ARE WE STUCK WITH SPRINGSTON AS BISD SUPERINTENDENT?

By Juan Montoya
A May 29 article in the Huntsville (Ala.) Times indicates that the choice for superintendents of the Huntsville Schools is one between two candidates favored by the north and south sections of the city.
And, in bad news for Brownsville, it's not Brett Springston, currently superintendent of the Brownsville Independent School District, and one of the top three finalists for the position.
Reporter Crystal Bonvillian, of The Times, reports the community is divided over the who the city's next school superintendent should be. Apparently, there is a historical division between the north and south ends of the city with north Huntsville apparently leaning toward Dr. Daniel Brigman, superintendent of the Macon County, N.C., school system, and the south side favor Dr. Casey Wardynski, a retired Army colonel and chief financial officer of the Aurora, Colo., school system.
Springston, who doesn't have a doctorate, appears to be out in the cold among those polled by the newspaper.
The Huntsville schools are currently some $19 million in the red, and Wardynski pointedly touted his background and knowledge of finance.
On the other hand, Brigman, according to the newspaper, spoke largely about improving student achievement.
"Those residents who spoke to The Times Friday had less to say about the third finalist, Brett Springston," reporter Bonvillian wrote.
If the Huntsville school board members did any background checks into Springston's tenure in the BISD, they probably found out that he and the board that chose him to be superintendent in 2009 went through almost $100 million in fund reserves to balance their budgets during that period.
Throughout all that time, Springston and his Chief Financial Officer denied that they were operating under a budget "deficit" and – like former board members Ruben Cortez, Rick Zayas and legal counsel Mike Saldaña – boasted that the budget was in "fine financial shape."
That was before the state's $25 billion budget shortfall forced districts across Texas to slash their budgets and the BISD started offering early retirement packages and slashing department and special programs budgets to meet the state mandate.
Illustrative of the district's straits is that the opening of Dan Breeden Elementary School, scheduled for this fall, will probably be postponed because of a lack of funds.
In interviews with Hunstville media, Zayas is quoted as blaming the current board for the district's problems as is Rolando Aguilar who called Springston's problems in Brownsville a "witch hunt" by the new majority.
Springston is probably not used to be in this kind of competition. The former board, after suspending and then firing Dr. Hector Gonzalez, limited the pool of applicants to current employees of the the BISD. Further, the majority then had chosen Springston to be the interim superintendent.
The newspaper also quotes Jerry Mitchell, president and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce, who attended receptions for all three candidates. He said that although he was personally impressed with Springston's "great passion for lifting up low-performing schools," had heard others talk negatively about the candidate.
Among the reasons that Springston gave board members during questioning for leaving a better-paying position ($198,000) for a smaller system, was that he wanted to get more in touch with his wife's family who live in the area.
In other words, does that mean that he wants to live closer to his mother-in-law?
If Springston's maudlin sentimentality doesn't overwhelm the apparently clear-eyed Huntsville school board members, we may have to live with the homeless rejected applicant for the foreseeable future.

UTB-FUELED RUMOR CAMPAIGN WAGED AGAINST TREY MENDEZ

By Juan Montoya

Word has reached us that some people associated with the University of Texas are disparaging Texas Southmost College trustee extraordinaire Trey Mendez and the college's attempt to acquire real estate next to La Estancia Apartments now being bought by the UTB.

The rumors hint darkly about alleged improprieties regarding the acquisition by the TSC board of about eight acres of real estate next to the apartments that belong to Mendez's former law partner. The implication behind the rumors are that Mendez has some kind of personal financial interest in the purchase by the college district.

Knowing Mendez as we do, we were skeptical and suspicious of the lead, coming as it did from sources identified closely with the UTB administration. So we asked Mendez, who during the separation of UTB and TSC was threatened with professional (if not spiritual) destruction by rabid supporters of the Juliet Garcia administration.

Here's the real story.
While the UTB has been actively seeking the purchase of La Estancia Apartments, the college district has long been interested (even before Mendez was a TSC trustee) in acquiring some lots next to the apartments and adjacent to student housing. However, in inquiring about the selling price, the owners, including a corporation and local attorney Dennis Sanchez, were asking for millions for the land, a somewhat pricey proposition that the district didn't think it could afford.

After Sanchez and the others gave a presentation to the board, he was told by the board's majority that it was not within its price range and he was asked to come back with some other creative proposal that the district might consider.

The real estate owners did come back and proposed that he could swap the lot in question for some exiting real estate that the district owned in the city. There are numerous properties and buildings owned by the college that are costing the district good money to upkeep and maintain. One of these is the Cueto Building, currently housing the UTB's Center for Civic Engagement, as well as a number of other smaller properties.

Most were bought during a ral-estate buying binge by Garcia that netted the owners and real estate brokers a pretty penny. An example is the former bank building currently housing the city's municipal court on 10th and Levee. After two years, the college found out it was costing them about $20,000 in utilitys a month to maintain and sold it to the city.

This time the board, before agreeing to any kind of swap with Sanchez or the other owners, decided to get an appraisal to make sure the deal would benefit the college. And that's where the matter stands now.
The root of the rumors against Mendez is that years ago he and Sanchez were partners in the same law firm. That partnership ended more than a year ago, but apparently it's enough for the trustee's detractors to hang the rumors on that rather slim hook.
"I'm going to do everything I can to benefit the district," Mendez told us. "I have absolutely no personal financial interest in this transaction. I would ask that you consider the source of this rumor. Obviously, some of the university administration supporters are still upset abut the separation (of UTB and TSC). That's their problem."

TAMPICO DELEGATION PUSHES FOR REGIONAL AIR SERVICE IN MEETING WITH NEW MAYOR TONY MARTINEZ

By Juan Montoya
A delegation from Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico, is in town today to promote the relationship between that Mexican urban coastal center and Brownsville and to renew the relationship between its elected officials and Brownsville's new mayor Tony Martinez.
On top of their list is the promotion of tourism between both cities, and the establishment of a regional relationship between northern Mexico and South Texas.
"We want to look at the possibility of promoting a joint relationship with a regional aspect and to impress upon the new mayor that Tampico is committed to work with Brownsville to the benefit of both," said a municipal representative through a press release.
"Our objective is to explore the our relationship in a regional context between Tampico, Brownsville and South Padre Island. We should think about obtaining and creating new benefits for all the region, not merely the metropolitan canters," the statement said.
One of the goals in the Tampico delegation's agenda includes the creation of a new regional airline with international flights through the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport, according to a spokesman.
The Tampico delegation will address the issue during the meeting s with Martinez and urge the mayor to consider the possibilities and economic potential of establishing direct air service between Brownsville and large metropolitan markets in Mexico, the statement said.
Now, whether the idea will fly with Martinez, who during the campaign chided his mayoral opponents former mayor Pat Ahumada and outgoing commissioner Eduardo Camarillo for supporting the Fly Frontera airline proposal in a mass flier is to be seen.
Martinez charged that Camarilo and Ahumada voted for the proposal, only to disclaim the charges when Camarillo challenged him to prove what happened in executive session when the proposal was presented by Fly Frontera representative Carlos Quintanilla.
That issue explodd in the city commission elections and spurred opposition to both Ahumda, Camarillo and Charlie Atkinson, who were seen as proponents of the Fly Frontera proposal.
But now, with the Ahumada, Camarillo, Atkinson and Quintanilla out of the picture, will the proposal, viewed as a viable and necessary aspect of increase tourism and commerce between South Texas and violence-wracked Tamaulipas fly?
At least one other local service provider – Hunt's Pan Am – has proposed similar service but wants the guarantees the subsidies that Fly Frontera was applying for with the different city entities. Its owner, Dave Hendricks (We stand corrected. It's Bob. We stand by the rest of the story), has said that unless the city provides the supports, he would seek other cities to establish a cargo (and passenger flight) hub between St. Louis and South Texas to exploit the China trade. However, industry experts said that Hendricks has approached Sky King to inquire about the leasing of planes for his enterprise only to be rebuffed because Sky King is indebted to Fly Frontera owner Jim Gallagher to the tune of $640,000 owed him after Sky King declared bankruptcy.
"I don't think Sky King is going to lease Hendricks anything while they owe Gallagher that money," said the source.
After the Fly Frontera proposal failed, many local bloggers fought over credit for the city's turning down the airline. Downtown rehabilitation activists were hoping that the service would be established to draw badly-needed capital and investors to downtown Brownsville.
"There's no doubt that we need the service," said a downtown promoter. "Unfortunately, personalities got in the way and now we're back to square one. I wish the Tampico delegation luck."

LENNY COMPOUNDS HIS LOONYNESS WITH EDICT

By Juan Montoya

Remember back in May during early voting in the city election when we reported that when some firefighters helped a woman open her car after she had locked in her keys Fire Chief Lenny Perez had stopped them from helping her at the urging of now-defeated city commissioner Charlie Atkinson?
Apparently the woman had been helping Atkinson's opponent Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa and had asked passing firefighters to help at the early voting site at the Central Public Library.
That they tried, earned the umbrage of the Chief.
Firefighters sought to assure the public that the policy of not helping the public was not coming from them.
"That makes the firefighters look like we're not there to help the people," said one. "We hope the lady knows that we would help her if the chief (Perez) had let us."
Now, to further add fuel to the fire, Perez has issued an official Inter-Departmental Memo that he ordered to be posted on all fire and EMS buildings as a General Order forbidding them from assisting members of the public if they come upon them with their keys locked in their cars.
"At no time will Fire Personnel or Fire Department equipment be allowed to open a locked vehicle," the order issued by Perez May 26 states.
The only exceptions to the order will be when a child or pet is locked in the vehicle or if a vehicle presents a danger and/or belongs to an emergency responder. But even if that happens, before the vehicle can be opened the company officer must notify the dispatcher and file a complete fire report.
Even then, if a child is accidentally or intentionally (?) locked inside a vehicle, the company officer must notify the fire dispatcher and report the incident to appropriate law enforcement agencies for them to report the parent to Child Protective Services.
If firefighters encounter a situation where a member of the public has his or her keys locked in the car, they can't even call a locksmith to help them, out if they don't have a cell phone or if it was also left inside.
The vehicle "with locked keys will need to be opened by a general public provider that is requested by the owner of the locked vehicle."
"There WILL be no deviation to this directive," Perez's order further states.
Now, some firefighters remember that not too long ago Commissioner Melissa Zamora inadvertently locked her keys in her car and firefighters were sent to aid that damsel in distress. Will this also apply to her and other elected officials? And what if Mayor Tony Martinez finds himself in the same predicament? Will Lenny remain steadfast on his GENERAL ORDER?
Now, we understand some firefighters are scratching their heads and asking if this overkill on their chief's part is overlooking some basic facts.
Who pays the firefighters' salary and owns all the Fire Department equipment if not the general public? And what does it hurt to help the people who put bread on your table or for that matter pays for your office and even the chief's car and uniforms?
"It's not like we're looking for people who lock their keys in their cars," said one. "But this is typical Lenny. "Now we are being ordered not to help the very people who pay our salaries if we come upon by chance and are there with the equipment we need to pull them out of a bind. What gives with this guy?"

LOOKING BACK AT JACK LONDON: THE MOTHER OF HURRICANES

By Juan MontoyaLike clockwork, the dire predictions by the National Hurricane Center in Miami have prompted hurricane-weary Cameron County administrators to take precautions in preparation for the storms.
This year they're predicting that there could be 16 named storms, nine hurricanes and five of those hurricanes major.
Those of us who have been through a 'cane or two know a little something about these annual conflagarations. So far, unless you were old enough to be in one like Beulah, more recently Dolly, or – heaven forbid Katrina – we have been mercifully spared.
I was going through my old books yesterday after watching the Weather Channel (El Guero Chano) and I remembered reading the account of a hurricane (or typhoon in he Pacific?) from Jack London's The Heathen. The Tower Book Edition was first printed on March 1946, but the actual stories in the collection date back to his early days, between 1909 and 1911, more than a century ago.
Now, lest someone accuse me of stealing Londons' stuff let me say at the outset that I will only use one or two pages of perhaps a 20-25 page short story to illustrate the power of these storms at sea and his mastery at story-telling.

In this account, London is on a 70-ton pearler heading to Papeete, in French Polynesia, after a successful pearl-buying trip. Enjoy.

"Wind? Out of all my experiences I could not have believed it possible for the wind to blow as it did. There is no describing it. How can one describe a nightmare? It was the same way with that wind. It tore the clothes off our bodies. I say tore them off, and I mean it.

I am not asking you to believe it. I am merely telling something that I saw and felt. There are times when I do not believe it myself. I went through it, and that is enough. One could not face that wind and live.

It was a monstrous thing, and the most monstrous thing about it was that it increased and continued to increase.

Imagine countless millions and billions of tons of sand. Imagine this sand tearing along at ninety, a hundred, a hundred and twenty, or any other number of miles per hour. Imagine, further, this sand to be invisible, impalpable, yet to retain all the weight and density of sand. Do all this, and you may get a vague inkling of what that wind was like.

Perhaps sand is not the right comparison.

Consider it mud, invisible, impalpable, but heavy as mud. Nay, it goes beyond that. Consider every molecule of air to be a mud-bank in itself. Then try to imagine the multitudinous impact of mud-banks - no, it is beyond me. Language may be adequate to express the ordinary conditions of life, but it cannot possibly express any of the conditions of so enormous a blast of wind. It would have been better had I stuck by my original intention of not attempting a description.
I will say this much: The sea, which had risen at first, was beaten down by that wind. More – it seemed as if the whole ocean had been sucked up in the maw of the hurricane and hurled on through that portion of space which previously had been occupied by the air...

... I was in a state of stunned, numbed, paralyzed collapse from enduring the impact of the wind, and I think I was just about ready to give up and die when the center smote us. The blow we received was an absolute lull. There was not a breath of air. The effect on one was sickening. Remember that for hours we had been at terrific muscular tension, withstanding the awful pressure of that wind.

And then, suddenly, the pressure was removed. I know that I felt as though I were about to expand, to fly apart in all directions. It seemed as if every atom composing my body was repelling every other atom, and was on the verge of rushing off irresistibly into space. But that lasted only for a moment. Destruction was upon us.
In the absence of the wind and its pressure, the sea rose. It jumped, it leaped, it soared straight toward the clouds. Remember, from every point of the compass that inconceivable wind was blowing in toward the center of calm. The result was that the seas sprang up from every point of the compass. There was no wind to check them. They popped up like corks released from the bottom of a pail of water.

There was no system to them, no stability. They were hollow, maniacal seas.

They were eighty feet high at the least. They were not seas at all. They resembled no sea a man had ever seen. They were splashes, monstrous splashes, that is all, splashes that were eighty feet high. Eighty! They were more than eighty. They went over our mastheads. They were spouts, explosions.

They were drunken. They fell anywhere, anyhow. They jostled one another, they collided. They rushed together and collapsed upon one another, or fell apart like a thousand waterfalls all at once. It was no ocean any man ever dreamed of, that hurricane-center. It was confusion thrice confounded. It was anarchy. It was a hell-pit of sea water gone mad.

Now was that awesome writing or what? Do yourself a favor. Read the entire story or better still buy the book for the entire account. It's a keeper.

VOTERS WARY OF HERNANDEZ POLITICAL HEGEMONY: VILLARREAL, CHAVEZ-VASQUEZ WILL LOSE

By Juan Montoya
Four years ago, Ernie Hernandez was licking his wounds after a trouncing by Pat Ahumada.
Ahumasda not only spent less money in the campaign than did Ernie, but he also thumbed his nose at the power srtucture and kingmakers like developers N.O. Simmons, Renato Cardenas and Klan, and the likes of Terry Ray.
Then, in an amazing feat of political savvy and well-placed propaganda, Hernandez went on to defeat newcomer-to-Brownsville-attorney Ruben Peña in a closely fought race with both sides fighting for the poltiquera votes.
The legal issues came to naught and Hernandez not only was elected to a politically superior position than was Ahumada, but also to a paid one.
Today, Hernandez is not shy about telling people that he has a majority on the Cameron County Commission, and rivals County Judge Carlos Cascos in deciding the direction of county policy.
However, all is not rosy with the political fortunes of this political Phoenix. While on the one hand he is admired for his survival skills and political acumen, many voters among the electorate think he may be overreaching by trying to intrude into the City of Brownsville Commission election.
He has made it clear that he will be supporting the candidacy of his attorney daughter Erin to run for the Justuice of the Peace seat left open by the late Tony Torres. And he is not shy (or his family sporting the political decals on the back of their trucks) that he is also supporting John Villarreal in the runoff race for Distict 4 against Tony Zavaleta.
"That's too much power in one family's hands," said a a party-goer this weekend. "My friends and I feel hat if we voted for Tony it will provide a counterweight on the city commission to keep an eye on the new mayor, Jessica, Gowen, and Melissa. The only one who can counter them is someone who doesn't have to depend on the power structure for his stands."
Peña, meanwhile, who had made noises that getting rid of politiqueras was his life's mission, turned a cold shoulder to Zavaleta when he went to enlist his aid in blunting the Hernandez mail-in machine.
"It really wasn't his race and he didn't seem all that interested in getting involved in this one, depsite his mission," Zavaleta said.
The race, however, will be very close, since Villarreal, before he became mired with the Hernandez family, had built up a reputation as a native son who had worked on his family's business and had used his education (MBA) to further their fortunes.
But many county observers are pointing to the role that Hernandez will have as county commissioner on the selection of the interim justice of the peace. In one way or another, Erie – through his vote on the commission for the interim or by rallying his resurrected political support on behalf of his daughter – will have a dedicing vote on the selection of both.
Will the Hernandez connection prove fatal to his candidacy? Zavaleta, who is counting on his experience in city office and as a college administrator is hoping it will.
In the other race for the At-Large position, Estela Chavez-Vasquez has turned off many voters who have seen her in action due in part to her personality and the narrowness of the issues.
She faces Robert Lopez, a Cameron County administrator who came very close to defeating Robert Lozano in the runoff for Texas Southmost College trustee last time around.
The political arena is rife with rumors of a "smoking gun" that Chavez-Vasquez supporters say that she has on Lopez. But, unless she pulls off a Hernandez and reveals something in a court document somewhere, it is doubtful that mere allegations will carry the day without solid evidence or a judgement.

ROY BENAVIDEZ, AN UNLIKELY WARRIOR AND HERO

By Juan Montoya

I met Roy Benavidez during a campaign rally for fellow Medal of Honor winner Bob Kerry, who was making a run for the presidency.

The rally for Kerry was held at the old Ft. Brown Resaca Club (the Aztec Room, I believe). I was standing next to Roy as Kerry made the rounds working the small crowd. I mentioned to him that it seemed funny how many Hispanics were awarded so many medals for bravery in combat.

"I wonder why that is?" I asked the diminutive warrior.

"Nosotros somos como el mesquite, Juan," he said. "Nos cortan y nos queman pero nunca nos rajamos (We're like mesquite wood. They cut and and burn us but we never crack(?)

At the time I thought that was a nice note of bravado. But after I looked into the deeds of that quite self-effacing man, I was astounded at what he had endured during the time when he earned the medal.

Here's his story.

Roy Perez Benavidez was born in Cuero, Texas, on August 5, 1935. He was the son of a sharecropper and endured much racism in his life because of his mixed Yaqui Indian and Mexican heritage.

Benavidez was orphaned as a child and raised by an uncle. He dropped out of school in the seventh grade. For a period of time in his teens, Benavidez worked as a migrant farm worker and traveled as far as Colorado to harvest sugar beets. Benavidez joined the Army in Houston, Texas, in 1955.

Benavidez was first stationed at Fort Ord, California. He was then transferred to Germany, where he received parachute training.

While in Germany, the letters he exchanged with childhood sweetheart Hilaria "Lala" Coy increased in intensity. When Benavidez returned to the U.S., he immediately sent his uncle, grandfather, and the local priest to ask Lala's father for his blessing.

Lala and Roy Benavidez were married on June 7, 1959, in El Campo, Texas. Benavidez was then assigned to Military Police training at Fort Gordon, Georgia.

Throughout his training, Benavidez periodically got into trouble because of his stubbornness and hot temper. However, Benavidez later credited these qualities for his success in Special Forces training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

By the time Benavidez was ordered to Vietnam, he had risen to the rank of Staff Sergeant with the Fifth Special Forces Group, Airborne, Detachment B-56, First Special Forces.

On the morning of May 2, 1968, a 12-man Special Forces team was inserted in Cambodia to observe large scale North Vietnamese troop movements and was discovered by the enemy. Most of the team members were close friends of Benavidez, who was at the Forward Operating Base in Loc Ninh, Vietnam.

Three helicopters were sent to rescue the team, but were unable to land due to heavy enemy fire. When a second attempt was made to reach the stranded team, Benavidez jumped aboard one of the helicopters, armed only with a Bowie knife.

As the helicopters reached the landing zone, Benavidez realized that the team members were likely too severely wounded to move to the helicopters.

Benavidez ran through heavy small arms fire to the wounded soldiers, and was wounded himself in the right leg, face, and head in the process. He reorganized the team and signaled the helicopters to prepare for extraction.

Despite his injuries, Benavidez carried or dragged half of the wounded men to the helicopters. He then collected the classified documents held by the now dead team leader. As he completed this task he was wounded by an exploding grenade in the back and shot in the stomach.

At that moment, the waiting helicopter's pilot was mortally wounded and the helicopter crashed. Benavidez rushed to collect the stunned crash survivors to form a defensive perimeter. He directed air support, ordered another extraction attempt, and was wounded again when shot in the thigh. At this point, Benavidez was losing so much blood from his face wounds that his vision became blocked.

Another helicopter landed, and as Benavidez carried a wounded friend to it he was clubbed in the head with a rifle butt by an enemy soldier. The enemy soldier attempted to bayonet Benavidez while he was on the ground, but Benavidez grabbed the bayonet and pulled it toward him.

This took the enemy soldier by surprise and enabled Benavidez to kill him, but also slashed Benavidez's right hand and embedded the bayonet in his left arm. Benavidez was loaded onto the helicopter and taken back to base.

There, the triage doctor declared him dead, but Benavidez spit at the doctor's face as he zipped the body bag, and was taken into the hospital.

He spent almost a year in hospitals recovering from his injuries. Benavidez's commanding officers felt that he deserved the Congressional Medal of Honor, but recommended him for a Distinguished Service Cross because they thought Benavidez would die before the lengthy application process for the Medal of Honor would award him his medal.

He was presented with the Distinguished Service Cross for saving the lives of eight soldiers at extreme risk to his own safety by General William C. Westmoreland at the Fort Sam Houston Hospital in San Antonio, Texas.

Years later, one of Benavidez's former commanders found out that he had survived his injuries and began the process to award him the Congressional Medal of Honor. However, the eyewitnesses and paperwork necessary to upgrade the Distinguished Service Cross to a Medal of Honor were difficult to locate in the massive bureaucracy of the Army.

Benavidez was finally awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Ronald Reagan on February 24, 1981, in the courtyard of the Pentagon. Benavidez had reached the rank of Master Sergeant by the time of his retirement from the Army.

He died on November 29, 1998, and was buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, His funeral was attended by roughly 1,500 people. An elementary school in Houston and a boot camp for problem youths in Uvalde are both named in his honor.

In 1999, the Army built the Maser Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez Special Operations Logistics Complex at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

In 2003, the USNS Benavidez, a supply ship, was christened as part of the Navy's Military Sealift Command.

In 2001, the Hasbro toy company released the Roy P. Benavidez G.I. Joe action figure, the first G.I. Joe to portray someone of Hispanic heritage.

(Portions of Roy Benavidez life story first appeared in "Above and Beyond: The Medal of Honor in Texas," Capitol Visitors Center, State Preservation Board of Texas. Benavidez, Roy P. and Oscar Griffin, The Three Wars of Roy Benavidez, Corona Publishing Company, San Antonio, 1986.)

A POEM OF REMEMBERANCE FOR OUR FALLEN VETS

By Juan Montoya

Doña Mari is having a pulga, once again

She’s pulled out the folding table and

laid the clean white cloth upon it and neatly,

like an undertaker, lays out her goods

Along the river road that natives trod

And Oblates walked, preaching of God

Where Thornton skirmished and soldiers died

Sits Doña Mari, biding her time

Like clockword, each Saturday,

the neighbors see Doña Mari, under the shade of the mesquite tree

A few cars stop and we can overhear the talk

“How much you asking for this cartridge belt?,” asks he

“You mean this green one, by the worn fatigues,” says she

That was my son’s, my Juan, the one he used to wear

I still remember how he taught the neighborhood kids to march

and turn, and do right face

You should have seen them marching through the living room...

You can’t imagine how much pride I felt...

Oh, no, I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t sell that belt.”

“Well, how much for that dress cap with the shiny bill,” she’s asked

“He’s wearing it with his dress blues here,” she cuts him off, and picks the photo up

“You can just see how proud he felt,

trying to look so fierce, so...official, can you see?

But you can tell that he was still so young,

my only one, my Juan...

I’m, I’m sorry, I just can’t see myself selling that one.”

“Pardon me, sir?,” she asks the man with boots in hand

“I asked how much you want for these,” says he

I was in the service once and...”

“Oh, how he used to shine and shine those boots until he saw his face on them,” she said

“‘Spit-shine’ was what he used to say...

Now, why did I bring those out...

No, no, no, they’re...they’re not for sale today.”

Her hands wrings the apron as she moves among her wares

The hands that counted rosary beads

Each night he wasn’t there

“And this folded flag with medal pinned?

How much for these?,” she’s asked

“Oh, no, I can’t, that’s all this country left to me,” said she

“A week before I got them, two nice young men knocked on this door

and when I saw them, standing there erect and neat,

they tried to act like they were used to it...

Then they told me that my son was gone...

In distant, hostile sands, they say he died

I screamed at them that they had lied...

That my son Juan, my only one, was coming back...

Don’t ask me how, I just know that...

So you see, I cannot possibly sell that flag

Perhaps you’d like a nice backpack instead?”

The cars are gone, the light of day subsides

As Doña Mari gathers up her wares

She neatly folds the greens, and packs the gear

In the green foot locker she keeps near

The belt, the boots, the picture dear

And those old fingers pull the long white table cloth and in it wraps her goods

Doña Mari will have another pulga soon

and out will come the boots and belt and then the folding table

And she will lay the long white cloth upon it like a shroud

UTB AND TSC: TRUSTEES DELIVER THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

By Juan Montoya

They faced the umbrage of an entrenched educational bureaucracy, a cadre of Juliet Garcia cult fanatics, the entire power structure of the city and the high-dollar UT System legal team and stuck to their guns.

A renegade priest promised one of them that he would spend the last breath of his life to "destroy" him professionally and personally in his hometown. And at least two members of the minority on the Texas Southmost College board disparaged them at every turn and tried to stymie their efforts locally and in Austin with their legislative connections.

The local daily– its publisher sympathetic to Garcia and her high-dollar lifestyle– took every opportunity to build up her image, even when she pushed for grandoise public-financed accouterments to her self-styled "community university."

Through it all, four trustees of the TSC board – Kiko Rendon, Trey Mendez, Adela Garza and Rene Torres – held on to their high purpose and now seem to have come out triumphant in their quest: to have both a community college and a free-standing four-year university for local students.
It almost didn't happen.

Last October, supposedly under a time constraint, TSC-UTB President Juliet Garcia and TSC counsel Dan Rentfro presented the new board a new and improved"partnership"plan that they insisted must be approved by them forthwith or else dire consequences would ensue.

The plan was for the new plan to be approved within the space of two meetings spaced a week apart. However, until that day, no one, including the board members, had seen the plan.

And when they saw it, they put the brakes on the railroad job they were expected to approve.

The plan called for nothing less than the dissolution of the TSC district, the handing over of all the district's assets including real estate, buildings, and bank deposits as a "gift"to the oil-and-gas rich UT System. In other words,this poor community would make a gift of about $200 million in assets acquired over 75 years of nurturing our college district with the blood, sweat, and tears of generations.

This was the same system that was $15 million behind in its rental payments to TSC taxpayers.

Further, the board was to function only as an advisory body whose recommendations the UTB- President and the UT System Regents could choose to hear or ignore. The district would continue to exist as a taxing entity until the bond debt of perhaps $120 million including interest was repaid. Then the board and the district could go away.

With the power structure her and in Austin arrayed against them, the four trustees fought back. They refused to back down in spite of the threats and invective spewed from the Garcia cadre and her sycophants. They – in response to the UT Regents vote to separate the two institutions – voted to go at it alone.

Trustees Robert Robles, David Oliveira and Robert Lozano backbit them at every turn and tried to sabotage their every move,with Robles going as far as lining up local communities to oppose them and even calling for a public referendum on their actions.
When they refused to crack under the onslaught, Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and Rep.Rene Oliveira saw they were serious and had little choice but to draft legislature to implement their decisions.Now we hear that a senate bill accomplishing just that has passed both the state senate and the house and that a companion bill by Oliveira is making its way through the House.

At the end of the arduous and tortuous public policy labyrinth what the majority on the board promised us when they ran for office: a community college for those who need it and a four-year university for those desiring to continue past that level.

It is not often that critics like us can actually cheer for something or someone in public office.

Now, with a success that materially means better and more affordable education for our poverty-stricken community, we extend our gratitude to Adela,Trey, Rene and Kiko for standing up for us.

As Rendon said recently: "Why shouldn't our residents have the same thing everyone else does? Why should our students be the stepchildren of the state?"

Indeed, why should they?

Thank you, guys.

MARTINEZ CROWNED MAYOR OF BROWNSVILLE

By Juan Montoya

To the strains of a cherubic choir and the benediction of the local clergy, millionaire personal injury lawyer Tony Martinez was anointed mayor of the City of Brownsville as were residency impostor Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa and absentee barrio resident Ricardo Longoria.
Waiting in the wings to see who will fill their positions were commissioners Anthony Troiani and Eduard Camarillo. Troiani's at-large A seat will be contested this June 18 between Estella Chavezand and Robert Lopez. The District 4 seat held by Camarillo will be up for grabs between Tony Zavaleta and John Villarreal.
Brownsville Catholic Diocese Bishop Daniel E. Flores, Martinez's son T.J., a priest, and other priests and men of the cloth were on hand as well to give the affair a spiritual send off for the next four years.
The Our Lady of Guadalupe Parochial School Choir, a school that Martinez founded, sang the national anthem, and his son performed the invocation. It is not mentioned if Martinez, who was pictured in the local daily receiving communion from his son after winning the election handily over four other candidates, had holy water available at the entrance of the city chambers.
"We can't thank God enough," Martinez is quoted as saying.
Campaign reports indicate that Martinez spent at least $150,000 in getting the 5,308 votes that catapulted him into the mayorship of our fair city. At $28.25 per vote, he easily acquired the 54 percent that prevented him from being in a runoff with his nearest competitor, Camarillo, who netted 24 percent of the vote and spent less than a fifth of what Martinez did.
In taking the oath of office, Tetreau-Kalifa also called her supporters her "inspiration," and pledged that her "heart and love" were in District 2, if not her home and husband. At a hearing earlier in the day, losing incumbent Charlie Atkinson had asked a visiting judge to stop the city from swearing her in claiming she didn't meet the residency requirements that she live in the district at least six months before the election May 14.
Hapless Charlie, who's never been accused of being the sharpest tool in the shed, said he did not question her residency formally because he did not want to disrupt the elections(?). Now it appears that, as usual, he's a day late and a dollar short.
Tetreau has said she lives with her mother in Heather Lane inside District 2 because of the lady's illness. However, no sign of the alleged illness was visible during her swearing in which both her parents attended. Judge Elia Lopez-Cornejo swore in Tetreau-Kalifa and said she had married her and her husband a few months earlier. So where does she and her husband live, after all?
Police reports indicate a stormy relationship exists between the happy couple and in her previous complaints of domestic abuse against him she lists his address on San Marcelo as her home.
Recently divorced Ricardo Longoria, who beat Roman Perez for the Southmost area district, advised those present to not neglect their families in their public life, a kind of ex post facto "do as I say and not as I do" sermon.
Longoria is one to speak.
At a public forum during the last go-round of elections, Longoria promised the Herald's Emma Perez-Treviño that he would not continue taking benefits from the city that were not authorized by the city charter. Then, a day later, he reneged and said he would continue to take the health insurance, the $300 monthly car allowance and other perks "on the advice of legal counsel."
We later learned that legal counsel Mark Sossi may have donated $400 worth of meat to his campaign for a pachanga.
It wasn't until a group of citizens took Longoria and the other commissioners to court and District Judge Janet Leal read them riot act to stop taking the freebies contrary to the city charter that they finally ceased and desisted. Of course, that little intransigence on their part cost the city taxpayer a pretty penny for legal counsel (Sossi), about $40,000 we hear.
Sossi, of course, went on to rake in the city cash as contract attorney at $120,000 a year part-time thanks in part to Longoria's vote.
Both Longoria and Martinez have pledged to "work through our United Brownsville" plan. That's the same boondoggle that we paid $900,000 for to compile a volume of readily available U.S. Census data and a grab-bag of pipe-dream wishes to be administered by a self-appointed board with IBC's Fred Rusteberg as Puppet Master. Who does Rusteberg answer to?
Ahumada,who refused to support the United Brownsville scam was voted out of the group's board by a majority on the city's commission after he complained that the group was accountable to no one and that there was no transparency because of their private meetings.
Will Martinez now that that pesky Ahumada is gone now be invited to join the Big Boys in the cutting of the public pie?
Rusteberg's "Community Betterment" Foundation gave Martinez $5,000 according to campaign reports he filed with the state.
United Brownsville is getting subsidized by the taxpayers to hire a director from outside the city and a public relations guru to make us all swallow the bitter truth that our city commissioners have abdicated their fiduciary responsibilities and handed the reins of our destiny to the moneychangers at the temple.
Now, with God himself apparently at his side, will Martinez look down from his throne and consider the silly needs of us mere mortals like good streets, creating good-paying jobs and putting an end to the costly and inefficient city bureaucracy?
We can only pray.

PERSONAL SAFETY IS WORSE, PROPERTY CRIME DOWN

By Juan Montoya
Whichever way you spin it, if you lived in Brownsville last year, you were more likely to be murdered, raped, robbed and assaulted than in 2009.
About the only silver lining (if you can call it that) was that there were less burglaries, larceny thefts and motor vehicle thefts reported.
There were seven murders reported in 2010 compared to only four for 2009. Likewise, there were 31 rapes compared to 26 the previous year. And, an alarming increase in terms of personal safety, there was a sharp increase in aggravated assaults from 272 in 2009 to 360 in 2010.
Reports of burglaries decreased 290 from 2009's 1,576 to 1,286 last year. Theft also decreased slightly from 7,784 to 7,865, or 81 cases reported less. Auto theft also went down slightly from 337 in 2009 to 246 last year, or 91 cases less.
What does this say for the incidence of crime in Brownsville. Cops like to have it both ways. They will point to murder an rape and call them "crimes of passion and opportunity" that often times cannot be prevented. Of course, if they had gone down, they would doubtless claim credit for the downturn.
But in the case of aggravated assault, the hefty increase from 272 to 360 signifies an increase of 88 cases of serious injury to the victims.
As far as burglaries and theft, the slight decrease in those numbers may point to the reluctance of victims to bother to report the crime to authorities after repeated reports from the same victims.
"I have more than two dozen cards from police officers after I reported numerous burglaries at my warehouse," said Felipe, a local businessman who closed his store after burglars kept coming in and cleaning out his shop. "After a while, I just quit calling them because they didn't do anything. I was working for the burglars."

JESSICA'S IN: JUDGE DENIES CHARLIE'S PLEA TO STOP HER SWEARING-IN TONIGHT. MARTINEZ TO BE ANOINTED

By Juan Montoya
After an hour – and with neither of the principals present – visiting judge Manuel Bañales denied a petition Tuesday by losing candidate Charlie Atkinson for a Temporary Restraining Order that the swearing in of challenger (and eventual write-in winner ) Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa be stopped tonight.
That means that Tetreau-Kalifa will be sworn in as District 2 commissioner at the same time that mayor-elect Tony Martinez takes over the helm of the city from outgoing Mayor Pat Ahumada who placed a distant third in a five-candidate contest last May 14.
Atkinson, though attorney Bruce Phillips, argued that they could prove that his challenger had lived outside District 2 at the time she filed as a write-in candidate against Atkinson.
In that election, 897 voters cast their ballots for the write-in candidate and 658 voted for Atkinson. It was the first time in city history that a write-in candidate had won an election against an incumbent.
Phillips told the court that they were not contesting the validity of the election through their petition, but rather her right to run for office in District 2 because she had not met the requirements of the Texas election Code that she live at least six months within the district where she was running for office.
They also said that ample evidence – including police reports, Facebook postings, and a marriage license – indicated that she lived with her husband at a San Marcelo address in District 3.
Bañales asked Phillips why his client had not challenged her candidacy based on her residency before the election. Phillips replied that he had not been retained by Atkinson before the election.
In fact, Atkinson did mention during the campaign that he had the proof Phillips presented to the court before the May 14 election but chose not to challenger her candidacy. In a post weeks before the contest, he wrote that "My opponent wasn't even thinking about running until Zeke Silva was told for the eighth time that he couldn't. Craig Grove and Chris Davis have teamed up to push this candidate who clearly does not live in District 2. Davis doesn't even live in Brownsville, but he insists on trying to control Brownsville. Grove is my opponent's campaign manager who just a month ago told her that she lived in Commissioner's Zamora's district. He was Zeke's campaign manager and now turned to my opponent as a last-ditch attempt to try to get his father-in-law Jim Goza back in office at the city."

Nonetheless, Mark Sossi representing the City of Brownsville said that Atkinson had the opportunity to challenge her candidacy but chose not to.
"Mr. Atkinson had the remedy before hte election but chose not to use the remedy. If he has been irreparably harmed it was because of his choices."
Trey Garza, representing the absent Tetreau-Kalifa, said he could show that her driver's license, her voting registration card, and her mail all indicated that she lived at Heather Lane, inside District 2.
In denying Atkinson the TRO he was seeking to stop her swearing-in, Bañales left Phillips the option of pursuing injunctive relief after she had taken office. If he could prevail in a hearing, it is possible that she could be removed from office and that another special election be held where Atkinson could file as a candidate for the same position.
He set a hearing for next Tuesday should Atkinson consider continuing his challenge to the election results.


(Despite the judge's decision, it is clear to those of us who have surveyed the evidence of Tetreau-Kalifa's residency that serious questions remain about the legitimacy of her candidacy for that position. It really doesn't matter whether we like or dislike either one or the other. A fair-minded person interested in legitimate representative government might do well to consider that the residents of District 2 might well be suspicious of a candidate with a suspect right to hold the office that represents their interests. But life goes on.)

9 YEARS AGO, GARZA'S EXECUTION PUT BROWNTOWN ON MAP

By Juan Montoya
This border city has gained fame (and infamy) for many things: the occasional hurricane, the spate of anencephaly deaths of some 40 infants, a subtropical climate, its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, etc.
Historically, this place was the site of the first two battles that ignited the Mexican-American War, the place where Billy Mitchell started using planes as instruments of war, and where the spies for the German Imperial High command crossed the Rio Grande with the Zimmerman Note to entice Mexican government officials to join them against the United States.
It was also here that Dr. William Gorgas started his quest to devise the hygienic methods to thwart yellow fever and to make construction of the Panama Canal possible, and where Lucky Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart initiated air mail service to Latin America.
Speaking of flying mythology, it is also where Howard Hughes’ doctors listed as the place of death on his death certificate where he allegedly breathed his last while he flew in his private jet overhead, no doubt to keep the Hughes fortune away from Mexican probate courts.
But on June 19, 2002, Brownsville was again put on the map after one of its residents, Juan Raul Garza, a former migrant student at Josephine Castaneda School, was executed by lethal injection eight days after convicted white supremacist Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh received the same punishment.
Garza, convicted in federal court for three murders, died by lethal injection in the U.S. prison in Terre Haute, Ind., after his plea for clemency was rejected by rthen-President G.W. Bush. His was only the second federal execution after a 38 years hiatus.
When Garza was growing up, most people in town knew just about everyone or had heard about most other people.
People close to the migrant stream remember Juan and his siblings
“I remember going to school with Juan and his sister Irene,” said one. “In those days, all the migrant students from throughout the city were bused to the same school. We attended classes from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. to make up for the time we missed when we left in May and returned in October. It was segregated education.”
The school itself was circled with an eight-foot, chain-link fence topped with three strands of barbed wire. Students could only enter and exit through one gate under the watchful eye of Ruben Gallegos, the principal.
Juan was shy as an adolescent and teenager, and was short for his age.
It was until much later that his activities brought him in contact with the law and the federal government. But when he lined up with the other migrant students for his free milk and baloney sandwich, he was just like anyone else– a working-class child who labored with his family in the fields of northern states.
For them, childhood meant getting up at the break of dawn and laboring their children’s bodies like adults until it was too dark to see the plants anymore. Some migrants went overcame their humble beginnings and went on to become economists, Federal Reserve directors, teachers, attorneys, mayors of major cities, accountants, etc.
The Rosenbaums, Rochas, Peñas, Gallegos, etc., are names well known for their achievements. One, Rene Rosenbaum, an economics professor at Michigan State University, wondered whether Juan might have turned out different if he hadn’t fallen through the cracks. “He was no different than any of us,” he said.
“We came from poor working families struggling to survive working in the fields. Many families could not afford to their children to school because they depended on the income earned by the entire family to carry them through the lean times in winter when they returned to Texas. There was very little choice for many of them.”
With little economic alternative left for many along the border, contraband and its attendant criminal activity has always been a lure.
And so it was for Juan.
Over time, he become one of the most successful marihuana smugglers, sending loads all over the country. His activities soon caught the attention of federal anti-drug agents.
Using a disaffected relative who was in his organization, they infiltrated his group and soon flipped enough of his co-defendants to pin several murders on him – including four in Mexico that were never proved. A federal jury sentenced him to death.
Garza’s attorneys asked for clemency citing Death Row statistics that at the time showed that of 20 federal inmates, 17, or 85 percent, were minorities (14 black, 3 Hispanics, and three white); that between 1995 and 2000, 80 percent of all federal cases submitted for capital punishment involved minority defendants.Further, statistics showed that cases tried in the southern states of Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Georgia made up for 65 percent of federal death penalty prosecutions.In fact, between 1995-2000, 42 percent of all federal death penalty cases came from five of the 94 federal districts.
Their pleas fell on deaf ears and the execution date set. His sister Irene – now deceased – would raffle the clocks Juan made from varnished plywood and toothpicks to send him money for his personal expenses (I won the one pictured at left). She refused to attend his execution.
Witnesses said Garza showed little emotion at the time of his death and asked forgiveness for the pain and grief he had caused. He sighed once, and then it was over.

IN REMEMBERANCE OF AHUMADA'S YEARS IN OFFICE

By Juan Montoya
When he beat Ernie Hernandez for mayor in 2007, the voters of Brownsville gave Pat Ahumada as clear a mandate as any mayor had received.
With a majority of his supporters on the commission, he could have quickly set the agenda for a successful four-year term.
Instead, and it would take Pat to tell us why, he set about to erode his stock by alienating and dividing his apparent majority bloc.
When he most needed the majority to support him in his correct stand against the construction of the Border Wall, he went at it alone amidst complaints from other commissioners that he was keeping them in the dark. His support for the weir to act as a deterrent against illegal immigration and at the same time provide the impetus for the realization of the dream of a Brownsville River Walk died on the vine when he couldn't get the support of the other commissioners.
In time, the others refused to join him to support the Border Coalition in their lawsuit against the federal government. His campaign stalwart, Charlie Atkinson, made the rupture very public and enlivened the city commission meetings.
Then, irritated that people like Fernando Ruiz, Robert Uresti, Roman Perez, Alex Resendez, Dagoberto Barrera, et al, would dare question his motives and the motives of others on the commission, he looked kindly on the recommendation of city contract attorney Mark Sossi (at $120,000 a year) that the public comment section of the meetings not be broadcast, ostensibly to protect the city from liability in potential defamation actions.
The rest of the city commissioners went along as well and now, unlike the city, college, port, and PUB, the meddlesome critics were gagged. While some commissioners (and former commissioners) now say they can live with the broadcast of their critics, the Ahumada gag remains nonetheless.
Then, when critics denounced the city for trying to issue $11 million in certificates of obligation for city projects, they again turned to Sossi (who in turn turned to the law firm of Willete and Guerra) to counter their dissent.
The firm recommended, and the city commissioners supported, a lawsuit by the city against all the residents of Brownsville.
At the time, Ahumada said the lawsuit against the residents was a mere "technicality."
If that wasn't nasty enough, the commissioners then passed the ban of plastic bags as a "green" effort to keep the bags from littering the landscape, strangling endangered fauna, and clogging up the ditches. It is axiomatic of this border burg to see people carrying their reusable plastic bags to the supermarkets or walk out of them with armfuls of groceries cursing in disgust at the rule.
Throw in the scandal involving his deposit in his personal account of a $26,000 check made out to a city vendor of which he was cleared by a jury, and his political future was sealed.
All this, as well as Ahumada's passion for stray animals, was fodder for his critics at the last election where he drew a paltry 9 percent of the vote.
Forgotten was Ahumada's stand on the PUB impact fees that increased the fees paid by developers for lot from less than $300 to more than $3,000. Three studies at a cost close to $750,000 recommended that the fees paid by developers be pegged at closer to $4,0000, but a gun-shy majority on the commission would only go for the $3,000 compromise.
No other mayor or city commissioner had gone out on that politically-dangerous limb and incurred the displeasure of local developers like N.O. Simmons, Bill Hudson, Renato Cardenas and Sons, etc.,
For that, and for that alone, for lessening the burden of the city utility ratepayer of this developer subsidy, Ahumada's term in office should be considered a success.

MOSES SOROLA HOT ON SOSSI'S TRAIL AGAIN

By Juan Montoya

Like a Texas Ranger that keeps on coming when he's in the right, perennial gadfly Moses Sorola is dogging the City of Brownsville administration to let him see the check trail that shows the payments made to contract attorney Mark Sossi and his Good Government Firm.
"I've emailed Pete Gonzalez for the city's check records and I haven't gotten any response, not even an acknowledgement that he had received my request," said the bespectacled Sorola from his ABC office on Barnard Street last Friday. "I guess I'm going to have to go over there in person to see them. You know I will."
When he was hired, City of Brownsville city manager Charlie Cabler (pictured behind Sossi at right)told the local daily and the residents of the city that Sossi, who so impressed a majority of the commissioners with his defeat at the hands of Luis Sorola (Moses's son) over the charter benefits issue, would serve as the commission's counsel at a paltry $10,000 monthly retainer.
At $120,000 annually, it was a plum for any attorney coming as it was at the end of the halcyon days of personal injury and consumer product liability awards.
The contract – at five paragraphs – was a rather straightforward document. The city will pay Sossi or any successor firm to which he belongs $10,000 a month as a retainer. As a contract attorney, he will not be entitled to any employment benefits including insurance or cell phones. There is also no mention of mileage reimbursement or travel.
Furthermore, Sossi "will continue to represent the city on all pending legal matters he was representing the City prior to his being retained...an any work which is performed after his being retained...shall be covered by the monthly retainer..."
The simple document seems to be rather cut and dried, it would appear.
However, Sorola and others have been raised over the payments made to Sossi during the past year. City commissioners and the city manager have been shown check register records that indicate that Sossi has received much more than the $10,000 monthly retainer stipulated in the contract. In August, Argelia Miller showed the commissioners cases where two identical checks were issued on the same day, and in another case, two identical checks issued one day apart. Other entries show much larger payments made to Sossi over the same time period.
Sossi countered that the payments are in compliance with his contract.
The city has been paying Sossi (DBA as Good Government Law Firm) $120,000 a year since March 2009.
That does not include another $5,000 monthly paid to him by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC) a city entity. That totals to $180,000 a year. Not bad for part time work, Miller observed.
In the August letter addressed to Cabler, Miller took issue with the amount of money that the city has paid Sossi over the course of the year.
Miller writes that in the Brownsville Herald, 8-24-10 , you (Cabler) "state that Mr. Sossi is paid $120,000 per year. If we divide $ 120.000.00 by 52 weeks that would make it $2,307.69 per week."
She then goes on to review the city's check register and charges that there appear to be overpayments of money to Sossi.
"For 27 weeks from 01-07-10 to 07-29-10 he is paid $2,307.69 weekly," Miller states. "However, on some weeks he is paid twice the amount of $2,307.69, and some times a much larger amount on a weekly basis as indicated below:
She then went on to list checks and their totals that indicated much more was paid to Sossi than the simple contract stipulated.
Then Miller repeated a story getting told more often relating to Sossi's strange relationship with the law firm of Willette and Guerra. Willette and Guerra brought a lawsuit against Sossi in 2002 that ended in a settlement in favor of the law firm and against Sossi in 2004 in the sum of $167, 363.00.
Sossi then was an employee of Willette and Guerra and the law firm charged he kept money that belonged to the law firm. The court documents filed by the firm indicate he took money from the firm. The settlement was still on record as of 03-09-2009.
In 2010, contracts to Willette and Guerra by the city have been in excess of $37,000.00. It seems odd, Miller continues, "that some one who filed a law suit against you and still has a judgment against you, would now be receiving favorable treatment in obtaining contracts with the City of Brownsville. Is this odd or a good way to reduce what you owe?"
Is the Sossi-Willete and Guerra shell game continuing at city taxpayer expense?
"We are ging to find out as soon as we get them to provide us with copies of the checks as we requested," Sorola said.
(Ed.'s note: Soon after this post was published, we got a call from Mr. Sorola saying that he had received the city check records he had requested via email. Knowing him he'll go over them with a fine-toothed comb and unearth nuggets of questionable city expenditures. We'll keep you posted.)

THE PERKS OF OFFICE, MERE COINCIDENCE, OR A WELCOME FOR MARTINEZ COURTESY OF THE CITY BUREAUCRACY?

By Juan Montoya
Right after Hizzoner Tony Martinez overwhelmingly defeated four other candidates for mayor of the City of Brownsville, his neighbors on Ebony Street woke up to front-end loaders and backhoes breaking up the roadway.
The PUB, probably utilizing some of the stimulus funds distributed by the Obama administration, got the utility upgrades underway.
Now, Brownsville folks love a conspiracy and they started coming in fast and furious.
"Isn't it a coincidence that right after Martinez got elected the city decided to start work on his street?" asked one.
"How come they started working on his street so fast and not on the others?" asked another.
Now, those of us who have lived here a spell know that the city, PUB and Public Works have worked out tearing up the streets to a fine art.
The scenario goes something like this: The city hires out the paving job to some contractor from Harlingen or San Benito. After the paving is done, PUB announces that it will have to do some gutter or utility work under the surface. They break it up, do their thing, and then, after the paving job is a shambles, Public Works comes in with its state-of-the-art pothole techniques (tar dripped out from holes drilled in the bottom of a five-gallon pail), throw some asphalt on top of that and wait until the first rain comes along to wash it all out and the process begins anew.
We don't know whether Hizzoner is is for the same treatment, but until the drought is over and the first rain comes along, we'll know the real truth.
For the meanwhile, let the honeymoon begin.

CURSES! BHA BOARD FOILS AHUMADA AGAIN

By Juan Montoya

In what has become a test of wills between lame-duck Mayor Pat Ahumada and the board of the Brownsville Housing Authority, the board again cancelled their Monday meeting to prevent the sitting of the Ahumada (majority) appointed by the mayor before his final day in office Tuesday.

In a notice posted at the BHA central office on Boca Chica Blvd. Friday afternoon Beatrice Lopez, in her capacity as chairperson, gave public notice that the meeting would not take place.

And, under the bylaws of the BHA, the swearing-in of new members and election of officers can only take place in a regular meeting.

The cancellation cam about after Ahumada was served during his last meeting as mayor last Tuesday after he wrote Lopez informing her that she had been replaced on the board by Ahumada replacement Troy Whittenmore.

In response, the chairperson Beatrice Lopez filed a motion Tuesday against Ahumada in the 357th District Court asking the court to issue an Temporary Restraining Order to prevent her removal without due process and to have a trial on the merits.

She further asked the court to enjoin Ahumada from replacing her as chairman because he "will be allowed to replace plaintiff and impermissibly influence board policy and autonomy and violate state law."

Under the charter of the City of Brownsville, the mayor appoints all five members of the BHA board, although his right to remove them is limited by state law.

Lopez charges in her petition that the mayor can only remove a commissioner of a housing authority for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or misconduct of office.

Further, she states that, as per state law, she must be given a copy of the charges before the 10th day before the date of the hearing on the charges, and an opportunity to be heard in person by counsel at the hearing.

"In the instant case, the defendant (Ahumada) failed to give plaintiff (Lopez) a copy of the charges he claims constitutes cause for dismissal. In addition, he summarily dismissed plaintiff without setting it for hearing and an opportunity to be heard," Lopez states in her petition. Ahumada was served with Lopez's petition during his last meeting as mayor Tuesday. The new mayor, Tony Martinez, will be sworn in next Tuesday.

Insiders say that because of the pending litigation, the board is justified in choosing not to meet. Once the issues are resolved, it is expected that the new mayor Tony Martinez will be in office and the Ahumada nominations will be moot.

"It's a game of chicken, with high stakes," said the BHA staffer. "I don't think the chairperson is going to blink."

CUIDADO CON EL CATAN! ESTA DELICIOSO!

By Juan Montoya
By any measure, the alligator gar is a nasty looking fish.

A throwback to prehistoric times, it more resembles a scaly iron-clad submarine than it does a fish. With a long snout of razor-sharp teeth, it frightens the dickens of anyone that gets close to it.

But any South Texas or North Mexico resident if he’s had gar (catan) chicharrones and you’ll probably get a satisfied "yes."
Most local families eat the meat of the gar as their fathers and grandfathers before them have. The meat is whitish pink. And although it takes some doing to remove the armor-like shell of the dangerous looking fish, the taste of the flesh is rewarding of the effort.
In the rest of the country – along the Gulf Coast and the eastern United States, the fish was hunted mainly for its hard shell. Native Americans made ornaments of the rock-hard, scaly covering.
But locally, it is part of the local cuisine.
"We always considered it a treat when our dad brought home catan chicharrones," said Gonzalo Noriega, a local air-conditioning worker. "Sometimes he would just bring the meat and you could smell the odor as it cooked. They were delicious with fresh corn tortillas and a bit of salsa."
The gar is a predatory fish that is found mostly in the fresh waters of eastern North and Central America. There are no gar on the Pacific Ocean side of the North American continent.
And despite it’s tasty flesh, it’s appearance is enough to keep most anglers at a respectable distance.
"It’s got long jaws lined with sharp, nasty teeth," said Noriega. "Even when it’s out of the water, if it turns and gets a hold of you, it’ll give you a nasty slash."
But it’s other fish that make up the diet of the bony predator. They eat voraciously and have no known preference for either fish with scales or without.
Although most varieties in its known habitat are known to grow to five feet, others can reach astounding sizes. The tropical, or Cuban gar, has been known to reach 12 feet in size. The Cuban gar lives in streams that are tributary to the Gulf of Mexico, leading some local residents to think they may have run into some of that variety.
"I remember when my dad took us to fish for gar in the irrigation resacas around Los Fresnos," remembers Joe Luz of San Pedro. "When the farmers stopped using the water for their crops, there would be deep pools left where fish would be trapped. You could hear hundreds of them slapping the water with their tails as they circled crowded around the pools."
Luz said that the abundance of fish at these isolated pools would lead locals to shun fishing tackle and opt for seine nets, or tarrallas. When the lead weights started sinking the fish would get snared in the netting.
Still others used sharpened steel spears to snag a particularly large fish. But Luz remembers the biggest gar he has seen.
"As we were leaving with a bunch of gar about three feet long, we heard a commotion around one of those big irrigation cement pipes in the fields."
A large gar could not negotiate the elbow of one of these pipes and had become trapped there, Luz said.
"No one wanted to go in there after him because of the teeth," he recalled. "So my dad climbed over the pipe and to the top of it and dropped the tarralla. Other men below used a wire to snag it through the elbow pipe.
"When they pulled the net we found there were two monsters stuck in the middle," he said. "They must have been more than six feet long. My dad got one for climbing the pipe and we took him home. When we were skinning him the machete would give off sparks from the hard shell. It even smelled like smoke. But I tell you what, there was so much meat in that fish the whole of San Pedro had some."

A FRIEND IN NEED...OF WORK

By Juan Montoya

I ran into my tocayo Juan Flores the other day at a local grocery store. He was with his wife and I stopped to say hello by the bakery section.
Juan is one of those guys who can do anything with his hands. Whether it's laying ceramic tile, floors, marble, Formica tops, even working with porcelain tile, Sheetrock, etc., or all kinds of carpentry, he can do it well.
Like a lot of our city residents, he is also looking for work and asked me if I knew where he could get a job doing what he does.
I know he can't afford to buy a newspaper ad to advertise his services, so I told him I'd spread the word around that someone good at what he does needs work.
So, in order to extend him a helping hand, here it is. If you have a job for Juan around the house, here's his number (372-7030).
He's a dependable, skilled person who I'm sure will charge a reasonable fee for his labor. If you need something do, give him a call and help him out.

AHUMADA STILL TRYING TO CONTROL BROWNSVILLE HOUSING AUTHORITY

By Juan Montoya
Two days after voters ousted Pat Ahumada by a landslide, the former mayor walked into the offices of the Brownsville Housing Authority and removed the chairperson of the board demanding members hold a meeting to elect new officers from among those he had appointed.
In response, the chairperson Beatrice Lopez has filed a motion Tuesday against Ahumada in the 357th District Court asking the court to issue an Temporary Restraining Order to prevent her removal without due process and to have a trial on the merits.
She further asks that the court enjoin Ahumada from replacing her as chairman because he "will be allowed to replace plaintiff and impermissibly influence board policy and autonomy and violate state law."
Under the charter of the City of Brownsville, the mayor appoints all five members of the BHA board, although his right to remove them is limited by state law.
Lopez charges in her petition that the mayor can only remove a commissioner of a housing authority for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or misconduct of office.
Further, she states that, as per state law, she must be given a copy of the charges before the 10th day before the date of the hearing on the charges, and an opportunity to be heard in person by counsel at the hearing.
"In the instant case, the defendant (Ahumada) failed to give plaintiff (Lopez) a copy of the charges he claims constitutes cause for dismissal. In addition, he summarily dismissed plaintiff without setting it for hearing and an opportunity to be heard," Lopez states in her petition.
Ahumada was served with Lopez's petition during his last meeting as mayor Tuesday. The new mayor, Tony Martinez, will be sworn in next Tuesday.
But until then, the issues of the BHA board will remain in limbo.
In the waning days of the mayoral campaign, Ahumada replaced three board members (a majority) that included Art Rendon, Pat Lehmann, and Rosario Gonzalez. He replaced them with Andy Muñiz, Silveiro Capistrano, and BHA resident Ludivina Garza in what has been called the BHA Massacre. Staff members said he walked the three into the BHA offices and swore them in himself.
Then, after Lopez and the remaining member, local attorney Ruben Herrera, did not hold a special meeting to elect new officers as Ahumada had requested, he summarily replaced her with Troy Whittenmore, an administrator with the Brownsville Independent School District.
Whittenmore also serves as vice-chairman of the City of Brownsville Planning and Zoning Commission, and his appointment would seem to go against the city charter prohibiting a person from serving on more than one board.
However, what is raising many eyebrows about his appointment is that Whittenmore's brother Kent, a risk benefits cooordinator for the BISD , when BHA Director Tony Juarez was the Chief Financial Officer with BISD, was instrumental in getting Juarez fired when he filed a grievance against him for not recommending a local insurance broker for the district's lucrative $40 million employee insurance contract.
Ahumada's attempted appointment of Whittenmore appears to many to be an effort by Ahumada to intimidate the BHA director into carrying out his directives.
Muniz, who has been seen in the company of Ahumada and Dallas low-income housing developer James "Bill" Fisher in swanky new restaurants, called for a special meeting Monday, but failed to show up for it. Since the autonomous board can only meet when the chair calls for a meeting and sets the agenda, the board has not met to elect new officers.
Then, after Muniz didn't show up, Ahumada wrote Lopez informing her he was replacing her with Whittenmore.
Ahumada's relationship with Fisher, the Dallas developer, and his company Odyssey Construction Residential and Holdings, seem to be at the core of this stalemate at the BHA.
The BHA has plans to renovate and replace major low-income housing developments in the city, and Odyssey has announced it wants to compete for a share of those multi-million dollar plans.
Its president Saleem A Jafar contributed $5,000 to Ahumada's failed campaign for mayor in this past election.
Odyssey's past record with the BHA has turned off many former board members and the firm – through Fisher – has compiled a record of disputes with the BHA and other contractors and developers.
On Aug. 23, 2010, Sun America sent a letter to Oddysey asking the firm to pay a predevelopment loan of $480,796.38 payable to SA Affordable Housing dated Aug. 1, 2007. Fisher, during a BHA meeting on September 27, 2010, told the board this was not accurate and that Odyssey did not owe any funds and did not pledge any developer fees. The eventual outcome was that the developer ended up paying $203,000.
Them on Aug. 20, 2010, subcontractor Jaime Jamarillo filed suit against Odyssey that included the BHA as respondent for payment of services. During the Sept. 27 meeting Fisher told the board that Odyssey did not owe any money and that itr was the BHA and Candlewick Apartments' fault because the BHA did not pay the retainage. On March 8, 2011, Odyssey settled with Jamarillo for $23,500 and the BHA was released from the lawsuit.
That's not all.
On Aug. 12, 2010, Odyssey, though Fisher, presented a contract to Candlewick and the BHA that according to BHA board members, was written for the full benefit of Odyssey and called for payment of $2,997.25 to Fisher's company for revenues from coin washers and dryers at the apartments. Odyssey had purchased the washers and dryers without prior approval from the BHA or Candlewick Apts and then demanded that the apartments execute the equipment lease agreement. Instead, the apartments bought washers and dryers of its own and is retaining the monthly revenues generated by the machines.
Then, in April 2011, Fisher granted Ahumada permission to post political signs at the Candlewick Apartments property. Fisher claimed that since he was the owner, he had the authority to grant Ahumada permission to place his signs at the low-income housing site. On April 4, attorney Miguel Salinas sent Ahumada an email informing him that Fisher did not have the authority to grant permission for the posting of political signs and that he had not consulted with the apartments' manager. Ahumada's signs were removed.
On May 2, Sun America issued a default letter on a loan to Odyssey claiming the company had defaulted on excess development costs. That case is still pending.