UNITED B'VILLE-OP 10.33: PSST! OK, HERE'S THE $$$ PLAN

By Juan Montoya
It all started innocently enough with a comprehensive plan for Brownsville to garner federal bucks back in 2006.
When its sponsors – former Minnesota congressman Jim Oberstar and our own Solomon Ortiz – said they had money for downtown revitalization but that the city needed a plan in print that identified the projected plans and a sort of needs assessment for our community before the federal funds were appropriated, Imagine Brownsville was born.
The city awarded the project to Carlos Marin's Ambiotec Engineering with a price tag of more than $1 million.
The plan was created, but alas, Oberstar as well as Ortiz were unsuccessful in being re-elected, and the plan fell through.
According to city commissioner Rick Longoria, the commissioners thought that was the end of that and there was no sense in throwing good money after bad.
"In my personal opinion: the plan has been created, the projected targets and needs have been identified," Longoria wrote. "Thank you for your service ladies and gentlemen of our community."
But Marin was not ready to give up just yet.
He managed to talk a majority of the members of the city commission and movers and shakers in the community to fund something called United Brownsville.

Operating under a so-called United Brownsville Coordinating Board composed of IBC President Fred Rusteberg, former UTB President Julieta Garcia and former banker and UTB VP Irv Downing, they formed a board to do their bidding composed of officials from local publicly-funded entities. Without spending a nickel of their own money, the troika managed to squeeze $25,000 annually from eight entities.

They were 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."

Over the course of time, since 2009, United Brownsville has collected $200,000 a year to "provide a forum for local government officials to communicate regarding public projects and public-private partnerships," "thereby lessening the burdens of government." For a slight fee, of course. So far, that fee has totaled more than $1.4 million.

Marin and United Brownsville Executive Director Mike Gonzalez – the former mayor of Kyle, Texas and a Tea Party member – have pushed for a number of "plans."

They managed to get the Port of Brownsville, the PUB and the City of Brownsville to dish out $454,000 to Robin McCaffrey for a yet another super-duper Master Comprehensive plan. McCaffrey  is the same person who worked on the City of Kyle Comprehensive Master Plan, under the name of Mesa.
 McCaffrey was hired when Gonzalez was still in office in Kyle. Gonzalez is now the executive director of United Brownsville.
The Son-of-Imagine Brownsville "plan," recommended that someone be hired to complete a small area plan in two stages at an estimated cost of $700,000.
In steps Oscar Garcia Jr., son of Coordinating Board member Julieta Garcia. Garcia was with the PUB and then hooked up with Jacobs Engineering. He proposed to give the Greater Brownsville Improvement Corporation, the Port of Brownsville and PUB such a "plan" for only $185,000. The result would have made a first-year urban planning student gag. Half of its 100 pages was composed of photocopied index notes.

However, flush with the easy money, Garcia came back again for more,  this time proposing that he be awarded the other half of the plan for more than $400,000.

But, alas, the cat was out of the bag and the Port and the PUB declined to participate. He tried to make an end run and apply to the Brownsville Economic Development Council and they also demurred.

Despite being money grubbers, United Brownsville and Carlos Marin always had a political angle to controlling the flow of cash to their camp. Now we hear that they have enlisted the aid of well-meaning (but we think misguided) philanthropist Mike Hernandez III, a Brownsville boy who went on to make a lot of money with his car-leasing business in Dallas.

They have now teamed up with Marin (who is listed as a job developer on the OP 10.33 staff)  and his buddies to take over the boards of public entities who they believe have not shown the appropriate zeal in turning over the cash for their endeavors. The first target? The Port of Brownsville. It's been two years since the port has not released its $25,000 "membership" fees to United Brownsville.
They are running a ticket composed of TSC trustee Ed Rivera and Raul Villanueva to unseat Tito Lopez and Ralph Cowen. Inadvertently, two of their followers also filed to run for TSC trustee seats. Beatriz Hockaday – a staffer with OP 10.33 – filed against Trey Mendez and Daniel Pizaña, a local attorney who shares Hernandez's "vision," filed for a seat and faces challenger Ruben Herrera, also a local attorney who has served on a number of local boards.
OP.10.33 rapidly sought to distance itself from the TSC candidates saying that "Mike is not supporting any candidates for the TSC board."
Rivera, while on the TSC board, was a champion for the funding of United Brownsville. Even though it has been shown that Rivera's residency is questionable, port attorney Daniel Rentfro and election official Debby Duke have maintained their usual silence and he is on the ballot.
OP 10.33 makes any of its members sign a pledge that they will remain virtuous and honest in their quest to improve their community. How does this type of political skulldrudgery jive with that goal?