IS NURITH GALONSKY BEING GROOMED FOR MAYOR?

By Juan Montoya
That's what some people are wondering about Nurith Galonsky, a local resident who has been appointed to some of the most important boards on the City of Brownsville.

For example, she is a member of the Public Utilities Board, the municipal utility that has a wide-ranging impact upon all aspects of city life. The PUB, for example, sets the electric, water, ad wastewater rates on every residence and business in town. It's project to finance the construction of an 800 MW natural gas-fueled electric plant with private energy provider Tenaska has seen rates soaring close to 40 percent over the past five years with no end in sight.

Under a Memorandum Of Understanding inked by the city and the company, the ratepayers will pay $325 million of the $500 million (60 percent) cost of construction and get 200 megawatts – 25 percent of the 800 MWs – in return.

However, the project has been put on hold because of a glut in electricity on the local grid and several similar natural-gas fueled plants are coming on line up the valley. And until he resigned his position as the PUB's legal counsel, Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño managed to keep the MOU secret from the public. That MOU stipulates that if Tenasaka cannot sell the remaining 600 MWs,  it is not obligated to break ground on the construction. 

We have heard that this was a bone of contention  between Nurith Galonsky and Treviño as well as with some city commissioners, notably Cesar de Leon and Ben Neece, who have hinted they will take legal steps to make the PUB produce it so that the public can know what obligations the city and the PUB have toward Tenaska and vice versa. But it was commissioners Jessica Tetreau and Ricardo Longoria who nominated her and appointed her to the GBIC.

What's in the MOU? Some city commissioners say that they were offered the opportunity to see it, but not to make copies to take with them.

The PUB also controls the city budget. Each year, it "transfers" between $8 to $12 million to the city budget. It also provided about $5 million in utilities to city facilities. Without the PUB transfers, the city would go broke or have to scale down considerably. It is interesting to note that Martinez voted against a proposal by Nurith and Armando Magallanes to scale back PUB rates by 15 percent and defeated the item. Either way one sees it, the money is coming from the ratepayers through the increased rates, a kind of double taxation.

Nurith has also been appointed to the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, a board which receives about $5 million each year as its share of the 1 and on-quarter cents of the city's annual sales taxes. Its counterpart – the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC) – is basically broke over the costs and expenses associated with the Sports Park in northern Brownsville. The only pot of money left the city administration if the GBIC's $5 million.

Already, Hinojosa and Estrada, the city's financial consultants, have suggested that the BCIC fund the cost of the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport. The cost of that project has skyrocketed (no pun intended) from $27 million to $38 million as a result of Mayor Tony Martinez  fiddling with the project and making the architect hire the local architects that worked on his Spanky's Burger restaurant and his Rincon de la Paz at his law office.

Will Nurith go along with Martinez, seeing how the mayor engineered the issuance of Certificates Of Obligation to purchase her father's Casa de Nylon at an exorbitant $2.3 million when appraisers say it is worth about one third of that amount?

In fact, it was the mayor's law partner Horacio Barrera, who "negotiated" with her dad Abraham Galonsky to set a price on the building. Martinez had told some city commissioners that the UT-at Brownsville would buy the building from the city to establish facilities in town. That turned out not to be true and now the Casa has become a city warehouse and a magnet for the homeless and their pets.

Several observers of local politics have written about the process of her selection to the GBIC calling her a "compromise" candidate by Mayor Martinez. That process was somewhat convoluted and took two city commission meetings to complete. Blogger Jim Barton wrote that "The original vote, taken on October 3, resulted in a tie, for and against Esteban Guerra, and, subsequently, a tabling of the item. along with back and forth charges of improper vote tabulation, perjury, fraud and official oppression."

Nurith, said to be associated with thirteen companies, seven still active, graduated from the S.M.U. School of Law in 2001. With the city administrators and the mayor and commissioners eyeing the $5 million at the GBIC to finance their pet projects, will she play ball with them or will she stand her ground and assert her independence? One major test will be whether the PUB will allow Abraham to encroach upon the right-of-way he leased the city on his Central Boulevard property across from the main city library.

Barton quoted a local "expert" on the potential conflict of interest that might arise because of her dad's real estate deals with the city.

"He's happy she got the recognition, but he has some tracts of land 'available' for purchase by the city and he wants to avoid the appearance of inside deals," offered the expert.

We have heard that Galonsky wants the PUB to allow him the use of the ROW for an apartment complex project at no expense. Will having is daughter on the board make it easier for him to carry out his plans?

The question then becomes: Will the voters of the city visit the sins of the fathers upon their children? Nurith's political career may rest upon that issue.