Many local political observers were left in wonder at the heat generated by the appointment of a board member to the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation.
A brouhaha was generated when commissioner – and GBIC board member Jessica Tetreau – said Mayor Tony Martinez had not counted her "aye" vote for Estevan Guerra to fill the vacancy left by former commissioner Deborah Portillo. Portillo was said to have latched on to one of the LNG companies as a "consultant" to help them set up shop at the Port of Brownsville.
The failure of getting three votes for Guerra resulted in the unanimous vote at the next meeting to appoint Brownsville Pubic Utility Board member Nurith Galonsky to the GBIC board. Martinez had been heavily criticized for having his law partner Horacio Barrera negotiate the city's purchase of her father Abraham Galonsky's Casa del Nylon for $2.3 million. Her appointment to the GBIC board has been eyed suspiciously as a move by Martinez to quash an audit of the BEDC said to be critical of its administration and its board and executive committee.
Besides the fact that three city commissioners had decided to get on the board after the dismal number of jobs generated by the BEDC efforts to lure them using millions of dollars in incentives, there were other complaints aimed a the BEDC board and executive committee.
One of these was the expensive travel to all parts of Central and South America – and in particular Colombia – which had been selected by former CEO Jason Hilts for the establishment of a satellite BEC office abroad.
The travel did not just include so-called "global job developers" within the BEDC staff, but also numerous elected officials and administrators whose purpose on the trips were justified by Hilts to the BEDC board and executive committee as representing entities who could help BEDC attain its economic development goals.
Instead, after three years in operation, the Colombia operations did not result in hundreds of jobs locally, but perhaps three jobs over that span for three Colombian nationals, including a Colombian "consultant" who was said to have romantic ties to the former CEO.
Photos of the trips shows Hilts and Martinez socializing with Colombian business persons, biking against a mountainous backdrop decked in cycling gear, and reports have come back of the potential for shipping tropical fruit and flowers to cold storage facilities to be built in Brownsville.The one idea that came back from Colombia was the so-called "cyclobias," bicycle events that have cost the city $100,000s.
(The picture at right during picture one of these trips depicts Colombian Oscar Ruiz Brochero, the director of a business forum, with Sandra Lopez-Langley, a Business Development Officer at First Community Bank, and Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez during a trip
The cold storage idea t, however, never happened. What did happen was that the BEDC jaunters spent thousands of dollars and had a great time in an exotic places with exotic people on the public's dime.
That – among other things we are told – is supposed to be contained in the audit report being generated by Pricewaterhouse at the request of the GBIC board. It is believed that Martinez is hoping that Galonsky and other members of the GBIC board will not make the audit accessible to law enforcement to determine whether any criminal acts might have been committed.
(Martinez, Hilts and Tony Capella also went on a whirlwind trip at taxpayer expense to Italy, Turkey and the Netherlands that accomplished nothing except give three middle-aged men the pleasure of taking a Eurasian trip on the public's dime. Hilts also traveled to Sao Pablo and Rio de Janerio, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, Santiago Chile to perform "prospect activities.")
Blogger Jim Barton reported in his Brownsville Observer that Hilts had talked Martinez into setting up the "office" in Colombia to "promote economic development" between the two countries.
"From 2013-15, $197,000 was spent for an office and staff in Columbia, plus Hilts and crew made SIXTEEN urgent trips back to Colombia to check on the progress of economic development. As we reported in earlier this year:
"In the pursuit of economic development for the City of Brownsville, BEDC operatives traveled sixteen times to the exotic destination of Colombia during fiscal years 2013-15. While typically a combination of Jason Hilts, Gilberto Salinas (now interim GBIC CEO) and Olga Ramos made the Colombia trip, one contingent included as many as eleven.
"During those years, the BEDC spent $312,541 of taxpayer monies on travel alone. Despite the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars spent on the office, staff and trips to Colombia, the office was simply closed without fanfare in 2015. No jobs were created for Brownsville residents. Nothing in the way of economic development ever materialized between Brownsville and Colombia."
But, according to the meme published on social media, the mayor did get us a T-shirt that says "Estuve en Colombia y me acorde de ti" or "I was in Colombia and I remembered you."
There is also talk that the BEDC allowed Hilts to make himself a $5,000 advance sent to the Colombian "consultant's" home address, an amount he quickly returned when word got out of that irregular transaction.
What else is in the Pricewaterhouse audit that BEDC board members and perhaps Martinez don't want anyone to see?
12 comments:
Galonsky = PUB = Tenaska.
Does anybody know where she worked at before coming back to Brownsville and WHY she came back to Brownsville?
We need to talk to her previous employer and ask that they re-hire her..PLEASE!!
Actually, the city of brownsville does benefit financially from imported Columbian products. Specifically C O C A I N E. It creates numerous jobs for smugglers and dealers, most of them being illegal Mexicans. Thanks JASON HILTS, you piece of shit. the city spent a lot of money so your fat discusting ass could get your dick sucked by a columbian hooker. By the way, the other piece of shit Gilbert Salinas is just as guilty and still works for the city. GBIC IS A FUCKING JOKE.
Any audit should be made public, because its public money they are spending on these "boondoggles" hither, tither and yond. Tony Martinez, despite his campaign promise for transparency in city government....has proven to be secretive and closed to the public. The Mayor is trying to operate the city with a small circle of his friends and political allies. The public has little input or participation. It is time for Tony Martinez to resign....but he would prefer the "kick the can" down the road, like he has done during his tenure.
Resign Tony Martinez....you have failed the city.
(Tony Martinez, despite his campaign promise for transparency in city government....has proven to be secretive and closed to the public.)
Wearing a shirt much similar to the one he's wearing in that pic, is how he dresses for Mass. Most assume he's someone living in Las Prietas. Where the church is located.
Hedley.
She never has had a legit job. She has always worked for her daddy. The people in brownsville are to stupid to understand that this is fraud at the highest level of city government. Let’s see her credentials .
First, the BEDC executive board at the time authorized the Colombian office, not the mayor. You should be writing about them and their connections to this mess. Second, Nurith was part of the team that prepared a very critical performance report on the BEDC - which essentially lead to the non-renewal of the GBIC/BEDC contract. How, exactly, is the mayor trying to prevent the release of the audit?
Tony learned about keeping things among friends from Juliet Garcia. When he first got elected he was often seen visiting with our local WORLD LEADER...WHEN THE ut-System discovered her incompetence....they gracefully told her GOODBY
Nuri Galonsky is a graduate of Stanford University Law School and worked as an attorney in Dallas before coming to Brownsville. She is very bright and probably more intelligent than most attorneys in Brownsville. The comment above that "she has never had a legit job" is garbage, and whomever wrote it has no clue of that family. We can surely trust her more than lawyers like Tony Martinez or Cesar de Leon.
El millonaro pasiendose con el dinero de los pobres! No tiene vueguenza, el carbon peludo.
Too bad she's not a practicing attorney - Went to Stanford all for nothing and get on the GBIC board? thats a pretty short sighted vision. Pat Ahumada probably didn't go to school and was mayor - so I don't see any great accomplishments to brag about for her. In fact, it says the opposite - just a spoiled brat.
Oh, They also sold fayuka to Mexico.
In other words, they sold contraband, contrabandistas - they smuggled electronic goods into Mexico and probably paid "mordidas" to get them in.. (Corruption)
And they also had to get their money back into the US. I wonder how they did that? I wonder if that is against the law? (more corruption)
Lady of good counsel church
(Lady of good counsel church)
Yeah! You've seen him there to, huh? Am I lying about his wardrobe? Lol!
Hedley.
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