PORTILLO CONFIRMS SHE IS OUT, COY ABOUT FUTURE

By Juan Montoya
Unless those few who attended the town hall meeting at the UTRGV were plugged in to Facebook or were privy to her inside circle, they probably didn't know that one of the city commissioners hosting the meet – Deborah Portillo – was not running for reelection in May.
Then, on Sunday's Brownsville Herald, she confirmed she would not be a candidate for District 3 this coming May.

That leaves William Garza to face Joel Mungia running for the District 3 seat held by Portillo until the May vote is canvassed.  Garza is a former city commissioner who ran for mayor the last time around. The other candidate who alos did not file for a position on the ballot was Raymond P. Everitt, who filled out the firm to name his treasurer, but failed to notice he did not live in District 3.
While this may seem a bit amateurish, remember that when Portillo ran for the position, she failed to tell the city attorney (as if Mark Sossi cared) that she was using her mother's address and that she actually lived outside the district. There was nothing amateurish about this since it was done deliberately.

But the name recognition alone should give Garza a foot up on Mungia, but we are also hearing that Munguia now enjoys the confidences of Mayor Tony Martinez, Ambiotec millionaire engineer Carlos Marin, and a cadre of insurance company owners and salesmen in the city.

This is curious because if Munguia – who married into Matamoros money – enjoys the support of kingmakers Martinez and Marin (the Three Ms?), it is hard to reconcile this with the fact that Garza and Brenda Joyas endorsed Tony over Pat Ahumada in the last mayor's runoff election race (see graphic at right.)

Is Martinez going back on a promise? Or was it just wishful William's thinking that Martinez would support him in turn in future political races?

But back to Portillo's withdrawal from the District 3 race. After a few perfunctory paragraphs where she thanks the voters for the "honor and privilege" of serving them – like Richard Nixon – she hints that she may be around for voters to kick her around some more. She says "I am not done with public service" and, later, that "this does not mean that I am done serving my community."

This has to mean that she is planning to run for another office, perhaps for Cameron County  Pct. 2 Commissioner after incumbent Alex Dominguez announces he will run for the seat now held by Rep. Rene Oliveira?  If that what she is planning, then she better get n line early and avoid the crush of candidates who will file for that race. Oliveira – when he's not chasing skirts or imbibing spirits – has said openly that this will be his last run for state rep. But then, we've all heard drunks at the bar swearing that they will get on the wagon after this last binge.

In Portillo's ad, besides being hard to read and overly crowded, she takes credit for just about every public works and quality-of-life project that the city has completed in the four years she has been there. Of course, there is no mention of embarrassing votes like the one to give away Lincoln Park to the UT System, her vote to buy the hulk of the building called La Case del Nylon for $2.3 million using Certificates of Obligation that do not require voter approval, or going along with the 36 percent increase of utility rates to pay for the debt of the still non-existent $500 million Tenaska gas-powered generating plant.

She also doesn't mention that not only was she an advocate for the city to give the United Brownsville shadow government an annual $25,000 "membership" fee, and that she actually started out as a secretary paid with those funds under former executive director Mike Gonzalez. After United Brownsville went down in flames, she was made one of the three directors of the United Brownsville Coordinating board positions formerly held by the likes of IBC President Fred Rusteberg, UTB-TSC President Julieta Garcia and banker and UTB-TSC VP Irv Downing. Like a ship rat, and realizing the United Brownsville ship was sinking, she abandoned the organization saying she had "other priorities" she wanted to pursue.

In retrospect, the absence of Portillo from the city commission only means that Martinez will have to replace her rubber-stamp vote with someone else's, perhaps Munguia's, or even Garza. who did not seem to mind endorsing him in the past in hopes of currying his favor in future elections like this one.