IS TSC PAYING UNITED BROWNSVILLE $25,000 WITHOUT THE TRUSTEES EVER HAVING VOTED ON IT?

7. Discussion and Possible action on TSC's participation in United Brownsville

By Juan Montoya
Thus read the agenda item on Texas Southmost College's Oct. 16 agenda.
After the dust settled and discussion centered around the legality and ethics of donating money from a taxing institution (TSC) to a pseudo-public entity which basically appoints its own members and accounts to no one for its expenditures, trustees turned down a motion by Dr. Rey Garcia to suspend any pending payments and cancel future $25,000 annual "membership" donations to the organization led by IBC president Fred Rusteberg, former UTB President Julieta Garcia and UTB vice-president Irv Downing.
Joining Garica were Trey Mendez, who seconded the motion and later abstained form the vote and Adela Garza. Voting against the motion to suspend payments were Kiko Rendon, Ed Rivera and Ramon Hinojosa.
With that, the discussion ended on the funding and no other motions were made to pay the $25,000.
In fact, the trustees never voted to pay for TSC's membership as they have been doing since 2010.
The question now becomes: Since there was no motion to continue the college's participation in United Brownsville, will it be legal for the college district to pay the money?
Trustee Garcia moved that the college suspend pending and future payments to United Brownsville, an entity formed by Rusteberg, Garcia and Carlos Marin on the shell of a plan called Imagine Brownsville. That plan cost $1 million and was paid by the City of Brownsville. The plan was to be used ro acquire funding from the U.S. Congress for Brownsville projects.
When the two representatives who were supporting the congressional initiative were defeated and didn't return to Washington, the plan was shelved.
However, Marin and Treviño were able to dust off the proposal and built United Brownsville on its carcass and sell it to at least eight publicly-funded entities for an annual $25,000 "membership."
From these membership fees, the salaries of the executive director (former Kyle, Texas mayor Mike Gonzales) picked by Rusteberg and Marin.
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 Corp (BCIC) and the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College each pitch in $25,000 per head to fund this parasites.
Dr. Garica was emphatic that the college not donate $25,000 to an entity that represents Brownsville entities since it collects taxes from Rio Viejo, Port Isabel, South Padre Island and Los Fresnos as well.
"It may be legal, but it's not moral or ethical," he told other trustees who had asked that they get a legal opinion from TSC board counsel on the legality of donating taxpayer funds.
President Kiko Rendon and new member Ed Rivera spoke in favor of making the paytment so that the college "can be at the table" of economic developments. Rivera spoke of how United Brownsville was helping the college write grants only to be told by trustee Adela Garza that TSC President Tercero had just told the board that the college had cooperated with United Brownsville to write grants for its own use, not TSC's.
Both Rendon and Rivera were invited by United Brownsville to sit on the United Brownsville board as voting members. Garcia pointedly told Rivera that TSC had not appointed him to the United Brownsville board, but rather that he had been "hand-picked" by Rusteberg and his executive board to join. Both spoke in favor of continuing funding United Brownsville but there was never a motion then and the trustees have never voted on a motion to pay the $25,000 membership.
Trustee Trey Mendez told the members that he had asked for the college to hire a grant writer in the past without any success. Currently, the president's office is shouldering the burden of administering that function. To date, it has not acquired any grants.
Sources indicate that Rusteberg had been busy burning up the telephone lines of certain trustees – namely trustee Ramon Hinojosa – for the $25,000 donation to continue. Other sources tell us that Rusteberg had also called other members to makes his case for the cash flow to continue.
Trustee Art Rendon said he had not voted for the $25,000 membership and wanted United Brownsville to come to the board and explain what benefits the college and its students were getting from the organization.
"I want them to come here and tell us what they're doing for us and the students," Rendon said.