EDDIE TREVINO MAKES HIS MOVE FOR COUNTY JUDGE

“I Seen My Opportunities and I Took ’Em.”: An Old-Time Pol Preaches Honest Graft

George Washington Plunkitt.

By Juan Montoya
Several people have reported that former City of Brownsville mayor the Eddie Trevino and his bod Conrad Bodden have started spreading their tendrils to test the waters for a Trevino candidacy for the county judge's office.
The last time that Trevino tried to run for a county seat he lost to John Wood in the Democratic Primary way back in 2010 for a run at Carlos Cascos.
At that time, Trevino modestly told a blogger that: "There is not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t stop me and ask that I return to office. Having received my family’s blessing and encouragement that time has come. I can best serve the interests of the people of Cameron County as their County Judge.”
We really can't say that there has been a groundswell of support. But perhaps we don't have our ear to the ground after all.
We understand that former county judge Gilberto Hinojosa was unsuccessful in convincing District Judge Migdalia Lopez to make a run for county judge. She, we hear, demurred. Why wouldn't she? Judges command at least $150,000 while the county judge makes only around $70,000.
We've also heard that appointed county judge Pete Sepulveda has already been reached out to by Treviño's law firm partner Bodden. Sepulveda, we now hear, will not run. What for? He already commands a hefty $230,000 salary from the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority. So why sweat it?
Treviño, if you will remember, was the man who listed to Carlos Marin and Fred Rusteberg with their United Brownsville siren song and authorized the $1 million study (or comprehensive master development plan) which came to be called Imagine Brownsville. Marin's Ambiotec was paid cold hard cash for this bill of goods.
That morphed into a ravenous entity called United Brownsville which now sucks $200,000 from eight publicly-funded entities for a "membership" and "a seat on the table."
The $1 million tag is still in debate because former mayor Pat Ahumada said that not only did the city fork over the cash, but that also provided staff an city resources to complete it.
It all started well enough, as commissioner Ricardo Longoria told local blogger Jim Barton:
"We revisited the idea of a Master Plan after a lobbying trip to Washington D.C. in 2006 when then Congressman Jim Oberstar of Minnesota told us that he had money for our Downtown Revitalization, but we needed a plan in print that identified our projected plans and a sort of needs assessment for our community. That was when we came back and went out for proposals and through a fair process (Carlos Marin's) Ambiotec Engineering was awarded a contract to begin this plan so we could return to Washington and Congressman Oberstar and secure funding.
The plan was created, Congressman Oberstar as well as Congressman Ortiz were unsuccessful in being re-elected, so we had to come back and begin anew. In my personal opinion: the plan has been created, the projected targets and needs have been identified. Thank you for your service ladies and gentlemen of our community."
But Marin and his buddies saw the opportunity to turn this boondoggle into real money and refused to let Imagine Brownsville die. Thus what would eventually become United Brownsville was born.

Year after year since 2009, this group and their willingly co-opted public officials have gone to the public-treasury well to strong-arm their public entities for their $25,000 "annual membership" payment.
Since 2009 to 2015 the public has shelled out $1,410,000  for the privilege of having a troika (Rusteberg, Irv Downing and Julieta Garcia) who is accountable to no one "implement" their dubious "plan" with no end in sight. Elected officials at the Brownsville Independent School District another entities like Texas Southmost College who have protested the giveaway have been targeted and blackballed by Unite Brownsville supporters on their respective boards. Like a blood tick, United Brownsville continues to grow fat on the public teat.

Gee thanks, Eddie.

Treviño was also part of the group that funded the campaign of Abel Limas, now serving a six-year sentence for racketeering.

As the uncomparable Emma Perez-Treviño reported during her coverage of the Limas trial: "Not all funds raised by Limas for his 2000 campaign came from contributions. A good portion came from a $25,000 loan that Limas secured from the International Bank of Commerce. 

Four Brownsville attorneys and a relative put their names on the line for Limas, each guaranteeing $5,000 of the loan. These were not reported as campaign contributions, and individually they exceeded state limits on contributions to judicial candidates.
The attorneys were Ernesto Gamez Jr., who was Limas’ campaign spokesman; Leonel Alejandro, now judge of the 357th Judicial District; and former Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa’s partners at the time, Juan Magallanes and Eddie Treviño, now former Brownsville mayor, with the then-law firm of Magallanes, Hinojosa & Treviño. The firm was under retainer with IBC."

Now, who is one of the members of the United Brownsville Coordinating Board? That would be Rusteberg, the president of the IBC. Rusteberg, by the way, is also listed as a stockeholder of the Brownsville Herald.

And who can't remember Treviños purge of the Public Utility Board when board members Cris Valadez, Robert Sanchez and Dr. Joe Zavaletta tried to change attorneys for that entity?

The newspaper called them PUB insurgents (a la Iraq) and there was a court challenge led by Treviño to oust them and nullify their acts, including hiring a new legal firm. A court upheld their dismissal from the board and new members Emmanuel Vasquez and Arturo Farias got on the board.
After fighting to get Vasquez on the PUB, Trevino got appointed as PUB counsel with Vasquez's vote, a kind of payback for his appointment.

After all this, there is actually a danger that Treviño might actually win the seat he has been hankering after since 2010.