By all accounts, last Tuesday's bombshell announcements that AeroMexico, Mexico's largest airliner, will start July 15 with Friday and Sunday flights between Monterrey and Brownsville took everyone present by surprise.
"There was nothing on the agenda," said a city official who attended the mee
ting. "It came as a complete surprise."In fact, the meeting's agenda mentioned nothing of the airline opening service to Brownsville, and there was no action item approving the move. Instead, the announcement was handled much as a June surprise on behalf of a new mayor handing over a gift to a grateful citizenry.
Then, Martinez announced that commissioner Melissa Zamora was to be the "point person" and would assist in marketing AeroMexico on this side of the border. He said the airline asked only for help marketing rather than financial incentives up front, which wasn’t the case wwith Continental, American Airlines, or Fly Frontera.
When were these decisions taken?
Was there a commission vote on the accpetance of the AeroMexico deal, approval of spending public funds to pay for the promotion, or even approval from the commission to appoint Zamora as the marketing consultant to assist the airline?
Try as we might, we can find nothing in the official city agendas that even mention the airline, much less the approval of public funds to promote it.
So this is how things are going to be done in the Martinez administration, by fiat?
Hizzoner will learn as he goes along that he wasn't elected king, but rather, one of seven votes to decide specifically defined items on a publicly posted agenda. The former commission made sure that Pat Ahumada learned this over a short period of time. It got to the point where Ahumada couldn't even get a second to a motion to adjourn.
Now, as questions arise over the role of Ms. Zamora and the ad agency where she works as a marketing consultant will play in the plan to bring what everyone agrees is a necessary component of regional air travel between northern Mexico and Brownsville, people wonder whether the niceties of transparency and accountability apply to this administration.
When people ask what to us seem perfectly legitimate questions of propriety and process, Martinez climbs into his shell, Zamora enlists the aid of her cybergang to try to gag the questioners, and the public is left with the lingering suspicions that something isn't on the up-and-up.
Barely a month into his four-year term, the future does not seem to bode well for this mayor. Can it be possible that he will beat Ahumada's record to earn the suspicion and displeasure of the public?
At the meeting, Martinez urged everyone to support and promote the AeroMexico initiative.
Given his and Zamora's performances, how can they?
“I’m looking forward to see how the effort plays out,” he said then.
So are we.
8 comments:
EVERYONE READ "RULES FOR RADICALS" BY SAUL ALINSKY IT'S obama's BIBLE AND I'M SURE TONIA MARTINEZ TOO !!!!!!!!!
THIS BOOK WILL EXPLAIN THEIR "ACTIONS"!!!!!!!!
Let's see...and I will paraphrase...last couple of months, you write that having a regional airlines that provided service to Mexico and Brownsville was going to part the waters, open the skies and transform us all into kings.
Today, there is a regional airline, ready to start flying, providing air service to Mexico and Brownsville, and..you are posting pictures of unfortunate plane crashes associated with said airlines.
Let's try to reconcile this with anything other than; "I don't want THAT airlines, I want MY airlines."
I hear you on the possibility of improper benefits to community leaders, at least at face value, but you must admit that YOUR airlines deal looked pretty sketchy itself.
Comparing the two deals, in an unbiased manner, what are the pro of each and the cons of each?
Can we work on that analysis or are we going to continue to do exactly what you accused Frontera's detractors of doing?
The Fly Frontera proposal was sought first by the airport board, it was asked to submit a proposal, it appeared at all the meetings that were requested of it and it went through a comprehensive vetting process, skewed and questionable but it was a process.
Public discussions were held, community meetings were convened by the mayor and a decision was made on the frugality of the project Zamora was very critical of incentives that included the very same funds that Melissa Zamora is now go to dish out on behalf of Aeromexico. How much money has been authorized under what authority, under what public scrutiny and debate.
The owners of Fly frontera have never filed for bankruptcy, they did not bail on millions of dollars in debt and they did not screw their pilots and employees.
Now tell me how much better are they and how much will it cost Brownsville.
At least Pat Ahumada was transparent so far Martinez is o for 6 million and that does not include the money that will be given to melissa zamora.d
Anonymous of June 28, 2011 6:50 PM -
I might be wrong on this, but fly Frontera went to the city asking for contributions and financial assistance from the city, while AeroMexico has not, correct?
Is that the reason for the different process?
Aeromexico is a REAL AIRLINE...not a group of local jokers wanting to rent a plane and use their connections to take $1.5M of our tax dollars!!! Bravo Mr. Mayor, or whichever staff person was responsible for this great step!!
U sound scorned if not then jealousy writes for u. Leave the lady alone and give her a chance. Go dig into Janet Leals tenure and the exchanges and favors
U sound scorned if not then jealousy writes for u. Leave the lady alone and give her a chance. Go dig into Janet Leals tenure and the exchanges and favors
MIRA BABOSO(A), THE READERS AND THE WRITERS CALL IT WHAT IT IS "SMELLY MELLY MANIPULATING ANOTHER SUGAR DADDY".
A CADA SANTO SE LE LLEGA SU FIESTA, IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME ASK LIMAS.
the process is different on was public the other was secretive. Guess which one was hush hush.
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