Saturday, April 9, 2016

IS THERE A PAYOFF SCANDAL BREWING IN COB PERMIT DEPT.?

By Juan Montoya
A growing number of sources close to the city and the Brownsville Police Dept. are saying that there is an investigation into the municipal permits department after a resident complained that he had given a staff member a $3,000 "consulting fee" to smooth the way for the issuance of a permit.
When the permit was not obtained, the resident went to city hall and complained to the administration. The investigation of the staff memeber, our sources say, is now under way.
Although the sources would not reveal the name of the staff member, we have since heard that the consulting fee case is just the first one in a number of cases out there where residents have forked out cash and never received their permits.
We will be making our public information request to identify the staff member and to determine how many other cases may be involved.
(Do you know of any such occurance involving the issuance of permits. Feel free to email informnation to rrunrrun@gmail.com. We protect our sources and any communication with us remains confidential.)

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not a permit for pay but related, I think. I needed a repair on an underground sprinkler system that draws water from the resaca. I called a home sprinkler company in Los Fresnos to do the repair. The next day I got a call from the company saying they had driven by the house I noted that I did not a back-flow prevention valve and the city required one before they could do the repair. I indicated I would not buy the system. The following day a PUB inspector of some sort came to the house with copies of the city ordinance that requires a back-flow prevention valve to prevent water from my system from contaminating the city water system. This strikes me as ridiculous as my system is not connected to the city water system in any way and could never contaminate the city system. However, the point is, I think the repair guy called his friend at PUB to put pressure on me to purchase an expensive back-flow prevention system in return for a piece of the action. Why else would a Los Fresnos repairman call the city to report that I was seeking a repair? And why else would the inspector come to only my house. There are 30 houses on the street, almost all have watering systems and only one has a back-flow prevention valve. Kickback for sure.

Anonymous said...

That bullshit has been probably happening for long long time

Anonymous said...

That's this piece of shit city government! Corruption all the way!!!!

Anonymous said...

donde hay "moches "todas las semanas es en departamento de compras donde lo comanda roberto luna.todas las ordenes de compra abajo de 35000 estan arregladas hay un tal louie torres que las vive ganando y despues mete un "change order"del 25% y ahi va el moche.nomas checate cuantos carros ha comprado el sr luna y la casa tambien con ese sueldo no puede y no alcanza para tanto.ahora sobre el tema de los 3000 pues el que los dio es un pendejo

Anonymous said...

It is not Brewing, it might be starting to bubble over, but it has been in the works for years!

Anonymous said...

I did not realize the magnitude of the corruption that has, and is taking place in the building dept. Just ask any local contractors who's palms you have to grease to get your work approved or even get your project off the ground. People wonder why McAllen is booming and Brownsville lags behind ?
Maybe if everyone just did his/her job instead of looking to get PAID !!!

Anonymous said...

Brownsville has been left in the dust my Mcallen because of this issue. There are horror stories from many would be business owners that wanted to open in Brownsville, only to be disgusted by the way they they are treated by the permitting and health departments when trying to execute a certificate of occupancy....and yes they are all on the take. Contractors invite inspectors to lunch and breakfast daily to hopefully get their permits prosesed quickly. They even hire them as consultants on the projects they are trying to build.....like the one on inspector Buentello....the one you are referring to that got the 3 thousand dollars. Charlie Cabler is a nice guy, but a horrible city manager. He has had many complaints on Evaristo Gamez and his department at permitting....too numerous to mention, but he does nothing to better things for the business community. If Brownsville is to flourish, start with cleaning up the permitting department and health department. They ar the reason people choose to go to Macallen rather than deal with these corrupt people.

Anonymous said...

Pinche zepeda sprinklers
Did the same to me
Land of lakes area

Anonymous said...

So you are saying that we all have to have backflow systems except for you? It's not a kickback, it someone reporting you for not following and not wanting to follow the rules.

Anonymous said...

The back-flow prevention system is a scam and you know it pinche Zepeda. You use to work at PUB pendejo...and got them to throw the work to you muerto de hambre....and you give kickbacks, no te hagas pendejo. Why the hell would you need a backflow preventer on a sprinkler system from Resaca? it is not connected to the PUB system!

Anonymous said...

Why are the people afraid to just mention the players names... Doroteo and Evaristo. Come on people everybody knows its them two. You can't get a permit unless you go through Doroteo since he also works for the city and supposedly is the only one that knows what the city requires. All this for a fee of course.

Anonymous said...

Puro pedo because I repaired my sprinkler system from 1980 and didn't need a permit
So guess what loophole
No back flow kickback from me
Me los chingaw rataz

Anonymous said...

A M E N

Anonymous said...

With a system not connected to the public water supply there is no possible way to contaminate the public water supply. Put a back-flow preventer and connect to the public system and now, in the event the preventer fails, the public system can be contaminated. You have gone from the impossible to the possible.

Anonymous said...

They should have gotten rid of Gamez and his Hench men a long time ago,even his old man and the other one had sticky fingers from what I've heard

Anonymous said...

Brownsville has "NEVER" had a real city manager. That position has always been filled by someone's puppet. In order for Brownsville to progress, we need degreed people in key city positions like city manager and until the happens, we are just spinning our wheels.
And hell yeah to April 10, 2016 at 8:43 pm. So many people that wanted to start a business here have told me the same thing. Too many roadblocks and hands to grease, they go somewhere else. Which Buentello are you talking about?

Anonymous said...

If I were people dealing with this city dept inspectors ,supervisors take a tape recorder and document everything catch them in their own bullshit. Remember in Texas the other party doesn't need to know your taping fuck em. Oh and the city manager was a fucking cop go figure that bullshit where does he stand when the laws are being broken

Anonymous said...

Bola de mamones! Just want a free hand out! Things are being looked at already, cant wait to see these rats crying on TV. Not kidding

Anonymous said...

Can't wait for the investigation to conclude and the heads to roll
Long time coming...
Charlie ojala no te embarres pero si andas con mierda te vas a embarrar

Anonymous said...

To top it off Gamez is at St.Lukes an usher

Anonymous said...

We will never see anything happen to Cabler or Gamez years of the same things have been going on. The public has asked Cabler to get rid of Gamez his a total moron but maybe Cabler is the same that's why he doesn't do anything. Cabler has been aware of all the things that have gone on the permit from stilling time from the city employees doing personal things on city time and not getting deducted from payroll that's also stilling from the tax payers Gamez allows this workers get away with it

Anonymous said...

How long do you have to take to publish

Anonymous said...

The so call auditor is aware of things that go around the city but doesn't go after the other thieves cabler, gamez,&his secretary & another women of Gamez office who still city time

Anonymous said...

Am for education but that's why people who have education know how to get away it their the worse thieves of them all. How the mayor wanted to give land to the university what was going to be his cut? I don't mean to hire without any education but that they can do the job. Like the person Cabler hired didn't know how to read & write just because he was related to a politician

Anonymous said...

Am all for education but that's why the city is in this sham but sometimes hard working be who would be grateful just having a job & are hard working not expecting any compensation just their pay check. Cabler hires this people that are friends don't know jack shit what to do. Instead of promoting with the employees who have been in the departments he will say can't give them the opportunity lacking education degree

Anonymous said...

It is this Auditor who is doing something about the issues. It is very unfair to write any negative comment about the Auditor.

rita