GARCIA JR. BACK FOR ANOTHER $407,878 IN GBIC GRAVY

By Juan Montoya
When Oscar Garcia Jr. was the chairman of the Brownsville Public Utility Board, he signed off on a $454,000 Brownsville Strategic Infrastructure and Land Management Plan, the utility split the cost three ways with the Port of Brownsville, and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation.
The study was drafted by Robin McCaffrey of Needham, McCaffrey and Associates.
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. At the time McCaffrey went under the name of  Mesa
The so-called master plan identified 35 small-area sites and called for the development of commercial corridors and recommended that the development of the plan be split into three phases at a total cost of $750,000.
The firm recommended that United Brownsville be placed in charge of implementing the plan using funds from public entities.
The Coordinating Board of United Brownsville includes IBC President Fred Rusteberg, UTB vice-president Irv Downing, and Julieta Garcia, former UTB president and – coincidentally – mother of Garcia Jr.
The availability of the $750,000 spurred Garcia Jr, into action and he bolted the PUB and latched on to Jacobs Project Management Co. Jacobs Project Management Co. is a subsidiary of Jacobs Engineering, which is an international engineering, architecture and construction firm. The main company is headquartered in Pasadena, Calif. although the nearest office to Brownsville is in San Antonio.
Although Garcia Jr. isn't an engineer, he has parlayed his parental connections and his pull at United Brownsville to climb the financial ladder.
Before he was appointed to the PUB, he was the operations manager for Su Clinica Familiar, a federally-funded health provider whose director is none other than Dr. Elena Marin, the wife of Carlos Marin, also listed an at-large board member of United Brownsville and the Brownsville Economic Development Council (BEDC). City commissioner Rose Gowen was a member of Marin's clinic's staff and also – you guessed it – an at-large member of United Brownsville. She now works as a director of a UTB medical research facility.
Jacobs initially submitted a bid to implement all three phases of the Small Area Plan for the $750,000.
With a copy of the McCaffrey study in hand, all Garcia had to do was to whittle down the 35 small area sites to 10 and collect his first $185,000. It's something akin to shooting fish in a barrel. You just chose 10 sites in the plan. The next time you choose another 10 and so forth until you get the full $750,000 smackers.
On the night of June 19, 2014, a bare quorum of the GBIC board voted to give Jacobs Engineering the $185,000 contract to "find funding for the industrial corridor project and also locate investors during a 4 month timetable."
Jacobs was the only company that responded to the Request for Proposals during the short period that it was advertised.
The three GBIC members voting for it were city commissioner Jessica Tetreau, County Treasurer David Betancourt and Al Villarreal, an employee of IBC's Rusteberg.
Jacob's Engineering lists Garcia Jr. as its local project manager.
Jacobs – through Garcia Jr. – originally presented his proposal for Phase II to BEDC to be forwarded to the GBIC, but was told to wait until after the May 9 elections. The BEDC was unsure whether commissioner Tetreau would be reelected and did not want to "stir the water" to harm her chances.
Now that Tetreau has won her reelection, the proposal has been brought forth and Garcia Jr. wants an additional $407,878, although no one can produce the work product for Phase I which cost the three entities (GBIC, PUB and the Port of Brownsville) $185,000.

And what does Garcia Jr. promise in return for the $407,878?
Jacob's Scope of Work states that it will "take what was developed as a concept in the (McCaffrey) lan and convert it into real and actionable effort...the development of a intermodal hub integrating and enhancing the existing modality assests (sic).
"The Phase II of implementation will weave together the synergistic tapestry of an integrated multimodal hub with to reposition Brownsville a global player for logistics. This will in turn along with other strategic infrastructure investments provide a competitive advantage to grow the advanced manufacturing sectors on both light and heavy sectors."
Uh?
The small print in the contract provisions makes the GBIC liable for DIRECT EXPENSES, including but not limited to "necessary transportation costs including mileage at Jacob's current rate when its automobiles are used, meals and lodgings, laboratory tests and analyses, computer services, word processing services, telephone, printing and binding charges."
Further, "in the event legal action is brought by Jacobs to enforce any of the obligations hereunder or arising out of any dispute concerning the terms and conditions hereby created, CLIENT shall pay JACOBS reasonable amounts for fees, costs and expenses as may be set by the court."
In other words, if we sue you, you'll pay for our legal costs.
The preponderance of slim returns at exorbitant costs have made the Port of Brownsville and the PUB gun shy and they have informed the GBIC that it is on its own in funding Garcia Jr.'s newest display of double-talk and gobbledygook. In other words, they have told the GBIC board "thanks, but no thanks" to the new proposal.
So far, the combined $639,000 spent so far on the McCaffrey plan and on Jacobs Phase I have not generated – except for Garcia Jr. – one job for a Brownsville resident. Will the GBIC fork over an additional $407,878 – to total $1,046,878 – and continue throwing good money after bad to line Juliet's little Junior's pockets?

END OF PART 1

Next: Who the hell is Jacobs Management?