UNREPENTANT MARTINEZ GOES ON DOLING OUT CITY ASSETS

By Juan Montoya
On May 2011, 5,308 city voters took attorney Tony Martinez at his word to "Believe in Brownsville" and made him mayor over four other candidates. Martinez beat them, including former mayor Pat Ahumada, without the benefit of a runoff for the position.
Ahumada, burned by the controversy surrounding his depositing of a $26,000 check in his personal bank account meant for a City of Brownsville vendor, did not even draw 10 percent of the vote in the race.
At first, Martinez took a hands-off approach and allowed the city to function under the direction of the city manager and administration, as the city charter dictates.
But it wasn't long before residents began to sense that Martinez didn't feel comfortable with the weak mayor-strong city manager format of a home-rule city. He quickly realized that the city administration had the discretion to spend up to $35,000 without going through the city commission. Soon, bills incurred at the mayor's direction began piling up in city manager's Charlie Cabler's desk with Martinez's signature ordering him to pay them.
As time went on, they became more frequent. City administrators turned toward Cabler for direction on what to do with the growing number of invoices that were addressed to the city "as per mayor Tony Martinez."
Cabler, ever the discreet bureaucrat who knows better than to make waves and displease those that pay his $175,000+ annual paycheck, dutifully approved them.
Then Da Mayor attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors National Meeting in Orlando, Florida, in June 2012 and met the charming David McCarthy, President and CEO of Community Showcase Banners, of Warsaw, N.Y., who held himself to be the second-string quarterback for the Superbowl winners Oakland Raiders, Superbowl ring and all.
McCarthy found in Martinez an easy mark and "awarded" the City of Brownsville an opportunity to receive a community showcase.
"Nationally," McCarthy glowed, "there were only 15 Showcases awarded out of thousands of cities and towns across the country."

Now, Hizzoner Da Mayor jumped at the honor of Brownsville receiving this great once-in-a-lifetime prestigious "award." He instructed Cabler to receive the gregarious Mr. McCarthy on his own and instructed him to put the good offices of the city and the Brownsville Public Utilities easements and utility poles at his disposal for his showcase banners.
Cabler had bhis secretaries type up a nice letter from Cabler addressed to "Dear Brownsville Business Owner" stating (again) that "the City of Brownsville was selected for a nationwide program that aims to showcase both the public and the private assets of the city. We (who's we?) have accepted the services for, and will participate in, a three-year promotional campaign conducted by Community Showcase Banners."
The letter includes a nice photo of Charlie with a Mountain Man identified as David McCarthy, President and CEO of said firm.
When someone complained and inquired of the manager if the city was pushing for the company, the entire scheme fizzled and McCarthy – pawn-shop Superbowl ring and all – slithered away.
This fiasco didn't deter Martinez from dipping into the city treasury to fund a number of pet projects with the public's money.
Then the bills came (and they are still coming), for his projects. By December 2012, the following had been incurred by Da Mayor:
– In July he had Cabler authorize the payment of $1,500 to one R. Steven Lewis, a licensed architect and self-described "UTB Relocation Consultant." Later on July 31, Cabler received another email invoice from Lewis, this time for $4,500 for his "UT Brownsville Relocation Consultation." Martinez ordered the city staff to pay it.
– The Complete Streets Workshop" held May 16 featured Kevin St. Jaques, a member of the Complete Streets Speakers Bureau and Martinez required the Brownsville Community Incentives Corporation (BCIC) to fork over $5,000, of which $2,300 was paid to Freese and Nichols, of Ft. Worth, to have Jaques tell us that our things as they were in Browntown left much to be desired.
–  Gil Peñalosa, the executive director of the 8-80 Cities, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, came to browbeat the citizens, city administrators and local bigwigs over the condition of our infrastructure and lack of sidewalks and shoddy streets. For that the city meekly approved payments totaling $7,974 that included $6,500 for professional services, $988 for air transportation, and $485 for accommodations and meals in good old "American dollars," as he requested, not in discounted Canadian currency.
– buildingcommunityWORKSHOP has made Tony's pipe dream an industry. It's first invoice landed on Cabler's desk with a thud. The hit for putting together a Request For Proposals was $27,803.12 which included round-trip flights from Dallas to Harlingen for its principal at a cost of $541. 20 (Sept. 21), $347.20 (Oct. 3), and $535.20 (Oct. 8). Among the items in the invoice is the $475 monthly rent on an apartment (Sept. 21).
 – In 2013, he convinced the pliant city commissioners to issue Certificates of Obligation totaling $13.06 million.

– Foremost among the purchases to be made with these was the $2.3 million tabbed for the purchase of the Casa del Nylon on 1304 E. Madison and the adjoining building and property next door at 655 E. 14th Street. The $2.3 million price tag for the 52,586 square feet listed on the CO issue amounts to about $44 a foot, an extravagant amount given real estate prices in the surrounding neighborhood.

– In that same issue, a monthly rental of land next to the Cueto Building which houses the mayor's city office and the offices of United Brownsville for parking is included at a hefty $2,500. Over the three-year rental agreement, the city will pay a total of $270,000 to rent the land. That will be defrayed with Julieta Garcia's UTRGV paving the parking lot, a substandard paving job and a sickening ruse.
– How about the mayor's expenditures of the $3,060,000 settlement the city received from AEP Texas for personal whims that shocked many in the community. A report by City Finance Officer Pete Gonzalez revealed that $393,142 of the settlement funds had already been spent, at the mayor's direction, leaving a fund balance of $2,666,858. Some of the money – $25,000 – was for the movement of the historic Stillman House from the King Ranch to the lot next to the Cueto Building, then subsequently to Linear Park for an additional $14,000.
– We have learned though another blogger that the  city's plans for 609, 611 and 615 E. 11th Street (facing Market Square to the west) may now be finalized. Jim Barton, of Meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot documented after a city meeting that "Three of four small cubicles, located in a single building along E. 11th Street in downtown Brownsville were purchased by the city in 2012, 2013 for approximately $130,000 and remodeled for nearly the same.(The fourth cubicle of the building, 621 constitutes Los Reyes Restaurant.) The city had no actual need or purpose for the expenditures and has spent the last three years trying to find an appropriate use for the space.

After the lease expired at 1101-A E. Washington, the city talked about transferring the revitalization office to 609 E. 11th, but eventually allowed bc workshops, a non-profit involved in bike trail design, to use the property rent free. The agreement between the City of Brownsville and bc workshopscalls for the firm to pay the city $800 per month or $9,600 per year to lease the space. The city agreed to take care of utilities, taxes and maintenance. The City of Brownsville would, in turn, pay bc workshops $9,600 per year for planning, architectural services and community capacity building including gallery exhibits, curated panel or speaker series and coordination of pubic use of the common meeting space. In other words: FREE RENT.
So three properties are taken off the tax rolls, purchased and remodeled with tax dollars, then given occupancy without rent. Who in the hell is protecting taxpayer interests here? "

Barton also said that ethics-challenged city attorney Mark Sossi introduced a resolution to allow UTB two year's free rent at one of the cubicles, 615. Sossi's legalese involved a Chapter 380 Economic Development Program, but that's irrelevant. The city always finds some justification for giving away taxpayers assets, typically to the ultra-rich UT system.

Ramiro Gonzalez, Director of Special Projects, Comprehensive Planning Manager and Downtown Revitalization Director, explained to the commission that UTB students would use the space to make rocket parts as part of the STARGATE program.
Longoria was quoted in The Collegian: "I find it very difficult that the university wouldn't have 700 square feet somewhere, where they can be able to house this kind of project." (Actually, commenters to this blog have indicated that empty or half-empty classrooms is not unusual at UTB.)