UNITED BROWNSVILLE TAG: $2.8 MILLION AND COUNTING

By Juan Montoya
For the past five years, the shadow government organization called United Brownsville has tapped into the pockets of local taxpayers to the tune of more than $1 million to fund their quasi-governmental operation.
The organization bases its existence on a self-declared mission to "implement" the $1 million so-called comprehensive master plan called Imagine Brownsville drafted by Ambiotec's Carlos Marin during the Eddie Treviño administration.

The purpose of the "plan" were to be used to secure federal funding before the U.S. House of Representatives. However, since the congressional sponsors were defeated, the plan went nowhere. Instead of letting ti die the quiet death it deserved, Marin and Treviño recruited the wiles of IBC President Fred Rusteberg and UT-Brownsville's President Juilieta Garcia. They invited UT-B vice president Irv Downing and formed something called the United Brownsville Coordinating Board and proceeded to hijack the reins of representative government and control the economic and social agenda of the city toward their ends.
They graciously assented to "provide a forum for local government officials to communicate regarding public projects and public-private partnerships," "thereby lessening the burdens of government." For a slight fee, of course.
There was no question on where the money to fund
their plans was coming from.
Year after year since 2009, this group and their willingly co-opted public officials have gone to the public-treasury well to strong-arm eight public entities for their $25,000 "annual membership" payment.
The graphic at right indicates that since 2009 to 2012 the public had shelled out $810,000. That doesn't include the $200,00 from 2013 and the $200,000 to be collected for 2014 (click on image to enlarge). All told, the taxpayers of Brownsville will have shelled out $1,210,000 for the privilege of having a troika accountable to no one "implement" their dubious "plan."
And who elected these people? No one. They have basically snaked their way and made an end-run to grab the reins and purse strings of the people without giving anyone an accounting of their activities.

 These entities – as we have pointed out before – are: the City of Brownsville, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), the Brownsville Independent School District, the Brownsville Navigation District, the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC) and the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College."
In previous United Brownsville membership lists, there have been a number of city commissioners listed as members. At one time, aside from Mayor Tony Martinez, there have been more more than three other city commissioners, forming a quorum. The current board only lists Martinez and two others (Rose Gowen and Deborah Portillo), thereby doing away with the obvious conflict of having a quorum of city commissioners voting on United Brownsville proposals and then coming back to City Hall and approving their own decisions.
If you look at the graphic top right, you will see that in 2012, United Brownsville used 65 percent of the public's money $200,000 ($129,353) on “Salaries, other compensation, employee benefits.” The CEO commands a $85,000-plus salary alone.
Although there is no legal requirement on how much should be spent on salaries/administrative expenses, it is rather interesting that United Brownsville basically exists to milk the taxpayer for their operation. Aside from the three members of the "coordinating board," the staff is composed of Executive Director Mike Gonzalez, the former mayor of Kyle, Texas, who is still registered to vote there, and a few clerical staff and "coordinators."

Since the Brownsville Community Incentives Corporation is basically in hock paying for the Charlie Atkinson's Sports Park, the United Brownsville operatives have lighted on the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation's annual $4 million in sales tax funds to tap into the till.
The GBIC, the Port of Brownsville and the Public Utility Board (all United Brownsville "members") paid United Brownsville CEO Gonzalez's cronies Robin McCaffrey of Needham, McCaffrey and Associates $454,000 to draft yet another "comprehensive" plan for the coordinating board to "implement."
 Robin McCaffrey of Needham, McCaffrey and Associates were the same firm that drafted a master paln for Gonzalez when he was mayor of Kyle. When he left, the city's finances were in hock and property tax rates more than doubled under his watch. For being a conservative Republican like Rusteberg, Gonzalez shows no qualms about spending someone else's money.
Then, just recently, a three-member quorum of the GBIC approved a contract for San Antonio-based Jacob's Engineering to "implement" a portion of the  McCaffrey of Needham, McCaffrey and Associates "plan" for a cool $185,000.
City commissioner Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa, Cameron County Treasurer David Betancourt and Al Villarreal (do it for the next generations, he said) voted to approve the contract without any back up documentation whatsoever. Oscar Garcia Jr., who was vice-chair at PUB when it voted to fund the $454,000 McCaffrey of Needham, McCaffrey and Associates plan, jumped ship from the board and joined Jacob's just in time to cash in on the gravy he himself train created.
Oscar Garcia Jr., by the way, is the son of UTB's President Julieta Garcia. He was the operations manager at Su Clinica Familiar, the public clinic that Carlos Marin's wife operates. Among the doctors there is one Rose Gowen. the city commissioner and United Brownsville member.
This blatant self-dealing has gone unabated since Treviño started the scam rolling way back when.
In fact, when Oscar Garcia Jr. as PUB vice-chair, he voted to make Treviño's law firm the legal counsel for the PUB board. Cozy, ain't it?  Another PUB board member who voted to hire Treviño to the PUB gravy was none other than Emmanuel Vasquez, a board member who was appointed by, you guessed it, Treviño himself.
And who's going to pay for the former mayor's keen legal advice? The public, of course.
Can anyone point to one job or some tangible benefit that the public has received for the approximately $2,849,000 that it has shelled for Imagine Brownsville cum United Brownsville and its sequence of "comprehensive" plans and "implementation" studies?
How long can we stomach this brazen grab of power and rapacious abuse the public's purse strings? Surely someone can do something to put a stop to this obvious scam. If we don't, we deserve to get fleeced.