INTERIM GBIC CEO SIGNED OFF FOR HILTS ON COLOMBIAN GAL

By Juan Montoya
With the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation head hunting for a permanent CEO to manage the $5 million annual take from sits share of sales taxes ales taxes for economic development, the board declined to take any action on the evaluation of current interim director Gilbert Salinas.

There had already been a thinly-veiled attempt to pack the board with Brownsville Economic Development Council executive committee members Keith Uhles and Tony Capella. Uhles is an attorney with Royston Rayzor and Capella is a local businessman associated with Portage Plastics.

Those two members of the BEDC plus Mayor Tony Martinez are said to have been working behind the scenes trying to take control of the GBIC. But if one examines the abuses of former BEDC CEO Jason Hilts under their watch, it is no recommendation for them to slither in to take control of the annual $5 million the corporation gets.

When the BEDC was questioned about a report on their Colombian economic mission, it showed  that in the two and one-half years of operating an office there, they spent $197,590 in salaries for three Colombian nationals, office costs, and another $116,000 in travel for BEDC, city, port, state and private individuals.


And while the report does not show that one job has been created for a Brownsville resident so far, But BEDC CEO Jason Hilts asserts that their efforts so far at "developing relationships" has the "potential" of bringing at least 11 mid-size operations in different sectors with $25 million and 200 jobs and another $300 million from two major projects in food processing and retail which might create 450 jobs and another 300 indirect jobs here.

But now we know that at least one of those Colombian nationals had more than a professional relationship with Hilts. The woman is listed on BEDC travel from Medellin, Colombia, to Brownsville and also ontrips she took with Hilts and BEDC VP Gilbert Salinas to Washington D.C., Mexico City, Antofagasta, Chile, San Antonio, and alone with Hilts to Medellin.

Here's the breakdown on the Colombian operation funded to the tune of $314,438 from July 2013 to 2016.
Staff and salary: Director of Business Development and Recruitment: $50,436 yearly
Office Assistant: $6,600 yearly
Office Assistant: $800 monthly
Total multiplied by 2.5 years: $197,590

Hilts inked a contract with the lady, one Olga Lucia Ramos Sajona, for a monthly $1,500 plus $300 auto allowance. That's $21,000 right off the bat. Later, the board allowed Hilts to get a $5,000 "advance" that he later repaid in cash. The cash was forwarded to the woman's address, a report states.

All this was carried out under the noses of these two board members and no one raised the issue until Hilts' presence became too untenable, even for Martinez, Uhles, and Capella to bear.

The same goes for interim GBIC director Salinas (the bald guy on the left in the graphic above), who went along to get along while the tax dollars went into the Colombian black hole.

In fact, it was Salinas who signed the contract for the Colombian woman in Hilts' stead (bottom graphic at right).


When city commissioners were considering electing a member to replace Deborah Portillo on
the GBIC, Uhels threw his hat in the ring. Fortunately (or unfortunately as may be the case), Nurith Galonsky was chosen to replace Portillo.

There have been numerous reports that some of the 33-member BEDC board and the executive committee in particular may have profited professionally from their membership in the sense that they did business with some potential BEDC clients  by offering their services and cutting them off at the pass.

An analysis of the BEDC operations – which the GBIC paid to the tune of $5.3 million over three- year contract – showed that there was lax oversight of the operations and that it was being operated in a way that did not meld with the objectives of the GBIC. The report recommended that the GBIC either correct the two organizations' goals to coordinate economic development, or terminate their relationship.

The GBIC, with two city commissioners on the board, chose to go at it alone instead of continuing to fund a losing proposition. But Uhles vowed to continue the operations of the BEDC with contributions from their members and seeking grants.

Now, with Martinez, Uhles, and Capella, the strategy to take over the GBIC and kicking out the city commissioners continues unabated. Will they succeed and return to doing the BEDC business-as- usual approach to run the GBIC, too?