PLASTIC BAGS PAID 4 PROFITABLE, FOILED SOCIAL EXPERIMENT

By Juan Montoya

After milking the residents of Brownsville for approximately $5.3 million since January 2011 when it implemented a plastic-bag ban on city shoppers until the Texas Supreme Court struck the law down and the Texas Attorney General prohibited enforcement, grocers are now giving them away again for free.

Arguing that the plastic-bag fee ($1 if you wanted to buy them) protected the environment, the ordinance to prohibit their use was "spearheaded" by Rose Timmer, executive director of the nonprofit organization Healthy Communities who worked with then Commissioner Edward Camarillo and Mayor Pat Ahumada to make the change. 

They had the legal advice of legal legerdemain (and then-contract attorney) Mark Sossi saying it was just fine to do it.

Not surprisingly, the state's highest court and the AG had a different viewpoint. On June 22, it struck down a bag ban ordinance in Laredo. On July,  July 2nd, Texas AG Ken Paxton sent letters to 11 cities – including Brownsville – that had a plastic bag regulation ordering them to cease and desist or be ready to go court.  

But for seven and a half years, Brownsville residents (and visitors) had to pay $1 if they wanted to have them, or to buy reusable bags and take them along when they went shopping.

It was not unusual to see shoppers walking out of grocery stores with wilted loaves of bread, produce, tortillas, and other items because they forgot their bags or didn't feel like buying any more since they had scores of them at home. 

The city implemented the ban that prohibited retailers from handing out plastic shopping bags to consumers. The only exemption pertained to food safety and retailers could only provide plastic bags to prevent contamination from any cooked, chilled or frozen foods purchased.

As recently as mid July, Interim City Manager Michael Lopez said the city had placed a "stay" on the enforcement of the plastic-bag ban pending clarification of the AG's letter. By then Sossi was gone and the city commission on July 17 decidd they didn't want to tangle with Paxton and rescinded the ordinance.

But not before the victims of the social experiment – the residents of the city and visitors who shopped here – had forked over an estimated $5.3 million for the dubious honor of leading other Texas cities in the folly.

The first fiscal year (2011), the city collected $333,401 from shoppers who bought plastic bags.

In FY 2012, that rose to 669,424,

In FY, 2013, 824,065.

$879,456 in FY 2014.

$856,234 in FY 2015.

$889,963 in FY 2016. 

An (est.) $708,760 in FY 2017 and another (est.) $354.380 in FY 2018 when the ordinance was declared illegal.

All told, the city squeezed more than $5 million from the ban. 

Public Health Director Art Rodriguez crowed that it appeared to him that bag ban had been well received by residents and was evident by how clean the city looks.

"We’ve had a lot of inquiries about the ordinance from other cities and now from within the city, we continue to get compliments from people," Rodriguez said.

Yet, a late as December 2017– six years after the ban – pictures like this from across the Walmart Store on Old Port Isabel Road could still be seen.

And how did the city use the money? The first dip into the well was $15,979 in FY 2011 to fund the the "Make a Difference Day" event in which residents were paid cash for turning in bulky waste.

From there on, the city commissioners and administrators went wild with their Plastic Bag ATM.

In FY 2012 they dipped into the fund for $45,029 to fund the event plus another called Keep Brownsville Beautiful. They bought office supplies, food and meals, and advertising with the "free money.

In 2013, they went whole hog, withdrawing $1,036,958 for various uses like Expressway mowing ($34,433), \a tun grinder ($419,101), two street sweepers (($411,920), and of course, labor and benefits for an ordinance enforcement officer ($40,341.)

Kind of straying away from the original stated purpose, weren't they? Well, among the $1.03 million spent from the fund that year was included $116,935 for commissioner Rose (La Chisquida) Gowen's "Special Project" Hike-Bike Trail Master Plan.

Gowen wasn't content that she already got 10 percent of any transportation-related Certificates of Obligation issued by the commission. By early 2018, this ruse had directed $2,507,133 to her hike-bike pet projects.

The plastic bag fund was just another source to tap for her grandiose "Active Tourism" plan she asserted would bring in millions from "active" tourists who would flock (like ducks?) to Brownsville to cycle to take in the sights in the nation's poorest community.

She hit the fund up for another $13,504 for her hike-bike racket in FY 2014. The city bought another two street sweepers ($431,120) and an asphalt recycler ($194,900).

But the creative use of the plastic bag ban, aside from Gowen's take, was yet to come.

In FY 2015, the city dipped into the fund and fished out $45,367 for the duck pond project on Barnard Street. This project had nothing to do with recycling, as far as anyone could tell. And the ducks don't shop.

But that was just the forerunner. The next year (FY 2016), the duckies got another quack at the fund with a $289,636 to finish their pond.

And then the state said the city's illegal slush fund was illegal and the well ran dry. Or did it? There is a nice chunk of change sitting in that escrow fund (01-341-234). We're in the process of asking how much there is in ill-gotten gains and what the city is planning to do with it.

Or is it already gone?