CAMPIRANO TO PORT: "3-YR CONTRACT, $$ RAISE OR I GO"

By Juan Montoya
Has Port of Brownsville director Eddie Campirano given the port commissioners the ultimatum to give him a three-year contract, a hefty pay raise, or else he will split to the Port of San Antonio where he is said to be a finalist for its director vacancy?
That, in a nutshell, is the scuttlebutt making the rounds at the Brownsville Navigation District, its offices and warehouses as the potential departure of Campirano, the highest paid official at the port.
Sources close to the board say that the port director has told some administrators that he has learned that he is one of the finalists for the Port of San Antonio. Two years ago, Campirano was drawing a $175,618 annual salary plus $8,400 (700 a month) auto allowance. We would hazard to guess that his pay now approaches $200,000.
At that time (2012), the commissioners refused to go along with hefty pay increases for top administrators and reigned in some of the excessive spending by commissioners and some department administrators.
Not long after that marketing German Rico, Director of Business Development, sought greener pastures and landed a position with the Port of San Antonio. He is now the General Manager of the port's East Kelly Railport. In its website, the Port of San Antonio states that Rico's stint in Brownsville "helped the organization grow cargo volume by 55 percent since 2000."
Now, we're sure that some of his former colleagues would take issue with those claims, but hey, when you are the one who writes your own resume, a little bit of poetic license is allowed.
If Rico is Campirano's inside guy at San Antonio, then perhaps the nest has been feathered for Eddie's eventual move to the Alamo City.
Let's not forget that German Rico just happens to be married to the daughter of University of Texas at Brownsville president Julieta Garcia. Eddie was a trustee at the UTB-TSC "partnership."
As a Texas Southmost College-University of Texas at Brownsville trustee, Eddie Campirano was at the beck and call of kingmaker and president Juliet Garcia and rubber stamped each and any initiative that flowed from her office and Michael Putegant's.
No tuition was too high, user fee to set not to be raised even higher. What Juliet wanted, Eddie gave. As a result, local students and residents pay the highest tuition rates for a junior college in the state, if not the country.
His willingness to follow Garcia's dictates translated into appointments to other boards, including the United Brownsville shadow government where he proved a willing follower of IBC President Fred Rusteberg, who along with Garcia and Irv Downing, form the so-called Coordinating Board.
Rusteberg, who just happened to be a board member of the Port's Brownsville-Riio Grande Railroad, got the port administration (Eddie) and trustees to let out the port railroad as a franchise to a private rail company. Within seven years of the agreement signed earlier this year, the port will no longer have a railroad.
Always the quintessential insider, he was able to have his son Eddie Jr., land the newly-created position of "Go Green" coordinator with the city of PUB, where Eddie Sr. used to be an assistant director.
And Garcia, at UTB, returned the favor of a pliant Campirano on the UTB-TSC board, by having his daughter appointed Director of Alumni Relations at UTB-TSC at  $52,200.
According to the job description first issued in April, the preferred candidate should have at minimum a "Bachelor’s degree in business or public administration, marketing, finance, law, or a related field. Candidates should have a minimum of 12 years of progressively responsible experience in an executive level capacity in a high growth environment. He/she should have domestic and international trade experience and
exposure to mixed-use real estate development. Having an understanding of the unique nuances of working for a public enterprise entity comparable to the complexity and size of operations found at Port San Antonio is highly desirable. Candidates must have the ability to undertake frequent domestic and international
travel. Qualifications that are preferred, but are not an absolute include an MBA or other advanced
executive leadership training. Spanish language skills would be a distinct plus."
If anything, Campirano has been able to stage manage the local media (particularly the newspaper) by taking credit for numerous accomplishments under his watch. We don't doubt that - like Rico - those newspaper clippings eventually made their way into his application for the Port of San Antonio director's positions.
Now we'll see whether the port commissioners knuckle under the Campirano ultimatum. If he hollers, will they let him go?