MARTINEZ'S PLAN: GIVE CITY PLAZA TO UTB, SHUNT MUNICIPAL COURT, SECRETARY, INSPECTORS TO C DEL NYLON

By Juan Montoya
For the past three weeks city employees at City Plaza on Levee Street have seen a procession of visitors from the UT System and the University of Texas at Brownsville touring the site and examining the premises.
At first they thought it may have been some public relations move by the city commission to showcase the transformation of a commercial building to public use. The city purchased the Duffey Building before it became City Plaza in 2004.
Now we learn that the plan that Mayor Tony Martinez has been nurturing all along was for the city to lease, and then to donate, the City Plaza to the UT System for use of the UT Brownsville. All this was done, say some city insiders, without telling any of the city commissioners or city administration or department heads about it.
"It's the Martinez style of government," said a disgruntled-level staffer. "He wheels and deals behind everyone's back, including the city commissioners, and doesn't tell them anything until he asks for their signature on the dotted line for their approval."
Such, they say, was the way that Martinez has handled the unprecedented binge on real-estate speculation that saw the commissioners give their approval to the $2.3 million purchase of La Casa Del Nylon building and its adjoining properties. Some commissioners complained that Martinez handled it all himself with the assistance of some city administrators and his longtime law partner Horacio Barrera who happened to be good friends with owner Abraham Golonsky. Golonsky has defended the deal saying he had been offered more money before he agreed to sell the former dry-good store to the city.
But others say that by the time the commissioners found out about the deal, tn appraisal had already been performed and the parties had already negotiated a deal.
"All the commissioners were asked was to give their vote and their approval," said the source. "The same thing is happening now. He wants to move out all the city employees and offices now at City Plaza and move them to a remodeled Casa del Nylon."
The building is now empty and stands across Adams Street from the new city bus station (or Multi-Modal Terminal as it is called). It will take thousands of dollars to renovate to bring it up to acceptable standards for a city facility, observers say.
Insiders say that it won;t be long before the item appears on the city agenda for the city to first lease the building to UTB and then find a way to donate it to the university.
"They spent thousands of dollars to remove two escalators from the Duffey Building before it became City Plaza," said one. "Now Martinez wants to give it to Julieta Garcia with UTB."
With a city commission who gives Martinez just about everything that he wants with little or no protest or dissent, it is most likely that he will get his way, they say. A win by his candidate Deborah Portillo, his candidate over Martin Sarkis in the District 3 runoff would only cement his plan, they say.
"No one has spoken out against his plans to engage in real-estate speculation, to issue millions in debt through certificates of obligation, or to approve utility rates to buy a quarter of the Tenaska electric plant," he said. "With another firm vote on the commission, he can do as he pleases and no one can say anything about it. So far no one has."