CAMPIRANO GETS X-MAS GIFT IN FEBRUARY, AND LUMP OF COAL: 2 YR-CONTRACT EXTENSION, BUT SAME PAY, NO $5K BONUS OR COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT

By Juan Montoya
Just a few short weeks ago, the board of directors of the Brownsville Navigation District turned down a proposal by Port Director and CEO Eddie Campirano for an across-the-board 3.9 percent raise for all port employees.

The board turned that down and instead gave a 2 percent raise for all hourly employees, leaving those with the bloated salaries at the same level.

We've listed the salaries of the top honchos here before, so it's no use beating a dead horse by listing them all again.

Well, last week Campirano's performance came up before the board for an evaluation and guess what? With only board member Tito Lopez absent, the other four commissioners – John Reed, Ralph Cowen, Martin Arambula and Carlos Masso – voted to grant him a two-year contract extension instead of three-years, no automatic $5,000 bonus or coast-of-living adjustments.
 Now, when you're doing a good job, the contracts normally come with a nice pay bonus.

Not so in this case, we're told. A request for information to the port indicates that the contract extension into 2014 will be at the same pay level that Eddie had before.
"They're sending him a strong message about his performance there," said a port insider. "Usually, those perks are expected. Not in his case."
In other words, those in the Campirano household will have to tighten their belts and make do with his paltry $175,000 annual salary and his $8,400 in auto allowance. That's only about seven times the average annual income of a Cameron County resident.
For Eddie, it's Christmas in February, a sort of Dia de la Candelaria compliments of the BND board.
This means that the majority of the board is satisfied with Eddie's performance up to a point.
So far, Campirano's track record is not one with which to pad his resume. At least two TIGER applications to the federal government (one for which the port paid $90,000 to Shiner-Mosely) have been turned down under his watch. If rolled steel cargo is going up it is because Mexico industry requires it and the closest geographical point for shipping is the Port of Brownsville. No one at the port, not Eddie anyway, can claim credit for the upturn in the market.
So far, the high-priced (and extravagant) junkets to Shanghai, China have been for naught except to provide a taste of the good life for Eddie and a few commissioners.
Personnel wise, the move is on at the port under Eddie to pack the staff with politically-acceptable candidates such as former Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia who went from overseeing 250 cops in the city to seven at the port at virtually the same salary, about $85,000.
His marketing director is none other than German Rico, son-in-law of UTB-TSC President Juliet Garcia whom Campirano served as TSC trustee. Rico has been wining and dining on the port's credit card up and down the western hemisphere with very little (except a few extra pounds) to show for his excesses.
An assistant harbormaster was hired at $56,000 before she even served her probationary period with the only qualifications she had on her application was that she had been in the Coast Guard.
Then, when a harbormaster was hired, it turned out to be someone who had sued his former employer and won hundreds of thousands of dollars on a whistle blower lawsuit.
And a recent study ordered by Eddie on the port's accounting department was filled with faux pas galore including recommendations that certain employees (specifically supervisor Debbie Duke) be replaced and someone else be hired more to the liking of chairman Reed, his brother-in-law Mark Hoskins of Gulf Stream Marine, and a few disgruntled stevedores.
Talk about the inmates running the asylum.
So now, unless a new crew is elected to the board this May, the port is stuck with Eddie for at least another two years. With the district well on its way to becoming the equivalent of a ropa usada outlet with its five or six shipbreaking companies gutting surplus U.S. Navy ships, it is now pegging its hopes on an application before the U.S. Energy Dept. for a liquefied gas plant that won't be operational until at least 1218 if the application goes through without a hitch.
But, with a salary seven times the median income of Cameron County residents, Campirano won't see the board's retaining him at $175,000 as a vote of non-confidence.
As long as the gravy, the trips, and banquets coming keep on coming, he's here to stay, folks. Donde quedo el monito?