ALL OUT MOVEMENT IN CITY ELECTION GAINING MOMENTUM

By Juan Montoya
Voters in this May's City of Brownsville election should send a clear message to the incumbents running for reelection – Mayor Tony Martinez and commissioners Ricardo Longoria and Jessica Tetreau – that they want them "All Out."
They should remind them that when they were given a chance to defend them from major utility rate increases way back when on December 2012, all of them, with no exceptions, blindly followed the lead of Martinez and approved them without even taking the wishes of their constituents into consideration.
When they could have spoken up on their constituents' behalf, they accepted the gag imposed upon them by Martinez and his pals.
Instead, they cleared the way for the Big Shots at the Public Utility Board and the private energy company Tenaska to indebt them to the tune of $325 million through higher utility rates well into 2016 that will never go down again. They, in effect, gave the plant proponents a blank check compliments of captive PUB customers.
And when the public and the media wanted to learn the details of what obligations the city commission and the PUB had placed on their shoulders, both these entities fought tooth and nail to argue that the ratepayers had no business asking what other obligations their "leaders" had agreed to place upon their shoulders.
They fought utility analysts from Virginia, a challenge from Hinogas, and even Freedom of Information requests from local media, this humble Rrun-Rrun blog included.
In less than half an hour that fateful December evening, these fine folks agreed to burden the ratepayers with unconsciously high rate increases and to partner with a private company for a $500 million project with arguable benefits. What's more, they were successful in preventing the public – the very people who will ultimately pay for their grandiose plan – from finding out exactly what they had been burdened with.


When the vote took place, no one asked the citizens whether they agreed with the rate hikes. No one asked them whether they agreed to fund an electric generating plant where their $325 million share of the $500 price tag (more than half) will only give them only a quarter of the 800 MW of electricity produced. And Tenaska will not start construction of the plant until they have found customers for the other 600 MWs, a shaky proposition because there will be two other electric generating plants in operation in the region before the local startup.
Who were Martinez, Longoria and Tetreau representing? And why have they gone along with keeping the public in the dark?
Those candidates running against them should come to an agreement to support each other if there is a runoff against these incumbents. If you lose, show your commitment to change and don't just take your ball and run home.
We're "all in" on the debt voted upon by these three well into 2016 and decades to come to pay for the bonds in this foible. The city literally can't afford them. This election tell the incumbents they are "All Out."