MARTINEZ, GOWEN GIVEAWAY TO UTB'S GARCIA CONTINUES

By Juan Montoya
Two years ago, University of Texas at Brownsville President Juliet Garcia tried to ram through a new "partnership" agreement that would turn over some $200 million in Texas Southmost College assets (real estate, buildings, bank deposits) to the UT System and make the community college disappear into the bowels of the ravenous UT System.
Were it not for the votes of TSC trustees Trey Mendez, Kiko Rendon Adela Garza and Rene Torres, the community would have no junior college and local students would still be paying the highest tuition rates and students fees in the entire state of Texas.
These four trustees – elected by the residents of the community college district to represent them – told Garcia "no" and the college is well on is way back to provide an affordable, accessible education to local students who can get a technical-vocational certificate or finish their required courses and transfer to a four-year university for higher pursuits without them and their parents going broke.
Today, at 5:30, the City of Brownsville Commission – already committed to deliver 68 acres of publicly-owned real estate to the same UT System for the uses of the university – will discuss handing over the ownership of the hugely successful and attractive One-Stop Service Center at City Plaza to the same university system..
Unfortunately, there are no Mendezes, Garzas, Rendons or Torres to thwart the end-around being performed by Gowen and Martinez to dispossess the citizens of Brownsville of one of their most prized assets.
There is more. We have learned that Mayor Tony Martinez and Commissioner Rose Gowen are pushing for the rest of the commissioners to lease, sell, or transfer title of the City Plaza – at the corner of 11th and Levee streets – to UTB's Garcia for use as an administrative facility.
In other words, the former bank building which was purchased by the city from the same university because its administrators said it didn't suit their needs, might now be handed back to them compliments of Martinez, Gowen, if they can get two other commissioners to go along with their plan.
Already, there are strong rumblings against the plan.
Many see the One-Stop Center as one of the most successful and attractive assets owned and operated by the city. With the mayor and city commission giving the oil-and-gas wealthy UT System its "surplus" acreage for their university, why does the city commission want to give it its most prized asset when the UT System could just as well build its own administrative offices on the fallow land?
There are reports afoot that some administrators have already been told to start packing because they will be expected to make the move to the defunct Casa Del Nylon building which we understand will serve as the new nerve center for city services. The Casa Del Nylon, purchased for $2.3 million from Martinez pal Abraham Golonsky with representation by the mayor's law partner Horacio Barrera through the issuance of $11.3 million in Certificates of Obligation (COs), has no parking. In fact, when it was purchased, the word was that it would be used to build a parking structure to service the Intermodal Terminal traffic.
That has now changed apparently. It's not that UTB has no options. It can simply lease or rent from TSC. But there is bad blood between TSC and Garcia and that apparently has been discarded as an option.
Critics contend that the income generated by the various offices in the One-Stop Cent not only makes it accessible to the people of Brownsville, but also constitutes one of the city's most profitable and successful operations.
"I can guarantee that the income from the rental or lease to UT won't approach the amount of income generated by this attractive jewel of the city," said a downtown real-estate owner. "The city turned over the Capitol Theater Building to UTB for a dollar a year and it's still an eyesore. The place smells like piss and is surrounded by closed stores. What has the university done to improve it? After more than a decade, nothing.
With Martinez and Gowen running interference for Garcia, what will the rest of the city commissioners do?
Will they turn over the most attractive, most efficient city operation so that Garcia will have nice digs?
What say you Ricardo Longoria, John VIllarreal, Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa, Estela Chavez-Vasquez, and , yes, Melissa Zamora, about this?
Zamora, will be out this Saturday after the District 3 election. Will her successor – Martinez's protege Deborah Portillo or local businessman Martin Sarkis – voice an objection to the giveaway?