TSC TIES UP UNITED B'VILLE $; RIVERA, KIKO, RENDON, "AYE"

By Juan Montoya
Even with the knowledge that they could incur a legal liability if they gave United Brownsville their annual $25,000 "membership" fee, three Texas Southmost trustees voted to give the ghost government the cash.
Only the votes of three other members – Adela Garza, Dr. Raynaldo Garcia and Ramon Hinojosa – stopped the handout. Voting in favor of giving away the public's money to the Brownsville nonprofit were chair Kiko Rendon, Ed Rivera, and Art Rendon.
Trustee Trey Mendez was attending a funeral and did not attend the meeting where he could possibly be the tie breaker. In the past, Mendez has indicated a reluctance to pay the organization headed by IBC President Fred Rusteberg and former UTB President Julieta Garcia and UTB VP Irv Downing.
With that tie, it will be decided in the upcoming budget process whether the $25,000
In a heated meeting that spilled over form the board's executive session, Dr. Garcia spoke out against the $25,000 payment demanding to know what benefit the students or the college district got form making the possibly illegal payment.
After a meandering discussion, Garcia made a motion not to fund the request and Adela Garza seconded the motion. The vote was 3-3 and Kiko Rendon asserted that since it was a recurring budget outlay, the college could fund it anyway. However, TSC legal counsel Frank Perez did not support Rendon's claim and the decision will be left up to the trustees during the upcoming budget process when they vote whether to include it or not.
For now, however, the college will not cut the check for United Brownsville.
"TSC is opening itself up to be sued by any of the other cities in the district because they are giving away the district's taxpayer monies to an entity that represents only Brownsville," said a college staffer. "What's to spot the cities of Los Fresnos, South Padre Island or Port Isabel from asking for their $25,000, too."
Garcia's vehement opposition to the handout to United Brownsville was fueled in part by the recent legislative session attended by State reps Rene Oliveira and Eddie Lucio III and "moderated" by United Brownsville President Mike Gonzales.
Gonzales is the former mayor of Kyle hand-picked by Rusteberg to head the nonprofit. He earns a salary in the mid $80,000 funded totally by the "membership" donations from eight publicly-funded Brownville entities.
These entities – as we have pointed out before – are: 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 Corporation (BCIC) and the Texas Southmost College."
It was none other than Oliveira – who has not been hesitant to give UTB and Julieta Garcia everything she wanted – who told United Brownsville President that although the organization's legislative agenda was "ambitious," the line items dealing with educational outlays were off mark.
When Gonzales asked about the items that TSC had requested through United Brownsville for this biennium, he was schooled by Oliveira, the state rep fifth in seniority in the House, on the way the sausage was made in Austin. He told Gonzales that those types of requests aren't typically handled by the legislature.
He said Rep Jimmie Aycock, head of the House committee on public education had turned him down saying: "If I do it for you, I have to do it for every junior college."
As recently as the party primaries last year, Gonzales has voted in elections in Kyle and he and his wife are registered to vote there even though he has held the position for more than five years.
Garcia and the others who voted not to fund the organization asked whether this was why TSC has been shelling out the taxpayer's money to United Brownsville to – as trustee Rivera claims – "have a seat at the table?"
Each year, this organization has wormed its way deeper and deeper into the local political scene, not only with their protection racket, but also with taking over the purview of elected bodies and representatives.
Since 2009, this group and their willingly co-opted public officials have gone to the public-treasury well to strong-arm the eight public entities for their $25,000 "annual membership" payment.
From 2009 to 2012 the public had shelled out $810,000. That doesn't include the $200,00 from 2013 and the $200,000 to be collected for 2014. All told, the taxpayers of Brownsville will have shelled out $1,210,000 to United Brownsville for the privilege of having a troika accountable to no one "implement" their dubious "plan.
Add in another $200,000 for 2015 – minus TSC's $25,000 – and the racket continues.

The aim is for this cadre of players to decide how they want the area to develop and to move the public assets to achieve their goals. Being astute (and scheming) business types, it is not surprising that the direction the area's assets are being moved will ultimately profit them and their friends.
An audit by Long and Chilton audit indicates that United Brownsville has done very well, indeed, living off the public's largess.

The aim is for this cadre of players to decide how they want the area to develop and to move the public assets to achieve their goals. Being astute (and scheming) business types, it is not surprising that the direction the area's assets are being moved will ultimately profit them and their friends.

As the TSC budget process moves forward, United Brownsville's lackluster performance on behalf of the Brownsville community may well decide whether Rsuteberg's shadow government will continue milking the local taxpayers.