DESPITE BACKBITING, UNDER LOZOYA GBIC MOVES FORWARD

By Juan Montoya

Do you remember just one instance when the former CEO of the greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation gave the City of Brownsville Commission a status report on ongoing projects to bring jobs to the city?

Usually, the only inkling on what the GBIC or its former contractor to recruit industry - the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation - was doing with public money were postings on Facebook showing its CEO Jason Hilts, and other officials like Mayor Tony Martinez and VP Gilbert Salinas living it up with their contract workers in Colombia or some other exotic locale.

Tonight, new GBIC CEO Mario Lozoya shared some of the progress that has come to fruition during the first seven months on the job. He took over the reins of the GBIC last July.

Among some of the highlights of  his short tenure here has been the collaboration with seven manufacturing companies that employ 1,155 local residents toward which the GBIC gave them $5,749500 in incentives.

Those companies in turn pumped 166,500,000 in capital investments for their plants and employees.

At an average wage of $14 per hour in a 40-hour week, this rounds out to about $33,633,600 in annual payroll in the pockets of local workers, a not-to-shabby $6 to $1 return on its incentives.

If you remember, the BEDC under Hilts and Salinas had consecutive three-year contracts of about $5 million. That budget was eaten up in global jaunts to places like Paris, China, Colombia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Turkey, etc., with little to show in return. Martinez and other state and federal elected officials and bureaucrats used the BEDC budget like their personal ATM machine.

The Colombia office, for example, did not produce one single job in three years of operation under Hilts and the BEDC, Partly as a result of this - and other scandals - the GBIC cut its ties with the BEDC and hired Lozoya to guide its job creation efforts. And despite the lingering criticism from BEDC supporters and their paid acolytes in social media, the results Lozoya is showing indicate that the GBIC moved in the right direction.

At the time that Lozoya was hired commissioner Cesar de Leon, the GBIC chairman, told a newspaper reporter that the organization had taken the first step to change its approach:

“That first step was finding a leader who would be disruptive,” De León said. “If we go back to the original model of economic development, that model has not worked for us during the last 30 years. We have a new way of doing things. With the re-shoring back to the United States, with the administration focusing on manufacturing, I think we are at a crossroads and this is the right moment to take that ball and carry it over the goal line. And I think I have found the perfect person to do so.”

Judging by the numbers produced by Lozoya in his status report for the city commission, De Leon seems to have been vindicated.

Current chairman Esteban Guerra echoed that sentiment.

"Mario has proved to be an incredibly competent person who has a real feel not only for what it takes to attract and retain industry, but also to help our local workers raise their skill levels to make them more competitive in the job market," Guerra said. "His critics have no idea at his level of expertise and contacts at the state and national level. When we go to Austin, doors open because he's with us in Brownsville."

Lozoya knows a bit about a prepared workforce. He was appointed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to the Jobs and Education for Texans (JET) Grant Program advisory board – a program that allocated $10 million each biennium for the development of career and technical education programs across Texas. 

During last go-around, there were 12 JET grants given to Texas schools. Seven (7) of those came to the Rio Grande Valley! BISD was recently notified that they are in the running for a $300,000 grant for next round.

Patrick also appointed him to the advisory council for Pathways in Technology and Early College High School. The 13-member board is tasked with promoting education and business partnerships across the state and ensuring that the Texas education system prepares students for 21st century workforce demands.

 This year, BISD has 2 High Schools (Hanna and Porter) as P-TECH designated schools. They are the only schools with such designation between here and Dallas TX!

His workforce development efforts in the advanced manufacturing community via the establishment of the TX-FAME (Federation of Advanced Manufacturing Education) project in San Antonio is credited as being instrumental in creating a skilled workforce that spurred economic development in the region.

"We're lucky to have him, Guerra said. "We are finally moving toward our goal of providing good-paying jobs for our residents and raising the skill levels of our local workers so they can provide a better standard of living for their families."