking to make sure you have your facts right. I will get more details for you on Taco Palenque and Ricardo’s, both of which I am confident have a reasonable explanation that you may or may not agree with, but as I said, these are the pennies you are worrying about while they are raising your utility rates and not fixing the fiscal problems we are having.

The deficit gets bigger for next year and you propose no realistic solutions, only criticize. I am sorry, I thought you were a better team player and smarter.
Best wishes and luck to you,
Pat