SIMPLE MATH BEHIND UNITED BROWNSVILLE SHADOW GOVERNMENT

By Juan Montoya
The late Cameron County commissioner from San Benito Dolph Thomae used to say that he, as a country boy, didn't need to learn any math, algebra or learn the quadratic equation to govern.
"We country boys know how to count to three," he would smirk, stating the obvious that all he needed to have on the five-member county commissioners court was a simple majority of three.
On the Brownsville City Commission the math isn't that much more complicated. There are seven members on the commission. It takes four votes to make a majority and impose their will.
If you have Mayor Tony Martinez, Commissioner At-Large-B Rose Gowen, District 4 commissioner John Villarreal and  At-Large A Commissioner Estela Chavez-Vasquez all voting the same (which they always do), you have a majority.
Why does this matter?
Because these four city commission members are also on the United Brownsville board, a public-funded shadow government imposed upon the city by IBC banker President Fred Rusteberg, master manipulator Carlos Marin, and UT-Brownsville President Julieta Garcia, no slouch at deception either. No one, by the way, elects Rusteberg, Marin or Garcia.
Yet, what these puppet masters and their self-appointed United Brownsville board decide at their meetings is what goes in the city. With a majority of the city commission on board, it really doesn't matter what the other three votes on the commission decide. It's a done deal.
And there, dear reader, is the nut of the matter.
This self-interest group has been given free rein in the city to decide its destiny regardless of who the voters elect into office. It's the tail wagging the dog.
Is this what we want? Why have city elections then?
\Villarreal is the United Brownsville co-chair along with Rusteberg and former banker (now a UTB vice president) Irv Downing. Mayor Martinez is also a member. Gowen is also a United Brownsville member.
But the ties go deeper.
Gowen is hired by Su Clinica Familiar as a physician which is managed by Dr. Elena Marin, wife of United Brownsville's mastermind Carlos Marin.
It's director of Operations in none other than Oscar Garcia Jr., UTB president Juliet Garcia. Portillo is a relative newcomer, but is no stranger from feeding off the public trough because she was an executive secretary for United Brownsville.  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, about $3,000 a month.
We say relative newcomer because she was picked by Martinez and the United Brownsville bunch to solidify their stranglehold on the city's finances even though she has never voted in a municipal election in her life. Her contribution list (including the corporate contributions) total $25,000 for the March 1-April 11 period. The Big Money boys want her in.
But they should have kept a closer eye on her since she's still uninitiated in the hurly-burly world of local poliltics and committed a no-no and reported on her expense report that indicate she took money (and spent it) from corporations, a third-degree felony.
Martinez, Villarreal, Gowen, Marin and Garcia have taken Thomae's dictum to a new high. They not only can count to four, but have put a firm down payment on all seven.