MARTINEZ: THE PROVERBIAL PIOUS BULL IN THE CHINA SHOP

By Juan Montoya

Anywhere else, it can safely be said that if an elected officials did what Cit of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez acted as imperiously without any regard for the public trust, he would have been put out on his ear, or worse, indicted by a grand jury.

Martinez, who has postured himself before the public when he runs for election (or reelection) as a good, sincere, God-fearing Catholic, has in turn performed acts which would separate him from the blessed congregation.

Consider for example, the latest transgression done by him or by his adherents in city government. We speak of the replacement of a letter by  James Kirshbaum, the engineer for CH2MHILL of Englewood, Co asking the city to approve a for a change order that would increase their fees from $1,650,000 to $2,500,925, a $850,925 increase.

The new additions to the passenger terminal area, Kirshbaum wrote, were added by the city and its local architect, Origo Works, increasing the original size from 65,000 square feet to 85,000 square feet. Also, the Custom and Border Protection asked that the original 14,000 square feet be increased by 9,000 square feet for Federal Inspection Service (FIS) areas to 23,000 square feet.

Those changes, he said, were not in the original engineering specs provided to the company when it submitted its response to the city's Request for Proposals (RFP). As a result, he said, not only the cost of the engineering services, but the changes in the original design will balloon the original construction cost estimate from $27.5 million to $38 million.

In the original letter, the Kirshbaum stated that the changes in engineering/design cost, a five-month delay, and the and overall construction cost were due to changes after the RFP were approved.

"The other item that has caused additional design and management effort is the coordination with our local architect, Origo Works," wrote Kirshbaum, the engineer for CH2MHILL.
"As requested by the mayor, we engaged Origo Works to help incorporate 'local' architectural features and elements into the original design. This effort extended the conceptual design phase of the project by approximately five months, resulting in significant additional efforts by CH2M, Corgan and Origo Works."

Then, when reporters sought out the letter in the city's website, it was discovered that that entire paragraph had been removed and a  second letter which deletes any mention of the mayor or Origo Works inserted in the packet instead. Both letters are dated Sept. 21 and signed by  Kirshbaum Sept, 6.

Is it possible that Kirschbaum wrote two different letters to the same recipient (Airport director Bryant Walker) on the same date, and one (originally in the packet) mentioned the mayor and Origo Works, and another did not (second letter inserted in package)?

Origo Works owner Jaime Huerta, was paid $25,000 under the heading Current Terminal Contract, another $15,000 under Revised Terminal Contract, and another $5 for Terminal 55 Contract for a total of $45,000.

The hiring of Origo Works – who did the architectural work on Da Mayor's Spanky Burgers and El Rincon de la Paz– was done outside the city's procurement process at the behest of Martinez, according to Kirshbaum's original letter. That disappeared in the second letter.

Remember when Martinez took commissioner Jessica Tertreau to task and publicly scolded her for trying to say that she had voted in the affirmative to select Steve Guerra to the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation board? He bristled when he found out that she had filed and affidavit that she had voted "aye" and said that the tapes show she had not voted. When commissioner Longoria, who was sitting next to her tried to support her, he cut him off and did not allow him to speak.

No one was going to change the public record under his watch, he said, and ordered City Secretary Griselda Rosas to ignore the affidavit. This she dutifully did. City commissioner Ben Neece even went as far as handing the affidavit to the chief of police to see whether she could be prosecuted for 'perjury" in trying to submit it. 

Now the Rosas has to answer on how the letters got changed since the city record is under her custody and control. Did someone order her to make the change of the public record to hide the mayor's handiwork and reward his friend? People have said that Brownsville is a small city with a lot of people. And people talk.                                                                                            They say that Huerta attended St. Joseph's Academy with the mayor's son and that Martinez was just acting out of family loyalty when he asked CH2MHILL to cut in Huerta on $45,000 of the public's funds.

That isn't much different from what he did on the infamous Casa del Nylon caper when he convinced the commission that if they plunked down the inflated $2.3 million for the hulk of a building, the UT System was ready to take it off their hands to increase their presence downtown. 

                                                                Commissioner Ricardo Longoria said that when the commissioners spoke with the UT people, they denied they had any interest in the building which now serves as a warehouse and homeless hangout.  But the damage was done and the public's money went o one of Martinez's buddies.                                                                                                                                           And how about the expenditure he ordered then-city manager Charlie Cabler to use some of the $3,060,000 settlement the city received from American Electric Power Texas Central Co. to pay for moving the Charles Stillman Laureles Ranch House, initially for $25,000 from the King Ranch to the lot next to the Cueto Building, then subsequently to Linear Park for an additional $14,000. 

These expenditures were paid for by funds that came from that account without commission approval.  Martinez, on his own, had been dipping into the $3,060,000 settlement the city received from AEP Texas for personal whims.
(Compare the Stillman love shack with the new and improved Stillman Laureles Ranch House at left. Oh, yeah, it's the same buildings, alright!)

Can we detect a pattern here?                                                                                                          But the goodly mayor has been even more brazen. Remember when he needed parking space so he could sell his old law office to the Rio Grande Texas legal Rural Aid and he bought an adjacent property at a tax auction to make the property marketable? 

He not only considered the sale in executive session, he also voted to sell himself the property in open session and made a tidy profit. Tony Martinez signed the deed over to Tony Martinez, the buyer.

It appears that the money changer has entered the people's temple under the guise of the good lamb.