MARIN, MARTINEZ, GARCIA ANGLING FOR MORE PUBLIC $$$

By Juan Montoya
By now we're all acquainted with the plans and schemes by United Brownsville manipulators IBC President Fred Rusteberg, Mayor Tony Martinez, and of course, manipulator extraordinaire Carlos Marin.
Marin, whose company Ambiotec has – along with the acquiescence of the Martinez and the pliant city commission – has virtually cornered the lucrative public works projects in the City of Brownsville.
Well, they're at it again, Ma!
This time it's a beast called the West Boulevard Planning and Engineering Study with a hefty $800,000 price tag to some lucky engineering firm. It is no secret that Marin would like to get his mitts on this one because ever since the Westside Parkway went down to inglorious defeat by a coaltion of neighborhood activists, his mouth has been watering at the thought of landing the alternative public-funded project.
In his vision, Marin sees a total re-engineering of the plan to include levee relocation and a host of other changes.
But there's a slight rub, and that rub is, as usual, the public money to pay for the study.
At Marin and Martinez's urging, city manager Charlie Cabler has sent out a letter to the various entities asking them to step to the plate and chip in to make Marin's project a reality, that is, to give him or his cohorts, the lucrative gig.
 In Cabler's missive, he states that the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MP
O) committee voted approval of an allocation of the $800,000 as a "collaborative effort" between the City of Brownsville, Cameron County and the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority.
The city, Cabler wrote, will provide 34 percent of the $800,000, Cameron County can come in with another 33 percent and the RMA with another 33 percent.
So far, to the county's credit, it has refused to bite the United Brownsville bait in the form of annual $25,000 "membership" dues which United Brownsville has acquired from at least eight publicly-funded entities.
Now, if the West Boulevard Planning and Engineering Study is put over these three entities, the money will be there for all to share.
The actual length of the project outlined so far are sections stretching from Palm Boulevard to U.S 281, from 281 to FM 802, from Fm 802 to FM 3248 and from FM 3248 to the Flea Market off I-69 (US 77-83).
Cabler goes on to say that "no mention was made of which entity would task the lead in undertaking this study," but goes on to say that the "city of Brownsville would like to take on the responsibility of being the lead agency for conducting this study."
Now, we all know the track record of the city in "conducting" studies, speculating in real estate, and in handing out plums to a select few.
Witness, for example, how the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, the Port of Brownsville and the Bronwsville Public Utilities Board 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 post: "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."
Then we 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 director of United Brownsville, a rather tidy arrangement.
Want more examples?
The $1 million for Imagine Brownsville went to United Brownsville Carlos Marin's Ambiotec Group, the $454,492 went to Robin McCaffrey of Needham, McCaffrey and Associates and the local operations manager for Jacob's Engineering which got the $185,000 contract to identify funding to implement a part of part of that plan is none other than Oscar Garcia Jr., the son of United Brownsville's Coordinating Board member Juliet Garcia. Garcia Jr. used to be the operations manager for Su Clinic Familiar, a facility run by Marin's wife, a doctor.
With this new proposal by the city (read Marin, Martinez, Garcia Jr., etc) what makes you think that that same bunch won't self-deal themselves into the gravy and laugh at us all the way to the bank?