THE USS BROWNTOWN DRIFTS RUDDERLESS INTO THE VOID

11. Consideration and ACTION to appoint one (1) member to the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation. (Griselda Rosas – City Secretary)

By Juan Montoya
The City of Brownsville does not not a permanent city manager, city attorney, or a fire chief.
Yet, on Tuesday, the city commission will accept the retirement notice of former city manager Charlie Cabler and announce a date when the position will be vacate.

For the meantime, longtime city financial officer and now assistant city manager Pete Gonzalez and former city secretary Michael Lopez are sharing responsibilities for running the city. Gonzalez, who knows the ins and outs of the city's dismal finances is beyond his dynamic stage and will probably leave the daily running of the city to the younger Lopez.

This is not a good thing.
Lopez left the city secretary's position after he attempted to launch a coup of the city municipal court staff and tried to assist Cabler in establishing something called a Court Services Dept. under the city manager and wrest it from the administrative control of the City Municipal Court Chief Judge Ben Neece. It wasn't until Neece threatened to get a court injunction to stop the move that Cabler relented and called off his boy Lopez. Neece then retired as judge and ran for the city commission and beat John Villarreal.

Prediction: Lopez will not be the next city manager

It is hoped that the city will launch a nationwide hunt for Cabler's replacement. It is also hoped that it will be someone without any baggage or ties with political factions in the city.
That may be wishful thinking considering that past city commissions have hired former police chiefs and commanders without an iota of urban management or planning. The result, well, you can see the results for yourself all around.

Cabler and the fire chief and former city attorney left under clouds – no, thunderheads – of suspicion over inappropriate behavior and/or scandal. They all got their jobs because of their political connections, and not necessarily the meritorious performance of their professions.

But what the city commission – minus city manager, attorney or fire chief – will decide on Tuesday is who they will pick to fill the vacancy left when former city commissioner Deborah Portillo resigned from the five-member board of the Greater Brownsville Incentive Corporation.

The GBIC is important because it manages the annual $5 million that it gets from the quarter-cent share of the city's annual sales tax receipts to nurture economic development (read jobs) in the city. Until the recent past, any number of shady deals have been funded by former boards, including doling out $100,000s to well-connected relatives of local politicians and prominent individuals. The returns on those "incentives" have been dismal and benefited no one but the recipients. That is one reason that the commissioners decided to be on the board and shift directions.

Currently, commissioners Jessica Tetreau and Cesar de Leon are on the board. Other members include Cameron County Treasurer David Betancourt, and John Cowen.

There are seven Brownsville residents applying to fill the slot left Vacant by Portillo, some well known, others not so well. City policy prohibits someone from serving on more than two boards.

Ankjaer Jensen, who sits on the Brownsville Economic Development Council is one of the applicants. It is somewhat incongruous for Jensen to apply considering that the GBIC, disgusted at the way the 33-member BEDC board – and its executive committee – have so badly mismanaged the money it got under the recurrent three-year, $5.3 million contract it had with the GBIC refused to renew it. What makes Jensen think that the city commission will pick someone from the board that the GBIC board members fired? Is there a fix in the works?

At their last meeting, the application of Esteban Guerra, a local businessman, died as a result of a tied vote. His name appears on the list of applicants again for consideration Tuesday. Guerra rand for the Brownsville Navigation District against John Wood in the last go-round and lsot. If anything, he does have some name recognition.

Others include Nurith Galonsky, who also sits on the Brownsville Public Utilities Board. Will her membership on the BPUB raise questions of conflict of interest on economic development issues in the future?

Then there are the applications of people like local Realtor Eliseo Davila and business man Arturo Treviño, of the "Los Trevis" drive-throughs. Both are relatively new faces in local politics, but are hoping that their personal relationships with some commissioners will deliver them the seat.

Nichola Serafy is seen as Mayor Tony Martinez's man. It is also said that Martinez wants a voice on the board to quash a Price-Waterhouse forensic audit performed on the BEDC at the behest of the GBIC board. The GBIC is said to prefer to turn over the findings to federal authorities so they can address potentially criminal misuse of economic development funds by the BEDC administration and board who oversee them.

Others dispute this saying Serafy is his own man and that his Republican-leaning politics have set him at odds with people like commissioner Ricardo Longoria, who preferred Guerra. Serafy is known to hang with the likes of Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. John Cornyn, a plus they say, for his candidacy to the economic-development board.

And, of course, there is always Erasmo Castro, the political gadfly who has run for the city commission, for mayor, and for the board of the Brownsville Independent School District. He got over 10,000 votes when he ran for the BISD and is hoping some of his political support will translate into a GBIC appointment. We wouldn't bet on it, but stranger things have happened.

We would think that finding a permanent city manager, fire chief, and city attorney would take precedence over other issues, but apparently, the city prefers going rudderless for a spell and doing business as well as they can before these positions are filled.