MARTINEZ PULLS GBIC-CDCB LAND SALE DEAL FROM AGENDA

By Juan Montoya

After months of sometimes contentious public disagreement over 200 acres owned by the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville between Executive Director Nick Mitchell-Bennett and Mario Lozoya, CEO of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, an item to approve their sale to the GBIC has been conveyed to the city commission for placement on its agenda.

According to sources from both corporations, Mitchell-Bennet and Lozoya had reached a mutually=acceptable for the transfer of the property to be part of the planned GBIC 1,100-acre industrial park. No specific prize is mentioned, but 200 acres in that area near the Brownsville Sports Park could easily fetch anywhere between $3 to $6 million.

Although the details of the agreement are not known, Mitchell-Bennet has in the past asserted that the CDCB would only consider selling the land if it gets 200 acres to build Palo Alto Groves somewhere else, and if the city approves the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) that CDCB needs to build the subdivision.

Those conditions have apparently been met and the CDBG board had directed its director to sell the land for as-of-yet undisclosed price. Principals on both sides had agreed to ask the city to approve the transfer. They expected the item this Tuesday, hut the the item was pulled from the agenda.

Now everybody is asking why and by whom.

Some indications is that both organizations were stunned when they heard that Mayor Tony Martinez had  rejected the item for the agenda during the budget committee meeting last week saying that they should postpone it until after the May 4 elections to "see what the boards look like then."

In other words, if Martinez wins and he regains a majority on the city commission, they could delay approval of the agreement until after they had filled the CDCB and GBIC boards with members that will do their bidding.

Is the Mayor trying to drive industrial economic development toward the Port of Brownsville where some of his supporters own property?

Do they think that if their majority comes to power they will bring back the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation which has spent millions in pie-in-the-sky eco-dev fantasies that have benefited the very few at the expense of the city taxpayers?

Before the GBIC refused to renew the three-year $5 million contract with the BEDC, the executive committee had overseen a scandal-ridden organization whose CEO had squandered the entity's millions with scant returns. The executive committee and Martinez had turned a blind eye to the excesses and often took worldwide jaunts on the public nickel.

If the mayor wins and has a majority on the commission, it is almost certainty that the city will appoint members to the GBIC board that will vote to enter into contract with the tarnished BEDC again.

As the political intrigue intrudes into the housing and industrial economic development of the city and comes between amicably-reached agreement between the GBI and the CDBC, it's time we ask whether the city's progress can wait on the shifting political fortunes.

And what if there is runoff? Will progress in housing and industrial economic development be put on hold an additional two months after May 4 and the runoff election and then years until the appropriately placed new members on the boards do the new commission majority's bidding?

Whose economic development plan is Martinez following and to whose benefit is it to wait until after the elections to "see how the boards look"?