IF YOU KNEW HARRY MCNAIR, LIKE WE KNEW HARRY....

(Ed.'s Note: This Tuesday, at the City of Brownsville Commission meeting, the commissioners will vote to rename the McNair family Drive back to its original – and historical – East Fronton Street based on a petition signed by at least 75 percent of the residents there. We have searched out files and came up with some nuggets representative of former city commissioner Harry McNair's claim to fame. 

His tenure was less than stellar and not pretty.  In the cartoons created by artist-extraordinaire Joaquin Ribera,he is pictured supporting Richards in his call to city manager Carlos Rubinstein to treat the police "like Hitler would," in apparent ignorance that Rubinstein was Jewish. Harry is the middle Nazi-like figure in the middle and he is caricatured as carrying Richards with Hernandez in the race for mayor. 

Then there was the Richards'supported ordinance that required all taxis in Brownsville to be painted white...We're not making this up, mind you. Now McNair wants the city to honor his family's name by keeping the change to E. Fronton Street. The city commissioners will vote on the issue.)

By Juan Montoya

If you were around in Brownsville in 1998, you would have been represented on the City of Brownsville commission by three singular characters of this city.

The first would have been Ernie Hernandez, he others Harry McNair and Bud Richards.

Both McNair and Hernandez came under fire from Charlie Wilkinson, the director of governmental affairs for the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT) for doing business with the city in alleged violation of the city charter.

News reports at the time reported that Wilkinson accused the two of "profiting personally from towing and vending machines" they own.

Hernandez owned Ernie's Wrecker, which was on the city's rotation list to tow vehicles involved in accidents. McNair owned an interest in vending machines located inside city property – including at the police station, main bus terminal and Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport.

Then city attorney Geoff Wharburton, while asserting that the city charter prohibited city officials from having contracts with the city, said he didn't consider either commissioner to be in violation of such charter.

"Ernie Hernandez cannot tow a city car and be paid for it by the city. The rotation list is where he deals with the other person on this," Wharburton said. "I've written opinions on this."

Wilkinson said CLEAT had been monitoring the actions of Richards, since he allegedly made insulting comments against Brownsville police officers. That year, on May 30, he allegedly made the comments in a telephone conversation with city manager Carlos Rubinstein, which was detailed in a letter from Rubinstein to then-Mayor Henry Gonzalez.

"Commissioner Richards referred to this action by the officers as `Gestapo-like' and if the police department was to continue to act this way then we should treat them like Hitler would, or words to that effect," Rubinstein said in the letter.

Wilkinson said those statements were proof that Hernandez's and McNair's support for Richards runs too deep.

"When Bud Richards made his asinine statements, now we know why the two other `Amigos' stood by his side ... they're trying to line their pockets,"

McNair and Hernandez said the City Commission votes unanimously 90 percent of the time, hence allegations of a three-man voting block are unfounded.

"I'm sure they know Bud Richards is a friend of mine but I'm not going apologize for it. Bud Richards has been an excellent commissioner. He's very outspoken and I've got to respect that," Hernandez said.

McNair said the vending machines are owned by his family's company – McNair & Co. He's an officer of the company, which he said pays the city a percentage to allow the vending machines on city property. Those machines were stored, by the way, in one of the two McNair family warehouses on Fronton Street which are 100 percent from paying property taxes because they are deemed to be "historical."

"Obviously this is a politically-motivated individual who has no facts and he's trying to create dissention among the community," McNair said at the time.