A REAWAKENING; COB, PUB CONTINUE TO SCREW THE PEOPLE

By Juan Montoya

Few people noticed an agenda item in the City of Brownsville commission's agenda last week approving the issuance of $26 million in utility revenue bonds for the Public Utility Board (PUB).

On its face, it may be deemed one of those "bookkeeping" items that the commission is periodically called to approve to keep the utility in cash. But if you look at the issue a little closer, it's apparent  that the maneuver is just one more instance of the city commission giving the PUB honchos the green light to do as they damn well please...again.

Now, to the average household in Brownsville, with it's $15,217 annual income, $26 million is a chunk of money. But it's noting compared to the more than $100 million that the utility has accrued as a result of the hike in utilities to its rate payers.

Starting January of 2013 – a month after PUB CEO John Bruciaks' push for higher rates – electric rates increased by 36 percent from 2013 to 2016, water rates 20 percent from 2013 to 2016, and waste water services 6 percent and will stay there indefinitely.

The plant was supposed to be finished in the summer of 2017 and generate 800 MWs of power, 200MW of which were to go to the city, and the other 600 to be sold in the open market by the private utility company. There was one hitch, however. By the time that the plans were drawn up, there was a glut of electricity on the grid, and there were no customers to buy the extra power.

But not to worry, Tenaska lawyers – and the PUB board and its lawyers – had agreed in the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) that the company did not have to start construction until it had found customers for the other 600 MWs. The money charged the rate payers of Brownsville – the poorest community in the United States – could continue to pile up unless the PUB honchos could find a place to funnel it, for the public good, of course.

Well, the rates are still artificially high and the money keeps piling up, and there's no electric plant on the horizon. The PUB and its lawyers in San Antonio are still fighting tooth-and-nail to keep the contents of the MOU secret and will continue to go to the Texas Attorney General to keep them from the public.

Meanwhile, the three top PUB executives have showered themselves with the public weal. We have documented that over a three year period after the rate hikes went into effect, the top three PUB executives gave themselves hefty raises. These are the same men who assured the public the plant would be built and that raising the rates to pay for the bonds to build it was the best strategy for the city and utility to follow. The PUB board approved their just rewards.

In fact, between 2013 to 2017, Bruciak's salary increased by 109,169 from $184,059 to $294,028. The latest bump for the sage and prescient manager and CEO was a $59,009 raise from 2016's $235,019 to his current 2017 salary of $294,028. (See graphic, click to enlarge.)

Think about it, these three men received raises of more than $100,000 each over three years equaling six and one half times the average annual income of Brownsville households, the very households that are being gouged by the higher electric rates for a non-existing electric plant.

With more than $100 million in extra cash laying around the PUB coffers and its top honchos like maggots cavorting atop the dung heap, why would the city approve another $26 million for them to play around with?

Revolutions have started for lesser sins than this. Where's our city commission? Where is our saintly mayor Tony Martinez?