DE LEON CRITICS, SUPPORTERS COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK

"Brownsville needs to be discussing the elitism of its leadership, not the use of the n-word in a drunken private rant by a 28 year old who's stirring up the old guard..."

"Remember that the magician always makes you look up when you should be looking right in front of you. You need to expose what's really going on and that is that a bunch of out-of-touch elitists are playing political games for personal gain at the expense of la Raza..."

Comments to: IS BEDC DOING END RUN TO TAKE OVER GBIC? MARTINEZ NOMINATES NICK SERAFY SET TO JOIN GBIC BOARD

By Juan Montoya
In the swirling controversy spawned by racist comments made by city commissioner Cesar de Leon, several commenters in social media noted that some protesters may be motivated by using it as a smokescreen to conceal their personal interests in local government.

De Leon's comments were taped surreptitiously by former fire chief and later aired on social media. In one snippet, he refers to two black Asst. District Attorneys with the "N" word and claimed that judging by their handling of local cases their thought were wife beaters and thought of local Mexican-Americans as so many "taco eaters."
"That could not be further from the truth," De Leon is heard saying.

In the top comment, the writer is referring to the petition printed in the newspaper by attorney Michael Cowen where he calls for De Leon's resignation. By the old guard we can guess that the writer is referring to the fact that the Cowen family or ancestors have lived in South Texas for generations going back to the 1860s.

They noted that the many critics are calling for the 28-year-old commissioner to resign because of his use of profanity and racial slurs taped secretly during a private conversation. And they note that of the 312 people singing the petition, 208 had Anglo surnames and that at least 100 of them were lawyers from outside the city recruited by Cowen.

Other public officials calling for De Leon's resignation were Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz, State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño and Southmost College trustee Trey Mendez.

"I could care less what happens to De Leon, but the anonymous businessman...has it right," wrote one. All public officials stay ready to react instantly on hot buttons like racism or guns or Trump that they hope they can hoodwink their voters into becoming rabid about. So instead of doing the hard stuff they were voted in for like creating jobs, cutting the budget and growing the economy, they jump in with both feet on any statement vaguely related to racism, guns or Trump or the wall or a million other issues that go nowhere."

"We should ALSO have a demonstration to demand an investigation into all the corruption de Leon spoke about 99.9 percent of the recording, it's the pea under the shell," wrote another. "Racism? We have the garden variety, rich/poor racism. And we used to have the Heat of the Night racism because gringos "founded" Brownsville. Hey, gringos were the ones raising hell in 1906 about the black soldiers stationed here... not us. We just said welcome to our world. Most of the gringo masters and their scions, a lone Stillman notwithstanding, packed up and left awhile back. And Mexicans really don't have racism against blacks because we would look silly putting down a race, as Muhammad Ali said, that's done nothing to us...."
Instead of pillorying De Leon, the writers says, people should look at the appointments that are being made for positions on boards that control the public funds and are often steered toward friends or other politically and economically connected old families that seem to always profit from the dispersal of public funds.

"Remember that the magician always makes you look up when you should be looking right in front of you..."

The comments were made in  response to a post that touched on the appointments of non-Hispanics to the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation. In fact, John Cowen, a member of the board of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation is lawyer Gowen's relative as are a Brownsville Navigation District commissioner, customs brokers, and one member of the board Brownsville Independent School District.

The story also dealt with the appointment by Tony Martinez of Nick Serafy of Serafy Laboratories to be on the GBIC board. De Leon is also on that board as is Jessica Tetreau and David Betancourt. The vetting committee to consider granting incentives to local companies has two members, Realtor Craig Grove and CPA Gregg McCumber. Other critics point out that both Grove and McCumber live in posh Rancho Viejo Resort and not in Brownsville.

"... (What's really going on...is that a bunch of out-of-touch elitists are playing political games for personal gain at the expense of la Raza..."

The GBIC board gets some $5 million from its quarter-cent share of local sales taxes and funnel them to businesses and firms that will produce good-paying jobs. The former Brownsville Economic Development Council was given subsequent three-year contracts totaling over $5.3 million to vet companies interested in coming to the city. Some of the companies given incentives and counted as  successes have not turned out to be as good as they have been painted.

SpaceX, for example, was heralded as a space-exploration company that would start launching commercial satellites from Boca Chica Beach starting in 2013 and it hasn't launched one yet. On BEDC's recommendation, the GBIC gave billionaire Elon Musk's company $5.5 million in incentives.

The city, pegged the lengthening of the city airport runways for SpaceX, Cameron County is building an amphitheater at Isla Blanca Park so that thousands of tourists can see the satellite launches, the courses at UTRGV-TSC to start training aerospace engineers, and the support of the Brownsville Independent School District with a space-based curriculum to start educating the future astronauts who will take off from Boca Chica Beach for Mars and beyond as the huckster billionaire promised.

But it may have been wishing upon a star. Remember when Martinez, Rene Oliveira and Eddie Lucio jumped aboard the Musk-SpaceX bandwagon and heralded its coming as the next best thing to rapture? The BEDC fell over itself telling us about the 600 well-paying jobs it would bring to Brownsville. Even McAllen and Harlingen chipped in on the rocket man's dream.

And what have we gotten after all that?  Not 600, not 500, not even 400 jobs, but 250 (part time) jobs after the shooting got going, if ever. This is what he told the U.S. government he was going to bring.

Another company that was supposed to bring good-paying jobs and cheap energy if Brownsville would chip in $325 million was Tenaska, an electric producer using natural gas. The plant was supposed to finish construction of the plant sometime in 2017. Electric rates were raised by 35 percent over three years starting in 2013. 

So far, the company has not been able to sell the 600 MWs they would get and a clause in as yet-unseen Memorandum Of Understanding gives them the right to delay construction until they do. But the rates never came down and we have no plant. A glut of electricity on the grid and two other pants coming online make it unlikely for its construction to begin any time soon.

In fact, Treviño had a hand in drafting the MOU with Tenaska in his role as PUB attorney. Treviño and the PUB – through its lawyers in San Antonio – have been able to fight the release of the MOU and other information requests with the Texas Attorney General. 

Both SpaceX and Tenaska were able to garner tax abatements from the city and county to build their projects.

And some critics say that some members of the BEDC board had been able to hook up with some of the companies that applied for incentives and provide them with accounting, legal or other professional services.  

"Brownsville needs to be discussing the elitism of its leadership, not the use of the n-word in a drunken private rant by a 28 year old who's stirring up the old guard...," the writers contend.

Could they possibly be right?