GARCIA JR. INVITES THE BIG BOYS TO THE GBIC FEAST

By Juan Montoya
Those who have seen the work product offered by Jacobs Management project manager Oscar Garcia Jr. to the Port of Brownsville, the Brownsville Public Utility Board, and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation in return for the $185,000 these three publicly-funded entities paid them to do so-called Small Area Plan, can't get over the feeling that they've seen the stuff before.
And, in fact, they have.
The SAP, to sue planners' parlance, is contained in the  $454,000 Brownsville Strategic Infrastructure and Land Management Plan delivered to the three entities by Robin McCaffrey of Needham, McCaffrey and Associates.
That 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.
In so many words, Phase I, the $185,000 SAP, merely rehashed the overall study and focused on 10 of the 35 identified sites.
Now, without the benefit of a Request For Proposals, the GBIC is being asked by Garcia Jr., of Jacobs Management, to give them another $407,878 to rehash another 10 from the same study, widely available in the Master Plan.
Let's rewind the tape.
In 2010, Michael Paul, a citizen of the United States and a resident of the State of California and a senior technical analyst in the information services division of n that state's Judicial Council, sued Jacobs Management – among others –  because he said it had "grossly overcharged" for its services.
He charged that the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) through its Facilities Management Unit had assigned the project to Jacobs and its associates and disregarded and in-house plan submitted by Paul and his colleagues in the hire of the state.
The resulting study, submitted by Jacobs as its own work, Paul charged, was "a plagiarized study of the Army Corps of Engineers in building and managements systems, a study widely available on the Internet. (Jacobs) submitted the study as a bid to the AOC, a public agency, in order to engage in business and act as contractor..."
Sound familiar?
Paul then went on to compare the prices for the services offered by "Team Jacobs" and showed that in many instances, the group was charging more than double the going rate other engineers and planners were offering.
In the GBIC SAP studies, we'll never know what other groups or companies would charge because there is nothing to compare since there was no Request For Proposals to Phase II. And since Garcia Jr. and Jacob's was the only RFP considered in the $185,000 Phase I, we won't know whether the public is getting a good deal or is being overcharged as in the California case.
Jacobs is not your mom-and-pop outfit. 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.
It is a Fortune 500 publicly traded company with 66,000 employees and 2014 revenues of more than $12 billion.
And its executives earns millions in compensation. John W. Possner, the Executive vice-president  of Finance and Administration of Jacobs Management, for example, was paid $2,169,775 in 2014.
How much is $2,169,775?
How about $248 an hour, $4 a minute, and 0.07 per second 24 hours a day 365 days a year? This si five times the U.S. president's salary and 41 times the median U.S. household income.
In the Jacobs proposal presented by Garcia to the GBIC board, aside from the $37,878 for Phase II, ther is included a total of $35,000 for budgeted expenses. There is, however, a separate attachment (Exhibit B) which lists Additional Professional Services rates it will charge over the total $407,878 Lump Sum compensation.
The project executive, if any change orders are approved, will earn $200 an hour, and technical consultants another $225 per hour. A "Subject Matter Expert" will cost GBIC $200 per hour and a "3D Modeler" a paltry &5 per hour. Even someone called "Program Support" fetches $77 per hour.
Let's think about this. Don't we have local planners and engineers who are capable of doing the same work (if the Phase I and contemplated Phase II proposals can be called work) for much less. We are, after all, the poorest community in the United States.
The Port of Brownsville and the PUB took one look at the $750,000 additional price tag for the implementation plan and pulled stakes. It is only the GBIC now who has been left holding the bag.
They are :

                                              David Betancourt - Chairman                                                       

Email: david.betancourt@co.cameron.tx.us

Ed Sikes

Email: eddie.sikes@roystonlaw.com

Al Villarreal

Email: alvillarreal@ibc.com

Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa

Email: jtetreau@cob.us

John Cowen

Email: jcowen2@cowen-group.com

Do you want Mr. Possner to make and additional load of money through Project Manager Oscar Garcia Jr. to rehash a Master Plan that has already cost us $454,000 plus the $185,000 they have already given Jacobs (Oscar Jr.) for the useless Phase I?
Or will we put a stop to the vultures picking at the carcass until all the meat is gone?