A day after they had to pull the only item from a special meeting of the Brownsville City Commission, Mayor Tony Martinez and commissioner Rose Gowen – who placed it on then agenda – called upon their mouthpiece the Brownsville Herald to tell readers that they really weren't ready to present it to the full commission.
Hu? Since when?
The public reason for pulling the item that read: A) Discussion pursuant to Section 551.072, of the Texas Government Code regarding real property (A. Martinez, Mayor and Commissioner R. Gowen 20 min.) made no mention of the mayor's plan to sell, lease or "transfer" the City Plaza building to Juliet Garcia's UTB who need administrative space even if its not on the Texas Southmost campus.
But the USS Brownsville is one leaky ship and the news traveled fast that Martinez and Gowen were ready to move the employees located at City Plaza to the empty hulk called La Casa Del Nylon which Martinez had the city purchase for $2.3 million from his buddy Abraham Golonsky.
But there was a few catches. The building will take months – and perhaps millions – to remodel to fit the needs of a municipal One-Stop Center being served so elegantly now. And there is no parking in contrast to City Plaza that not only has a three-story parking structure attached to it, but also a free parking lot across St. Charles. It is the epitome of convenience to the average citizen who wants to do business with the city.
But the USS Brownsville is one leaky ship and the news traveled fast that Martinez and Gowen were ready to move the employees located at City Plaza to the empty hulk called La Casa Del Nylon which Martinez had the city purchase for $2.3 million from his buddy Abraham Golonsky.But there was a few catches. The building will take months – and perhaps millions – to remodel to fit the needs of a municipal One-Stop Center being served so elegantly now. And there is no parking in contrast to City Plaza that not only has a three-story parking structure attached to it, but also a free parking lot across St. Charles. It is the epitome of convenience to the average citizen who wants to do business with the city.
In a play taken from her takeover book, UTB's Garcia stressed the urgency of her new appendage to the University of the Americas having the city property before classes began in late August. If not, Western civilization as we know it would crumble all around us.
We've seen this movie before. Remember when she placed a new partnership "agreement" before the TSC trustees and told them that this was of utmost urgency if it was to go before the UT Regents before their meeting? There was no need to quibble over details, she told them. But, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. And what details there were. Hand over all the TSC assets – real estate, buildings, equipment, bank deposits, etc. – to UTB and do away with the community college.
Well, that wasn't quite right. We forgot to add that TSC would remain around as a taxing entity until the outstanding bond debt – on the issue of $68 million plus interest – was paid by the district taxpayers. When the district taxpayers finished paying off the debt they would have nothing and UTB would have everything. Neat, uh?
Well, not everyone on the city commission was willing to fall on the sword for Juliet or Martinez.
This is the spin that the city (read Martinez and Gowen) put on the debacle:
"To all:
We've seen this movie before. Remember when she placed a new partnership "agreement" before the TSC trustees and told them that this was of utmost urgency if it was to go before the UT Regents before their meeting? There was no need to quibble over details, she told them. But, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. And what details there were. Hand over all the TSC assets – real estate, buildings, equipment, bank deposits, etc. – to UTB and do away with the community college.
Well, that wasn't quite right. We forgot to add that TSC would remain around as a taxing entity until the outstanding bond debt – on the issue of $68 million plus interest – was paid by the district taxpayers. When the district taxpayers finished paying off the debt they would have nothing and UTB would have everything. Neat, uh?
Well, not everyone on the city commission was willing to fall on the sword for Juliet or Martinez.
This is the spin that the city (read Martinez and Gowen) put on the debacle:
"To all:
The decision to postpone the commission meeting, scheduled for this evening, was made at the request of our City Manager to better prepare to inform our commission of the details of the UTB request for lease space at the City Plaza and Cueto Buildings. Specific information as to the terms and length of lease are not available at this time . The university staff is working on details to present to city administration. If approved, relocation of city departments will be to vacate city-owned property such as Market Square etc., however, those details are pending and will not be ready today, thus, the request by our City Manager to postpone the meeting.
Before an important decision of this nature is made all the details need to be organized and presented to our commission and this will be worked on and presented at a later date to be determined."
Thank you.
This wasn't a smoking gun. This was the sound of the door being blown off the outhouse!
When was the last time we get this kind of detail on why a meeting was postponed?
Never. Are they waiting until after the elections Saturday and hoping Martinez's horse in the District 3 commissioner's race Deborah Portillo gets elected over local businessman Martin Sarkis gets elected before bringing it back?
This is not over yet by a longshot. If no one had known what Martinez and Gowen were trying to pull off, they would have gotten away with it just as Garcia tried to do to take $200 million in TSC assets.
The natives aboard the USS Brownsville, as Gowen and her hoity-doity friends would say, are revolting.
Before an important decision of this nature is made all the details need to be organized and presented to our commission and this will be worked on and presented at a later date to be determined."
Thank you.
This wasn't a smoking gun. This was the sound of the door being blown off the outhouse!
When was the last time we get this kind of detail on why a meeting was postponed?
Never. Are they waiting until after the elections Saturday and hoping Martinez's horse in the District 3 commissioner's race Deborah Portillo gets elected over local businessman Martin Sarkis gets elected before bringing it back?
This is not over yet by a longshot. If no one had known what Martinez and Gowen were trying to pull off, they would have gotten away with it just as Garcia tried to do to take $200 million in TSC assets.
The natives aboard the USS Brownsville, as Gowen and her hoity-doity friends would say, are revolting.
6 comments:
I commend the city manager for standing against this nonsense mayor and commissioner gowen. Their plan to give city plaza to UTB is extremely wrong and unethical, why should the city solve utb's problems on real estates needs? I just can't imagine moving our city departments out of city plaza to market square, it's like going backwards. Lets support mr. Cabler, he is a great leader. The hell with this mayor and puppet commissioner Gowen.
Gowen is a fucking idiot. Her Belden Trail is turning into a mini sports park nightmare. The sports park went way over budget because that idiot Delina from BCIC with no construction experience thought she could run the project. Now Gowen thinks she knows how to build trails and her little $200,000 pet project has gone out of control and is now at $800,000 and is nowhere near completion. Damn bitch, fix my street instead of overspending on stupid shit.
reply 606pm.'cabler a great leader' yo creo que al rata de cabler ya se le llego la hora,este guey no tiene ninguna preparacion para estar corriendo la cuidad.ahora de mover los deptartamentos de CITY PLAZA,pues que bueno,porque ve a tratar se sacar un permiso de construccion,para un restaurant o cualquier negocio son puras trabas que te ponen estos gueyes.ahora como tu dices A GREAT LEADER,TOdo QUE HA HECHO ES TRANSAR CON LOS COMISIONADOS QUE ESTAN CON EL,en este momento el unico es el raton de LONGORIA,y el guey tiene amenazado a todos los directores de departamentos si no hacen lo que el les dice lo corren,ahi esta el caso de WILLY 'shooter'GONZALEZ del departamento de health lo volvio a meter despues que baleo a 2 personas en el TUCAN BAR. nombro a SANTANA TORRES un sheerokero director de PUBLIC WORKS,PARA EL HACER TRANZAS,LAS CHAMBAS SE LAS DAN AL HERMANO DE santana Y A un guey que fue director se llama DAIVID IVORY,puras tranzas.por ultimo SE VE QUE TU ERES UN PENDEJO O UN CABRON QUE CABLER TE DA CHAMBA. PERO COMO TU DICES UN GRAN LEADER NI MADRE. LO QUE ES UN GRAN RATA.
Pero como seras pendejo tu, mover a Los empleados de city plaza significa que tu, estupido, cuando vayas a sacar un permiso para tu changarro vas a tener que ir a otro lugar que ni siquiera va a tener lugar para estacionar tu carcacha. No sabes lo que dices, pendejisimo de verdad.
i agree with 7,15 am i too think that cablers time is up and no matter what he does he is on his way out sorry charlie
Gowen, you attrative lady, please, stop the madness already and stick to your profession. You have no business in the commission.
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