TO PHILANTHROPIST HERNANDEZ: IF YOU LIE WITH DOGS...

By Juan Montoya
My, aren't we testy?
We have taken a couple of hits as a result of the post we did on the doings of Mike Hernandez III, a very successful leasing company owner who has announced his desire to bring jobs and prosperity to Brownsville.
While that is certainly admirable, his choice to pick United Brownsville as the recipient of $2 million to further their aims threw us for a loop. Does Hernandez know how United Brownsville was formed and the track record of that outfit?

Micheal Albert Hernandez III, Owner of D&M Leasing

According to local blogger Jim Barton "Hernandez seems especially galled at a description of Brownsville in the Houston Chronicle in October 2013 as the "poorest city in America" and vows to reverse that trend within twenty years of that newspaper article by October 2033.

His promises include $1,000,000 to BISD, a generous endowment, but miniscule considering the district's $500,000,000+ annual budget. BISD could squander that amount in a year's time on legal fees from lawsuits. Hernandez has also pledged $1c million to Guadelupe Middle School and $2 million to United Brownsville.(Perhaps, Hernandez has not learned that United Brownsville is controlled by elitists hell-bent on steering the region's development to their profit.)"
And what is United Brownsville?
It is an outgrowth of the $1 million Imagine Brownsville, a master plan designed to garner money in Washington D.C. for a park that fell through when two of the legislative sponsors (one of them was Solomon Ortiz) lost at the polls and the project was dropped.
But some canny players in the Brownsville area saw that the failed attempt could be twisted and distorted to make it suit their aims.
So in 2009 the so-called United Brownsville Coordinating Board with IBC President Fred Rusteberg, then-UTB president Julieta Garcia and UTB VP Irv Downing was formed. There was no public election to approve this extra-official entity. Rusteberg effectively coopted the city commission and placed them on the United Brownsville board of directors to have an effective quorum approve his and Carlos Marin's every whim.
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.
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 University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College. Each is requried to shell out "membership" dues.
Since 2009, this group and their willingly co-opted public officials have gone to the public-treasury well to strong-arm eight public entities for their $25,000 "annual membership" payment.
From 2009 to 2015 these public enties have shelled out $1,2 million to United Brownsville for the privilege of having a troika accountable to no one "implement" their dubious "plan."

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 audit lists their cash and money market "value" at $102,610. That's a nice little nest egg compliments of the poorest community in the United States.
We were taught in school that the people elected public officials to act on their behalf in the various levels of government. These officials, in turn, were held accountable for their acts.
You cannot fire Rusteberg, Garcia or Downing.
Ultimately, this trio and their supportive players on the board of United Brownsville that includes a select number of hand-picked, like-minded social climbers who are members of the city commission, the port, PUB, the university and college, and the economic development entities shuffle the cards and deal themselves a wining hand every time.
The nonprofit shadow government of United Brownsville has as its purpose "to provide a forum for local governmental officials to communicate regarding public projects, and public-private partnerships in the greater Brownsville area, thereby promoting the effectiveness of said projects and thereby lessening the burdens of government.."

The former mayor of Kyle, Texas – one Mike Gonzalez – is paid a pretty penny to continue the deception of this shadow government acco0untabel to no one.
And who elected the members of the United Brownsville Coordinating Board (IBC President Rusteberg, Garcia and Downing)? No one.
So how is it that they can go around "moderating" legislative sessions, directing the economic development of the city, and forging obligatory alliances with Harlingen and Matamoros?
Ostensibly, the mission of the self-styled coordinating board is to "lessen the burdens of elected officials."
But did anyone ask those elected officials if they wanted their "burdens" lessened?
 If they didn't want the burden of governing, then why run for office and abdicate from the positions of public representation for which they ran and for which they were elected by the consent of the governed?
This "United Brownsville" charade has become an embarrassment for the city. Since when have Rusteberg and Garcia looked out for the welfare of all the residents of this city? Never. Rusteberg has put up none of his own money and the last time Garcia tried to merge Texas Southmost College with the University of Texas, she drafetd an agreement that would have "transfered" all the assets (inlcuding real estate and bank deposits) to the oil-and-gar-rich UT System. The TSC district taxpayers would get to keep the bond debt, though.
Fortunately, a majority of the TSC board of trustees were no longer hand-picked by Julieta and it failed.
A word of caution for philanthropist Hernandez: If you lie with dogs, you will catch fleas.