SAME PLAYERS, DIFFERENT TOWN; NOW UNITED BROWNSVILLE, FORMERLY KYLE, TEXAS

By Juan Montoya
We must thank blogger Jim Barton for alerting us to the newest wrinkle put in play by the bunch over at the factory of schemes called United Brownsville.
Barton correctly surmised that the new scheme to usurp our elected officials and control the economic development of the port and its transportation routes to benefit a few came in under a grandiose presumptuous plan dubbed the BiNED Zone heralding "border prosperity through a competitive economy."
According to Barton, United Brownsville operatives have burrowed and wormed their way into the public's cash already. He states that "without fanfare, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation paid nearly a half million dollars ($454,592.08) for a plan for the industrial corridor, including the Port of Brownsville. Here is an excerpt from our October 31, 2013 article: "Robin McCaffrey of Needham-McCaffrey and Associates, Inc. moderated the third leg of a slide show presentation to the GBIC on October 31, outlining an overall plan for a 22,000 acre industrial corridor including the Port of Brownsville. Earlier, the Port of Brownsville and Public Utilities Board heard the same proposal.

"The plan organizes the Port of Brownsville and the surrounding area south of the port and east of the Brownsville/South Padre Island Airport. Specific areas are segmented for heavy industry, light industry and organized according to power and water usage. Simply lining up industry along the ship channel is discouraged, but companies with similar energy and/or infrastructure needs are organized perpendicular to the channel.
McCaffrey preached to the choir as he stated that extending the airport runway to 12,000 feet and dredging out the ship channel were prerequisites to the plan's implementation."
With respect to the development of this industrial corridor, I received two emails: Anonymous:
"If you look at this Jim, this plan is directly tied with Imagine Brownsville. Carlos Marin is the one that brought this firm to Brownsville and he was the one that worked hand in hand to get this study done. It accomplishes nothing but gives credence to the imagine Brownsville document. It is another pipe dream that in all costs over two billion dollars...
"Those emails alerted me to the Bined 2013 Summit at UTB's Gran Salon December 6, 2013. This forum brought speakers from Eastern Europe, Central America and the U.S. government, but largely overlooked locals. The mayors of Brownsville, Harlingen and Matamoros were present, but merely to introduce the program. Congressman Filemon Vela was sort of a chairman, introducing speakers.(Someone close to Filemon told me he doubted Vela understood how presumptuous it was for United Brownsville to represent the region.)
Development of the Port of Brownsville and whatever industrial corridor is designated will benefit Brownsville. It will particularly benefit those who have orchestrated, controlled and steered that development for personal enrichment, presumptuously and opportunistically using the United Brownsville scam as a guise for their greed."
Now we have learned from other sources that the Robin McCaffrey is the same person who worked on the City of Kyle Comprehensive Master Plan, under the name of Mesa. McCaffrey was hired when Mayor Mike/Miguel Gonzalez was still in office in Kyle. Gonzalez is now the executive direfctor of United Brownsville, a rather tidy arrangement.
Our source questions why Brownsville needs outside consultants to develop this area when we have outstanding local people who can do an equal or better job. Why Mesa? Its it because of their relationship with United Brownsville? And are our elected officials continue to allow this bunch to replace them and use public cash to do it?