THE P.U.B. GIVETH...AND THE P.U.B. TAKETH AWAY

By Juan Montoya

Like Sisyphus, try as they might, the energy and water saving gurus of the Brownsville Independent School District have been laboring mightily to roll back the boulder of utility costs that drains millions from their coffers and places them yearly in the pocket of the Brownsville Public Utility Board.

The most recent efforts have been at a joint agreement between the BPUB and the BISD of a $150,000 project that enabled BISD to retrofit Hanna and Porter early college high schools with water-conserving restroom faucets and shower heads that will save the city millions of gallons of water.

This is highly commendable, of course. who isn't for reduction of electric energy and water? But realistically, the BISD as do other governmental, commercial and residential customers have had to pay artificially high utility rates that were raised in 2012 through 2017 to pay for the $500 million Tenaska Plant to Nowhere.

As a result, even though the BISD lowered its electric consumption from 84,437,519 in 2012 to 80,437,519 kilowatt hours in 2018 - a 3,503,411 reduction, or about five percent  - it still paid $1,189,535 more to the city utility in 2018 than it did in 2012.

And even though its water consumption has dropped from 407,024 gallons in 2012 to 209,461 gallons in 2018 - a huge 193,563 gallon drop, or more than 51 percent - it saved only $67,658 in payments when one compares its 2012 payments ($818,118) to the 2018 costs of $750,046 for its water.

The Brownsville Herald reported that BPUB received a $75,000 grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Small-Scale Water Efficiency program for installation of high-efficiency water faucets and shower heads at the two schools. BISD provided in-kind services totaling $75,000 for the installation.

The report stated that the faucets meet the 1.5 gallons per minute efficiency standard and that the shower heads are mounted on six-person shower columns in dressing rooms. Previously showers on the columns could only be activated all at once. New columns were installed to allow one shower at a time to be used.

“Before, we had water-guzzling shower heads and sinks. Now we have water-efficient shower heads and water-efficient sinks,” BISD energy manager Santiago Otero said. Otero is a retired 30-year employee in the BPUB electrical engineering department who now works for BISD.

BISD is in the middle of numerous facilities improvement projects, among them lighting, HVAC, roofing and parking lot improvements across the district.

At Hanna, BISD’s oldest high school, such projects as replacing heating, ventilation and air conditioning duct work in the ceiling. In a nearby hallway where new LED lighting has been installed the difference between it and the older fluorescent lighting being replaced was obvious.

Otero said LED lighting is brighter and has the added advantage of generating less heat, so it saves energy.

But over at the P.U.B that wasn't the only thing that went up. So did the salaries of the top three honchos at the utility whose raises were approved by the PUB  board.

In fact, between 2013 to 2017, General Manager John Bruciak's salary increased by 109,169 from $184,059 to . The latest bump for the sage and prescient manager and CEO was a $59,009 raise from 2016's $235,019 to his current 2017 salary of $294,028. (See graphic. Click to enlarge.)

All three men have enjoyed (or is it self-dealt?) incredible pay raises since ratepayers have been burdened by the higher utility rates. 

We understand that some city commissioners were unaware that the PUB administrators did not use the rate hikes to pay for the debt of the plant alone. They were told at the recent joint COB-PUB meeting where they were asked for an accounting of the estimated $90 million generated by the higher rates that some of the money was also funneled toward infrastructure improvements and into the PUB General Fund. In short, the higher rates paid for their salary raises.

Over the time (2013-2017) that the higher rates have been in effect, this has been the effect on the three men's salaries:

BRUCIAK: $109,069 

SAENZ: $104,978

GARCIA: $94,994

Given the fact that the BISD is the utility's biggest customer, it is evident that as long as the utility rates remain artificially high, the district's efforts at stemming utility costs will amount to a Dutch boy's finger on a leaky dike or someone's father walking around the house clicking off light switches.