GBIC: HIRING MATAMOROS NOT UNITED BROWNSVILLE RETURN

By Juan Montoya
The hiring by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation of Laura Matamoros, Director of United Brownsville's Operations and Membership does not signal a regression to that shadow government, members of the board assert.

Several members have disputed the interpretation that bringing Matamoros to the GBIC board under CEO Mario Lozoya as an industry retention specialist indicates a return to the United Brownsville scheme.

Under that plan that was funded through annual $25,000 "memberships" by at least eight public entities, a non-elected board composed of officials from various board of public districts, the city and the school board and academia.

These were the City of Brownsville, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), the Brownsville Independent School District, the Brownsville Navigation District, the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corp (BCIC) and the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.

It all started innocently enough.

Back in 2006, a Brownsville delegation including commissioner Ricardo Longoria went to Washington seeking federal funds for downtown revitalization. Eddie Trevino, the current Cameron County Judge, was mayor then.

There, they were told by U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota and former U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz that there was money for Brownsville but that they needed to present a Master Plan to be considered for funding.

The contract – which quickly grew to more than $1 million – was awarded to Carlos Marin's Ambiotec. The plan was created, but unfortunately, the city's benefactors in Washington, Oberstar and Ortiz, did not get reelected. Many thought that was the end of that and placed the plan on a shelf since the purpose for its existence had disappeared.

Undeterred, some leading citizens of the community seized the opportunity and put their heads together to came up with something called the United Brownsville Coordinating Board.

The "mission statement " of the UBCB states that its purpose is to "lessen the burden" of government on elected officials and to "provide a forum" for community progress. The trio was self-appointed and their hand-picked nominees to the board served at their invitation. None of the three were elected officials.

Since 2009, and until just this past year (2017), United Brownsville drew the $200,000 in "memberships" from the eight entities, until members of the elected board such as the Port of Brownsville, Texas Southmost College, and now the City of Brownsville felt they were not getting anything in return for their annual $25,000 "memberships" so they could "sit at the table."

Over the seven odd years that United Brownsville milked the community, it easily collected more than $1.4 million in "membership" fees from the entities. They also pushed behind the scenes to fund even more "master plans."

One of those was something called the Brownsville Strategic Infrastructure and Land Management Plan for which the Port of Brownsville, the Brownsville Public Utility Board and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation paid a pretty penny, $$454,592.02 to be exact.

That little plum was handed out to none other than Robin McCaffrey of Needham-McCaffrey and Associates, Inc. – the same firm that helped former United Brownsville CEO Mike Gonzalez drive Kyle, Texas to financial debt.

The grandiose plan?

United Brownsville invented something high-sounding called the Bi-National Border Economic Development Trojan horse. Under this "plan," the usual suspects – Rusteberg, Marin, Mayor Tony Martinez, FINSA's Sergio Arguelles, and former UTB President Julieta Garcia – were in the process of hijacking the direction of this region's economic development to benefit a select cabal of their fellow travelers.

Once the public-funded entities saw diminishing returns from their $25,000 "memberships," they stopped funding and Gonzalez headed back for Kyle. The only remaining person on the United Brownsville "staff" was Matamoros, who was retained to finish out a grant.

GBIC board member David Betancourt said Matamoros has proved to be an able and professional employee who will work directly under Lozoya, and not under any influence from the United Brownsville directors.

"The public should not worry about her," he said. "We are in the midst of developing a workforce plan. We finally got separated from the Brownsville Economic Development Council and we're not about to go back to anything like United Brownsville. Only the GBIC will direct where we go."