CHAIRMAN COWEN COMING TO A PORT NEAR YOU AT OUR EXPENSE?

By Juan Montoya
He is the self-appointed Ambassador of Goodwill for the City of Brownsville.
He has single-handedly hijacked the annual Charro Days grito and is jockeying to have his nephew take over the role after his ample vocal chords and lung power diminishes.
You know him. He's the portly gabacho in the suffering mariachi pants struggling to keep back his overflowing paunch. If you tune in to the televised meeting sat the Brownsville Navigation District, he will be the amiable fellow with the thinning graying shock of hair who's everybody's friend.
Those of us who know the Cowens know they're ingratiating folk who claim their roots back to Rip Ford, the slavery-loving Confederate doctor who battled it out with Mexican caudillo Juan Cortina and made battle against the dreaded Yankees.
But if you can point out a more self-promoting fellow than old Ralph, you'll
get a Liberty dollar.
Mariano "Bean" Ayala isn't eligible for the competition because Ayala does make a semblance of actually working for his paycheck.
During the last Port elections, no one bothered to challenge vice-chair Cowen or chairman John Reed for their position, even though we know that Reed's brother-in-law is Mark Hosking, the manager of the Gulf Stream Marine stevedore company that single-handedly lowered the wages at the port for longshoremen to the lowest of all along the Gulf Coast with their union-busting using their confederates on the BND board.
And no one bothered to announce against Cowen, even though we know he has a brother and nephew at Roser & Cowen Logistical Customs Services, who specialize in moving cargoes and merchandise across the border for port customers.
More than once Ralph has elbowed his way to visiting dignitaries from other countries and brazenly offered his relatives' services to the embarrassment of those present. But than again, that's just Ralph.

Now we understand that since there will be no contested elections at the port, Cowen is politicking to take over the helm of the Golden Ditch after Reed gives up the gavel, the normal rotation of control on the board. But even is Cowen has somehow managed to be named vice-chair, the fact of the matter is that the board names its chairman by seniority on the board, and Ralph's turn hasn't quite come up yet.

He is hoping to knock off Tito Lopez to become head honcho on the board of

directors.

And, if you have been following our coverage of the port, you will doubtless be aware that compared to other entities, the administration out there is rife with political incest and unjustified bloated salaries at the top.

Starting at the top with Eduardo Campirano, Director and CEO, the salaries just keep on coming. Eddie – at $175,618 plus $8,400 (700 a month) auto allowance – has been hopscotching all over the world on the port's nickel and Cowen has often been there with him.

Donna Eymard, the assistant Port Director takes in – $125,756 plus $8,400 (700 a month) auto allowance –although some of her defenders some of her defenders say that in the past the port had two assistant port directors and that Eymar now performs the work of two assistants.
Ariel Chavez, Director of Engineering, $98,529 and $8,400 ($700 a month) auto allowance. The port has never had a legitimate marine engineer, instead opting to hire civil engineers like Chavez, a Brownsville native. He is followed by Jose G. Garza Jr., Director of Maintenance, at $90,875. We know of no other director of maintenance for such a small e

ntity as the Port of Brownsville who earns this much.
Following Chavez is Carlos Garcia, Port Security, Chief of Police, who anded the top cop job at the port at $85,000 plus $8,400 ($700 a month) auto allowance.

While Garcia was responsible for about 250 police officers in a city of almost 200,000, he is now the head of a formidable seven-officer force and rides herd on a dwindling port force that has steadily decreased from a high of almost 6,000 workers in the different port leasees to a number estimated to hover between 2,000 to 3,000.

If you compare his duties with those of BISD Police Chief Oscar Garcia (no relation, we hope), it is readily obvious that Carlos is grossly overpaid. BISD pays Garcia $89,000 plus benefits but he has to oversee 53 campuses, 7,000-plus BISD employees and has 158 employees under him, including 33 police officers and 115 security guards.
The gravy train doesn't stop there.

Last year, 92 port employees received a $200 bonus and a $50 gift card for Christmas.

If Ralph somehow gets his fellow commissioners to vote him chairman, we can rest assured that the junkets and the free trips will continue unabated as will the unbridled use (abuse) of the entity's credit cards.

Charging one of these cards more than $1,600 and $1,800 for two single meals on separate nights between the executive director and a couple of port commissioners in China will probably become the norm. And even though experts in the cruise industry have said that the port of Brownsville is probably the least desired destination among cruise-ship enthusiasts, this hasn't deterred Ralph from forging ahead and committing the port's resources in his quixotic quest to bring them here.

With him at the helm, it could only get worse.