YES, VIRGINIA, FRED RUSTEBERG KEEPS THE HERALD $$$, OWNS IBC, RUNS UNITED BROWNSVILLE, WANTS TO SELL THE PORT RAILROAD, ETC., CHUMS WITH GARCIA AND MARIN

By Juan Montoya
Sometime back after we wrote that very little critical coverage in the Brownsville Herald of the shadow government called United Brownsville and run by the so-called United Brownsville Coordinating Board, if any, we received a comment from a Doubting Thomas accusing us of making IT up.

We had mentioned in the same post that UBCB member and United Brownsville founder IBC President Fred Rusteberg also owned part of the newspaper. We were also called to task on that one by Thomas and he demanded than we show him where we had acquired that information.
Well, we inquired where the statement of ownership, management and circulation reports went after they were published in the local newspaper as required by the U.S. Postal Service and we got nowhere.
It took us a while, but we finally dug up the statement that is required by the Postal Service. Apparently, it is to be published the first day of October every year.
The last one available was the October 2013 statement which still lists Daniel Cavazos as publisher. Cavazos is gone now replaced by Frank Escobedo, who took over February 28 2014. Unlike Cavazos, Esobedo rose through the ranks of the advertising departments and is credited with helping Freedom Newspapers and later, AIM Media, Texas, with its Spanish-language publications.
In the statement of ownership, the newspaper is required to list all its "stockholders of a corporation which itself is a holder of bonds, mortgages or other securities of the public corporation" where the interests of such individuals are equivalent to  percent or more of the stock or securities of the publishing corporation.
Well, there on paragraph 11 is the International Bank of Commerce of which Rusteberg is the president.
Now, Rusterberg also happens to be one of the three members of the so-called Coordinating Board set up by United Brownsville.
The other two are UT-Brownsville President Julieta Garcia and the other is Irv Downing, formerly a banker, before that a planner and now working out of the Office of the President at UTB (Julieta's office).
We've beat on this dead horse before, but it worth mentioning that United Brownsville is the offshoot of something called Imagine Brownsville, a fanciful document for which city taxpayers paid more than $1 million for Carlos Marin and his minions to produce. We call it fanciful because the document has no codification or ordinance-making power and subsequent city commissions can choose to ignore it if they want to.
But based on this foundation of quickie money-making sand, Rusteberg, Garcia and now Mayor Tony Martinez have managed to convince at least eight publicly-funded entities to chip in $25,000 a year to pay their staff and fund their budgets. And even though it is public funds that are involved, no one has elected Rusteberg et al and cannot hold them accountable on how their money is spent.
Marin, as well, who owns Ambiotech, a company that has wormed its way into the city's coffers and is a recipient of numerous multi-million dollar contract, sits on the United Brownsville Board and on the Brownsville Economic Development Council, which vets projects to be funded by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation and the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation. Both of these boards share in a quarter-cent share of every dollar collected in sales taxes.
In fiscal year 2013, the GBIC and its sister corporation (the BCIC), have received $4,231,263 each. The two entities receive a quarter penny each from the city sales taxes. The city's general fund keeps the other half.
This fiscal year starting October 2013, each has received $1,828,145 as of the end of February.
And which organization receives constant funding from GBIC? Would  you believe VIDA, a so-called worker training nonprofit which has had a difficult time explaining what they do with the money they get (about $25,000 each month).
Local blogger Jim Barton has been on the VIDA tail for some time now and wrote:
"All of this puts into question expenditures made since 11/14/2013, including hundreds of thousands of dollars to V.I.D.A., a charitable entity with extraordinary claims of taking Brownsville citizens off welfare, placing them in jobs "averaging a salary of $35,000 per year.
"When we asked the Director of V.I.D.A. for evidence of the group's claims, she resigned. On V.I.D.A.'s board of directors, as listed on their website, is a faceless image of Carlos Marin, rumored to be the primary manipulator behind the GBIC's dispersal of several million taxpayer dollars annually for "economic development."
In fact, GBIC so far this year (end of February) has paid more than $100,000 and is scheduled to hand it over $201,000 total before the fiscal year is up (see graphic).

Marin's wife also happens to be the director of Su Clinica Famiiar, which counts among its employees one Rose Gowen, a city commissioner. Julieta's son Oscar Garcia Jr., was its director of operations. Now he is a program manager at Jacob's.
Rusteberg, for his part, is also a member of the Brownsville Rio Grande Railroad and which is now trying to grant a 30-year franchise to a Colorado-based corporate raider that operates under the name of The Broe Group through its railroad OmniTrax.
That group is moving fast to grant the franchise before the port elections May 10. At least three hearings are scheduled to culminate in a May 8 vote by the port commissioners.
So far, the local newspaper has not made a peep about the questionable doings of Rusteberg and his compadres running the shadow government and usurping the democratic process. And we have not had one story about the proposed franchise of the railroad that smacks of self-dealing on their part. Will the port commissioners take the bait and bind the port's railroad to 30 years to a corporation with minimal investment on its part?
With Rusteberg riding herd on the community, we wouldn't hold our breath.