CITY RELEASES APPRAISAL ON LAND BY CUETO BUILDING

By Juan Montoya
Among the $4.25 million in real-estate purchases made by the Brownsville City Commission with Hizzoner Da Mayor Tony Martinez at the helm is included a plot of land 1335 E. Madison Street next to the Cueto Building, which the city had purchased earlier from Texas Southmost College.
On October 2011, the TSC trustees voted to sell the school’s historic Cueto building to the city of Brownsville for $500,000. The sale included the historically renovated building inside the compound which was readily taken by United Brownsville at the cut-rate rental fee of $1,000 a month for 1,400 square feet of space.
That was no skin off their nose since the money that funds that group which is accountable to no one comes from $25,000 annual "membership" donations from nearly a dozen publicly-funded entities. In other words, we're paying for the nice digs that Tea Party United Brownsville CEO Mike Gonzalez and a lone assistant will be occupying
There was only one glitch, however. With United Brownsville moving in next door, it would not do to have them park their BMWs and other nice rides out in the curb at the mercy of the street urchins and crackheads that ply their wares in the vicinity.
So Martinez directed the staff (without consulting with the rest of the commissioners, as he is wont to do) to look for a nice piece of property where Mike and his Girl Friday could hitch their horses.
They found one next door at 1335 East Madison owned by Oscar Muñoz that had a dilapidated trailer and two duplexes that had seen better days. The land covered three lots but only the rear of the lots were used, leaving the entire front of the property unused.
The tenants – all low-income – were no problem. They were paying on a monthly basis and the city could evict them as soon as the right price was found.
Toward that end, they hired a local appraiser – Landmark Appraisal Company – to perform the required pre-purchase appraisal to determine the price. After the appraisal was performed, the value was placed at $155,000. However, the asking price for the property was about $100,000 more than that.
Not to worry. Even though the city is prohibited from paying more than the appraised (fair market) value for a property, the city legal eagles and Martinez found way around it.
Why not rent (at $2,500 a month) for a few year (three, to be exact) until the difference ($90,000) between asking price and fair market value was paid by the city and then exercise the option to buy the land at the appraised value? All told, between the $500,000 paid to TSC and the $250,000 that we will pay to Muñoz, it will cost the citizens of Brownsville three-quarters of a million to give Da Mayor and United Brownsville new digs and a deluxe parking lot. Ditto! Neato!
That would be better than condemning the properties adjacent to the building occupied by low-income tenants. That way the Mayor and United Brownsville could get the land, and the seller would get his asking price.
How to pay for it if the city claimed penury and the commisison had to dip into fund reserves to give city employees a measly 3 percent raise this budget year?
Easy. The mayor had his commission issue $13.2 million Certificates of Obligation to buy not only the land next to the Cueto building we refer to here, but also other tracts in town. The COs will eventually be paid by city taxpayers and from the surpluses in the landfill and the city airport. In other words, the residents of Brownsville will foot the entire bill.
When the deal was done and Martinez presented the fait accompli to the commission, pesky Commissioner Ricardo Longoria suggested that there was space at the City Plaza for United Brownsville.
However, this would spoil Martinez and UB Gonzalez's plans for the space at the Cueto Building and the historical building next door.
"Yes, we're aware of that space," Gonzalez told the commissioners. "But it is actually too large for our needs and we were looking for a more ideal spot."
Persisting, Longoria reiterated that the City Plaza space was recently vacated, could be rented more cheaply and included a conference room.
Despite the pesky Southmost commissioner's meddling, Gonzalez got his 1,400 square foot office where United Brownsville and the community could "exchange ideas." It wouldn't hurt that they had Da Mayor's ear next door, would it?
At the time, Longoria said he was worried about parking and then-city planner Ben Medina said he would "look into it."
Well, be careful what you wish for, Rick. Now that Da Mayor got his land and we are stuck paying $2,500 monthly rent for the future United Brownsville-Cueto Building parking lot, you have it.
A corner of the same lot of land, by the way, will be used by the city to set up the ranch house that city founder Charles Stillman built at the Laureles plot of the King Ranch back in the 1850s and which will be moved to Brownsville to remember Chuck.
Ain't it grand when you can use the public's money to satisfy your whims?