DOCILE CITY COMMISSION STANDS BY AS IBC STAGES COUP D'ETAT

By Juan Montoya

Never in their worst nightmares did the avid supporters of commissioners Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa or John Villarreal think that their paladins of public freedoms would docilely hand over the responsibilities of their office to a nebulous "committee" to be chosen by the equally shadowy United Brownsville.
Yet, even as they hope against hope that this is not the fact, it appears to be so, much to their dismay.
This blog has posted in the past that the so-called United Brownsville movement led by the likes of UTB-TSC President Juliet Garcia and IBC President Fred Rusteberg amounted to nothing more than a back-door stratagem to disable democratic government in Brownsville and stage a de facto power grab by a power elite that has no room for popular opinion or, indeed, democratic politics.
They somehow convinced a large section of the city and representatives (elected and appointed) of public corporations and entities to give them access to public funds (at $25,000 a pop) to fund their scheme.
The City of Brownsville, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, the Brownsville Independent School District, the Brownsville Navigation District, the Public Utilities Board, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College all gave Rusteberg $25,000 a piece annually to allow his hand-picked henchmen to run the city instead of those officials we elected to do so.
Now, with Mayor Tony Martinez suggesting that the individual commissioners relinquish their right to appoint members to the different city boards and hand the prerogative over to Rusteberg, the scheme becomes crystal clear: This is nothing more than the culmination of a political hijacking by the power elite to remove the public from any say-so in their democratic government.
United Brownsville has never been accountable to anyone. It has claimed that its meetings are not subject to the Open Meetings Act. And the so-called "Imagine Brownsville" plan that is supposed to lead us down the yellow-brick road to prosperity doesn't hold water as a planning document.
You see, the so-called plan is nothing more than a wish-list without any codification or ordinance implementation that would subject the future planners and elected city commissions of Brownsville to follow through on its "recommendations." In other words, this is an amateurish gambit that was sold to our elected officials and gullible multitudes by Brian Godinez, a failed snake-oil salesman from McAllen under Rusteberg's direction.
Ask small businessmen and doctors with their own clinics how they have fared in their business dealings with Rusteberg's IBC and you'll get a litany of complaints ranging from misplaced payments on their loans to disadvantageous refinancing of these notes at usurious rates that choke their income flows.
But you see, no one will ever see the details of these maneuvers because every loan and note issued by IBC carries a mediation clause. Of course, any mediation will cost the borrower a $5,000 fee, which forces many borrowers to cut their losses and give up the fight with the mighty bank and its hired gun attorneys.
One borrower that made out well was none other than our beloved Juliet Garcia and her husband Oscar, who borrowed the $175,000 to purchase the university president's home on Jacaranda Street. The hidden cost of the subsidy by taxpayers was that hundreds of thousands of dollars in improvements were made to the residence before Garcia was sold the house. That relationship goes way back to 1994 and before.
Juliet was able to buy the property from the university system through a legislative maneuver that allowed public property to be sold to an individual, her.
Was this a reward for excluding the UT-Brownsville campus from participating for funding in the Permanent University Fund that funnels billions to the other UT and A&M campuses around Texas? She (and Michael Putegnat, Eddie Lucio, Rene Oliveira, Mary Rose Cardenas and others there at the "partnership" origins) were content to go along and continue to use TSC as a cash cow by keeping that taxing entity accumulating debt to build the facilities that now bear the prestigious UT logo.
Jim Tipton and Terry Ray, both Martinez supporters, were recently overheard talking about "their boy" the mayor at a local watering hole and how the city needed to provide him with a personal secretary to handle the overwhelming load as the city's chief executive officer. Funny how they didn't make noises like that with former mayor Pat Ahumada.
Tipton gave Martinez a $5,000 campaign contribution and Richard Jaross, of Esco Marine, kicked in an additional $1,000. Custom Broker John Cowen (of the Cowen clan) contributed $5,000.
Mary Yturria gave Martinez $500. Frank, always a bit chintzier, gave him $100.
Johnny Cavazos (the local insurance mogul who practically owns the contracts with the BISD) kicked in $2,500. Car dealer Luke Fruia gave Martinez another $2,000. TSC trustee Roberto Robles, who wanted to give away the college district to the UT System, gave Martinez $500, as did Chester Gonzales, a former TSC trustee who was against separation of UTB-TSC.
Oscar Garcia (Juliet’s son and heir apparent to milk the local economy) gave Martinez $3,000. And guess what? Rusteberg’s IBC Committee for the Improvement and Betterment of the Country (grandiose, isn’t it?) gave Martinez $2,500.
And a cursory review of the contributors to Estela Chavez-Vasquez, one of the four women on the "historical city commission of 2011," reveals some of the usual suspects.
Trey Martinez, son of Mayor Martinez, and Fruia, the Tiptons, Jaross of the ship breakers at the port, and institutional construction monopolist Ray, all pitched in another $1,000 to get her on the same city commission that Martinez now controls.
And with Martinez's wife renting the home to commissioner Melissa Zamora, who's going to stand in the way of the axis of evil? Ricardo Longoria sure won't. He wants desperately to "engage" the new mayor in a personal relationship and understanding. Commissioner John Villarreal, like the rest of the crew, seems to be willing to be led by the nose.
It's all coming full circle now. With the Rusteberg-Garcia-and now Martinez axis in power, the stage is set to emasculate the people of Brownsville of any semblance of self-government.
Tetreau-Kalifa can whimper that everything that we are seeing are "pure lies" by those that are blinded by negativity. In fact, she still claims that she has dedicated her life as a public service to "transparency" and "accountability."
"To all those who spread the lies concerning our board appointments you have hurt our city and its leaders...," she laments.
Sorry, Jessica. We didn't come in on the last load of green wood, dear.
You did.