THE MELISSA ZAMORA-MARTINEZ-ELITE AD AGENCY CONNECTS

By Juan Montoya

Despite the bombast and hand-wringing in the wake of questions raised in this blog (and now others) questioning the apparently too-cozy relationship between City Commissioner Melissa Zamora, AeroMexico, Mayor Tony " Pious I" Martinez, and the ad agency Elite Promotions, questions that we (and others) have asked about this ménage à quatre have gone unanswered.
Instead, the commish and her cyber-vociferous supporters have resorted to a "blame the messenger" strategy that fills cavities with smoke and distracts from the subject at hand.
These are some of the components of the AeroMexico dynamic. This much we know:
Zamora has stated here and elsewhere that she was aware that AeroMexico and representatives of the City of Brownsville had been meeting over the span of months prior to last week's announcement they were starting flights out of the city to Monterrey.
To quote the commish:
"Aeromexico has been in the works for several months. I am often asked by BEDC to meet with prospects due to my marketing experience...
"I was asked last week by BEDC to join in a meeting with Aeromexico. The mayor and I met with marketing representatives of Aeromexico, but in two separate meetings. We had a two-hour meeting where I promoted our region – both SPI and Brownsville. I am familiar with what their market would be here – the business traveler and the tourist. We brainstormed marketing strategies, and I was asked to assist with future ideas with BEDC and Aeromexico. I do all of this on a volunteer basis."
Now, Zamora was an adamant in her opposition to FlyFrontera during this same time period. In fact, she was the only commissioner who didn't approve of the city continuing talks with the proposed regional airline at the time.
At the time, people who questioned her opposition to pursuing the idea wondered why. Did she know something the rest of us didn't? Was she being an honest broker?
We also know this. Zamora is a marketing consultant for Elite Promotions, a Brownsville-based ad agency. That fact is clearly stated in the firm's website. It also lists David Betancourt Jr. as an assistant consultant. We didn't make this up. It's there.
When interested parties called asking if positions were available to work for AeroMexico, they were told by Elite Promotions employees that Ms. Zamora was "in charge of the AeroMexico account" and that they should talk to her.
At the time of the AeroMexico announcement, Mayor Martinez named Zamora as the point person on the city commission for promoting the airline.
According to news accounts at the time, the mayor said Zamora would "assist in marketing AeroMexico on this side of the border."
The local daily apparently saw no potential conflict of interest in the announcement that a sitting commissioner employed by a local ad agency would be in charge of promoting the airline. That's their prerogative just as it is ours to ask whether anything improper is in the offing.
Former Cameron County Judge Tony Garza used to say that "the appearance of impropriety is often more damaging than the impropriety itself." A public official should know this and expect the public to question their performance in the commission of public acts. It comes with the territory.

This is not the Commish's first rodeo.

On Oct. 3, 2009, she told the Brownsville Herald that she was terminating a contract she had with a vendor doing business with the city.

Here, verbatim, is the lowdown on that minor faux pas.

"Zamora, who had provided HNTB Corp. with public relations work, said that she ended a consulting contract with the firm because, '"I do not need the appearance of impropriety — when I’ve done nothing of the sort — nor does HNTB and the city. I’ve terminated the contract, and I take full responsibility if anyone was offended by my brief contract.'"

A Kansas City-based nationwide architectural, engineering, and planning firm with offices in Brownsville, HNTB has been providing the city with engineering services on projects at the city’s Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport since before the time that Zamora was elected to the City Commission in June.
HNTB also engineered the Brownsville Sports Park and is in charge of engineering for the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority, which is working on numerous city projects including the West Rail Relocation Project, the West Loop project, now known as the West Parkway Project and other developments.
Zamora, formerly communications director for the South Padre Island Convention & Visitors Bureau, noted that she has worked in the media, publishing and public relations fields for more than 15 years.
Zamora said that she signed a contract with HNTB to provide it with media relations work, such as press releases, from Aug. 10 through Nov. 30.
The contract called for no more than 100 hours of work. "I’ve submitted one invoice for $1,400 of which I’ve not been compensated for, yet," Zamora said."

Now the commissioner claims that she is doing all this work for a multi-million Mexican airline on behalf of the city gratis.

OooooK.

We suppose we could take her word for it.

Others more cynical than us would take the statement with a grain of salt or two.

We do know, however, that in the Hizzoner's first campaign report he listed Elite Promotions as recipients of campaign expenditures for "advertising services," and, we may mention, one of only handful vendors he hired in the city. Most of his campaing expenditures for consultants and advertising – to the tune of about $55,000 – were from outside the city.

On March 15, 2011 he listed them as having received $2,762 from his campaign for advertising services and another $346 on April 4 for the same services. We have not received the final campaign report yet, but will peruse it to see whether the apparent relationship between the players in this melodrama go further tan the paltry sums above.

Will someone else threaten to sue us for wanting to get at the facts?