Up until last October, City of Brownsville District 3 City Commission candidate Deborah Portillo was employed as the Special Assistant to the Executive Director of United Brownsville.
But, according to a statement issued by United Brownsville for an information request on her work and salary history with the nonprofit, she now works at her family's business at Portillo Jewelers. The family has at least one outlet at the Sunrise Mall and another Portillo Jewelers is listed in La Plaza Mall in McAllen.
A smaller store in downtown Brownsville was housed in a property owned by Abraham Golonsky situated across from the new bus terminal across the UTB-TSC campus. That business, we have learned, was to be vacated due in part to the sale of the property to the City of Brownsville for $2.3 million.There are three other candidates in the District 3 race after incumbent Melissa Zamora declined to run for her position. They are local businessman Martin Sarkis, newcomer David Belleperche, and Rosalio “Chalio” Rosales, executive director of the Good Neighbor Settlement Home.
According to the UB release, Portillo was employed with United Brownsville as the Special Assistant to the Executive Director from January 25, 2012 to October 5, 2012 and her grossed salary earnings were $28,103.33 during that time.
In a sense, in running for office, Portillo is automatically assumed to be the candidate for City of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez, an ardent UB supporter and member of the board. Also, she is in effect trading a paid position for a non-paying one since the nonprofit gets the bulk of its operating budget from annual donations from a number of publicly-funded entities and corporations.
United Brownsville is a non-profit corporation that has no funds of its own. Rather, it survives and pays its staff by extracting a $25,000 "goodwill" tribute from the City of Brownsville, Greater Brownsville Incentive Corporation, Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, Brownsville Independent School District, Brownsville Public Utilities Board, University of Texas at Brownsville, Texas Southmost College, and the Port of Brownsville.
Why would Portillo run for a position that doesn't pay a salary and leave one that paid her well over $3,000 a month as the the special assistant to the director of UB? Is Hizzoner hedging his bet to make sure he has at least one sure vote on the city commission to do as he will once Rose Gowen nails down the At-Large position against Robert Uresti?
11 comments:
Anyone who runs for public office here in Brownsville, should not be elected. They are all bought by somebody or fronting for some group. None of them can be trusted take care of the people's business for the people.
Tony Martinez is out of touch with the reality of Brownsville. He understands his friends and the old St. Joe mob....but he is not in touch with the majority of Brownsville. He thinks he is, but he is not. He cannot relate to most of us. He floats at a different level in the community than most of us and he is more loyal to that level than to the mainstream....which he doesn't understand. Ms. Portillo is a member of his level and she too, doesn't understand the majority of us.
She isn't going to win, I don't think. She looks kind of inexperiencee.
la chava es guapa,y las guapas ganan,pero sr. montoya con esta foto no la chinge,porque si va ir con esa cara a la comision pues la chava se ve que esta dormida.y por ultimo browsville necesita un cambio,para haver si se acaban todas las componendas y raterias...
She looks to pleasantly buzzing, or as DPS defines it, "drunk". Just the way I like them.
She looks stoned. Drug test her bony ass!
deborah, looks like you were smoking some good shit or just plain drunck in this picture, anyway, if you were or are smoking pasala para andar igual baby. el monkey
Goofy dumb blonde is the only way to be qualified.
Ms. Portilla is an acquaintance of mine, and I can tell you that she is anything but a dumb blonde. I can't speak to her connections with the existing plutocracy here in Brownsville, but I know her to be both highly intelligent and quite capable of standing up for what she believes in. You guys are letting the fact that she is easy on the eyes deceive you (people don't make that mistake around her twice).
hope she doesnt win,,she looks like a jukie,,she is not "guapa", esta cachetona
I can't believe the ignoramous comments on this blog about Deborha Portillo solely based on one photograph. This intellegent and well educated young woman running for commissioner happens to be a very smart person. The fact that she is also good looking obviously is a problem with some of the low information readers here. Reeks of some of the brainless Cheezmeh Kool Aid drinkers on this blog. Go back to posting notices for your lost dogs and traffic reports which are a lot more useful, for you are totally ignorant when it comes to politics.
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