WHY SKINFLINT MARTINEZ HAD MELTDOWN AT MPO MEETING

Special to El Rrun-Rrun
It is no secret to those regular participants at the Brownsville Metropolitan Planning Organization meetings that Cameron County Judge Pete Sepulveda has been requesting the CBI (Coordinated Border Infrastructure) funds from the city as reimbursement for several months.
CBI funds are issued by the federal government (the FHA or Federal Highway Administration) to improve the safe movement of motor vehicles at or across the land border between the U.S. and Canada and the land border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Cameron County (as does Hidalgo), of course, qualify.
Funds are apportioned among Border States based on factors related to the movement of people and goods through the land border ports of entry within the boundaries of the state. Factors include the number of incoming commercial trucks; the number of incoming personal motor vehicles and buses; the weight of incoming cargo by commercial trucks; and the number of land border ports of entry.
Sepulveda's request had been made to Mark Lund, Brownsville MPO director in an email which, for some reason,  was forwarded to Hizzoner Da Mayor. Lund should have been able to make the decision on whether or not to put it on the agenda back in March. But Lund deferred to the mayor who asked the judge to put it in writing.
Sepulveda then did put it in writing. the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)  had already signed off on the amount as being appropriate. Sepulveda had requested $4.2 million. TxDOT researched the issue and found that it $4.3 million was appropriate.
At the MPO meeting, Lund attached various emails and a letter written by the mayor. The mayor said he wanted to read the letter into the record which he did. The mayor then stated that the city had given $2.1 million towards the project and that the county had made two requests for over $2 million each but that the city only gave the $2.1 million.
At this point Cameron County Precinct 2 commissioner and MPO member Alex Dominguez questioned Lund about the mayor’s statements regarding how much money the city had contributed and what was not given.
After discussions and historical interpretations, the mayor stated that he believes that the county’s requests in years past for more contribution from the city for the project amounted to “extortion” and he indicated that he was upset by the County’s published letter in the Brownsville Herald.
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2016/05/martinez-becomes-unhinged-lashes-out-at.html
It is unclear if he was upset about Cameron County favoring a valley wide MPO to gain greater access to state and federal dollars far more than the scraps we get now (which the mayor opposes), or  if the mayor was upset that the county’s letter indicated the failures of the city’s initial problems losing millions in federal dollars until the county stepped in to save the Morrison Street East and West project.
The mayor is the only mayor of the major cities opposed to the merger in the entire valley.
Ultimately, the mayor moved to table the release of the funds to the county until the county gives a full accounting.
Of course, the mayor never misses a moment to tell all who will listen that this project which has taken more than a decade to finish is his own fine accomplishment. And yet in all those meetings that spanned months, not once did the mayor ask for an accounting.
When the judge requested the CBI funds back in February, neither the mayor nor Lund ever request an accounting.
Rancho Viejo alderman Bitty Truan seconded the mayor’s motion because she thought the different amounts requested was too much of a problem to figure out and that a business should not spend any money unless they know what that money is going towards.
TxDOT Director and engineer Toribio Garza stated that he knew exactly what the funds would be going towards and that they were appropriate.
The mayor’s motion passed (by one vote, his) delaying the county’s reimbursement until a date not set. The funds requested do not come from city nor from local taxes. They come from the FHA.
And so out little Browntown MPO drifts with the current with Da Mayor crying "Onward through the fog!"