When newly-elected City of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez attended his first meeting eight years ago, he announced with much fanfare that one of his first priorities was to pass a new code of ethics to guide the behavior of elected officials and city staff.
And he said that he and then-contract attorney Mark Sossi would draft the code.
Sossi is long gone and Martinez is up for his second reelection try.
On Tuesday, a unanimous city commission approved a new code of ethics. But it wasn't Martinez who spearheaded the push to guide the behavior of municipal officials and employees.
Instead, it was passed on the incentive of two-year District 4 commissioner Ben Neece joined by Rose Gowen to amend the Code of Ordinances, repealing and replacing in its entirety Chapter 38 Titled "Code of Ethics."
The Brownsville’s Code of Ethics expired July 1, 2005. It laid out ethical behavior expected of elected officials and employees with standard including “ avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest, and exercise prudence and good judgment at all times.”
Instead of a simple revamping of the old code, the new one has been formulated to provide for "transparent government and accountability,” Neece said.
Central to the new code is a Section 38.69 which prohibits the "revolving door" custom of subsequent employment of commissioners for at least one year with the the city or any city entity. It also prohibits elected officials interfering with the operations of city departments and requires them to communicate their concerns with the city manager.
This last section was aimed at quelling speculation that a majority of the Public Utilities Board was planning to hire former city commissioner Cesar de Leon as its legal counsel. In the past, former city commissioners - such as former mayor Eddie Trevino - left their elected offices and were appointed by the PUB board and placed in that lucrative position. In some cases, the board had been appointed by the same elected officials,
De Leon resigned his At Large "A" position and social media had speculated that he would be appointed as PUB counsel. However, the PUB board has never approved the appointment or included it in any of its meeting agendas.
Now, with the passage of the new code which goes into effect immediately, such a move is precluded.
"Martinez came into office eight years ago and promised to draft a new code in his very fact meeting," said a former city administrator. "It was finally passed Tuesday, but It wasn't even Tony who pushed for it."
14 comments:
NO POS WOW is the mayor trying to get the hous ein order now? too late i saw, time for a change,
Code of Ethics??????? It seems that this is a thing of the past or has been filed in folder 13 for there is yet a time that I can recall that any elected official acts with proper ethics. Ethics include values and principles and now-a-days it only meaning lining their own pockets.
They don't even know what ethics means bola de estupidos
Neece and ethics? That’s a wonderful joke.
How can the Code of Ethics be retroactively applied to someone who is no longer on the city commission? How can De Leon be subject to a code of ethics when it wasn't around when he was a commissioner?
Eight years late, and a dollar short, apparently.
Tony Martinez has accomplished very little during his tenure, except to stop progress in this city and keep us swirling down the toilet. No code of ethics, no one buying all the property he acquired using tax dollars, no new jobs, NADA.... Brownsville is the largest city in the RGV and now is the poorest, least digitally integrated, most potholes and worst infrastructure but the most "armadillos" to protect the non-existent bikers downtown, most running trails for a minority who run, security cameras on downtown streets, but not in the alleys where crime takes place. Tony Martinez wasn't able to deal with a rock in Washington Park, nor a racist city commissioner. Tony has been a complete failure as Mayor.
So, blogger at 12:25 let's get a working and get rid of Tony the pseudo-mayor or major ( like his telephone worker calls him). But then, let's see about the other two and who would actually make a good mayor. Trey will probably get rid of everything downtown except for Cantinas and Bars and the 41's that roam the area. Cabler is not so clean and I wonder why they keep pushing Elizondo's trial further back? To allow for Cabler to be elected before all comes out in Elizondo's trial? Orale, Carlos, pon el dedo en todos; no te dejes y no tapes a nadie. If you go down, take everyone with you. We can always have a recall election if Cabler wins. De los tres no se hace uno.
Folks we need to write to the PUC public utility commission in Austin Texas to compliant about he high electric rates at PUB due to the Tanaska electric plant deal that never was built Ya Basta
Y el cheque que?
@ March 20, 2019 at 12:25 PM
Where are you getting your statistics from proving Brownsville is the poorest, least integrated, and worst infrastructure having of the entire Rio Grande Valley?
Yes, Brownsville is absolutely in a state of decline, but where are you getting your numbers from?
yea where? I wanna know @ March 20, 2019 at 12:25 PM
That I am not a robot is going bananas again
To 12:25
You don't live here do you?
The thing that impressed me the most about the downtown cameras is THEY ARE IN ALL THE ALLEYS!!! you probably haven't driven in one and just talk shit.
How many pot holes does Brownsville have, vs Harlingen or McAllen.. I want numbers.
@March 22, 2019 at 10:09 AM
Over 1 million and counting (pot holes). Traffic lights are the, solve all, for the city engineers here. If there's a traffic problem all they do is install a traffic light "problem solved". Solving problems with real solutions is a thing of the past. That's why we have traffic jams all over the place. At least sync the dam things. Shit they can't even do that. We need to stop paying taxes.
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