PUB $1.3 MILLION SWINDLE MIGHT NOW TOP $2 MILLION; OFFERS BILLS "SUSPENSION" AND TOP EXECS WET THEIR BEAKS

By Juan Montoya

As the FBI probes a $1.3 million "mistake" where the administration of the Brownsville Public Utility Board directed payment to Texas Noble Construction to an account in a different bank, the board is poised to pass an agenda item giving it the power to cover up any information  over the money's disappearance and just about anything else.

As far as the city commission - and even some PUB board members know - the PUB Finance Dept. approved the rerouting of the payments to Noble fom the Lone Star National Bank to the Bank of America based on communication from an as-of-yet unrevealed source.

All that city officials have been told is that "someone at PUB got a call from 'Noble' about switching the bank account for their construction draws rom Lone Star to Bank of America. They got a signed document allegedly from the company regarding this new account.

"When the $1.3 million payment came due, PUB paid it to the new account. Noble called PUB a day or two later wondering when they would receive the payment. That's when they (PUB) realized that they hadn't actually sent the payment to Noble but apparently to someone else."

Who was that "someone else?" Nobody seems to know. And that's when the snail-paced FBI reportedly stepped in.

Now, as recriminations fly and PUB made good on the$1.3 million payment to Noble after being threatened with litigation, costs are said to be accruing that could drive the loss to the utility - $2 million or more is one estimate - to be borne by the ratepayers.

But the PUB administration will try to divert attention to the federal and city management probe into the apparent swindle with an item on the agenda "suspending" - not forgiving, mind you - late payment penalties and disconnections for an undetermined amount of time because of the COVID-19 crisis.

This Monday, during a regular meeting via teleconference call st 5:00 p.m, the PUB members will consider this item:

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Notice that it does not forgive the payments since COVID-19 impacted the local economy, affecting commercial customers and ratepayers, but rather "suspends" late payment penalties on the bills and disconnection of service for nonpayment. It merely kicks the ratepayer's bill down the road to be paid when the crisis is over.

Because of "technical limitations" the public can only listen and only a "limited number" of callers will be allowed to call in.

Why the PUB did not forgive payments for the period when local commerce and workers have been crippled by the effects of the virus? A city commissioner said one could not expect PUB administrator and employees to "work for nothing."

But haven't the PUB ratepayers done just that - paid for nothing - by being subjected to artificially-high utility rates since 2013, when PUB's general manager and CEO John Bruciak - in his expert opinion - told commissioners that he saw the construction of the Tenaska $500 million gas-fired electrical generating plant as the only way to meet future energy needs and got the commission's acquiescence  and gave the PUB authority to hike utility rates to pay for it construction?

“We looked at a lot of things,” Bruciak told the commissioners then. “We did an integrated resource plan on the power supply that looked at everything in the state that was available. This hands down was the most economical and efficient for our residents.”

During that seven-day period of Dec. 11-17, 2012, a unanimous city commission board rammed through two public hearings at two special meetings and passed two ordinances that resulted in adoption of  rate hikes in utilities that totaled a 36 percent increase in electric rates over the next three years, a 20 percent increase in water rates over the same period, and a 6 percent hike in wastewater costs over two years.

So far, the increased rates have garnered the PUB in excess of $100 million in cash collected through the higher utility bills. Talk about paying "for nothing."

The PUB energy guru turned out have been looking at a cloudy crystal ball when he foretold the energy future and the plant - projected to be built by the summer of 2017 (then 200)  - is now on indefinite hold. But Tenaska - with the silent approval of the the PUB administration -  has fought tooth-and-nail to keep the details of the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) from public disclosure claiming its release would result in "irreparable harm"  to its "proprietary" interests if it was released to the public.

That blueprint to keep the public blind is being followed by Brusiak and company again. Also on the Monday agenda is an item that will shut down information into the  PUB on any matter. It reads:

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We know for a fact that a detailed inquiry for information contained in the inquiry from City Hall on the  missing $1.3 million has been met with silence by the Bruciak administration. Some PUB members who asked Bruciak about it were told he could not comment on it since it was "under investigation" by the FBI.

The Texas Government Code allows a governmental entity like PUB to request the suspension of the  the applicability of the Public Information Act (PIA) for a period of seven days and extend it as the initial period expires. They can then further petition the Texas Attorney General's Office to extend it.

The law provides that in the case of the city inquiry or any other request that may have been filed prior to the PUB's request to the AG to implement the protection of the disaster act, the PUB isn't required to comply until after the end of the suspension periods. That means it could be months before the PUB can be compelled to answer to inquiries.

As far as anyone can determine, the PUB is the only entity in the State of Texas that is claiming this protection from the application of the PIA.

Such authority is vested on the PUB because it claims that it has been "impacted" by a "catastrophe," which under the act, includes an epidemic. Perhaps they fear that delivering envelopes, folders or letters could carry the COVID-19 virus.

Then again, they could transmit the information electronically to prevent transmittal. And we are unaware of any studies that establish that the coronavirus can be transmitted by cyber messaging. Can you infect a population with the truth?

If the agenda item passes, it will give the PUB administration yet another tool to stymie public inquiries into the obvious mismanagement - and potential criminal activity - under Bruciak's watch. Since it is a teleconference meeting, no one will not be able to make their sentiments known on the matter.

Two PUB member intimately linked to Martinez, who voted the Tenaska ball rolling are on the PUB board. Former Brownsville Economic Development Council director Sandra Lopez Langley and Sandra Saenz, his personal secretary, are now on the board. One other board member - chairperson Anna E. Oquin - has been heard complaining that the request for information from the city into the $1.3 million is roiling the waters at the utility.

They could be expected - along with others on the PUB  board - to give Bruciak carte blanche to withhold information to the public, and now from the city administration and commission.

Besides those three, the other board member are: Vice-chair Jude A. Benavides,  Armando Magallanes, Timothy Lopes, and Mayor Trey Mendez, the Ex-Officio member.

If  a majority goes along, the public, of course, stands to lose, but not Bruciak or his cadre of top administrators. 

They have been doing very well since the rate hikes were put into place by the city administration under former Mayor Tony Martinez, a Tenaska booster. From 2013, when the higher rates were implemented, to 2020,  the top three executives gave themselves huge raises.  

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*General Manager Bruciak, from $184,059 to $303,576, a $114,517 bump, with $109,069 coming between 2013-2017.

*Fernando Saenz, Asst. GM and OO, from $160,014 to 273,603, a $113,589 bump, with $104,178 coming between 2013-2017 

*Bringing up the rear, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Leandro Garcia went from $160,014 to $263,286, a $103,272 bump, with $94,994 coming between 2013-2017.

So while the board is willing to turn a blind eye to the $1.3 million "mistake" under CFO Garcia's purview at finance, continue to keep its artificially-high utility rates in place for a non-existent Tenaska plant, it cannot provide a month's consideration to forgive commercial and residential ratepayers impacted by the financial tsunami impact that CODIV-19 has wreaked upon them.

With the board members cognizant that the FBI is on the trail of the missing money, will they in effect aid and abet the administration by passing the anti-PIA item and help with the cover up?

It's unbelievable that the imperious nature of Bruciak's PUB administration - facilitated by a majority of its board and a majority of the city commission - is leading them to believe that they can cover up answers to the questions raised by the public and the city claiming  they are protecting the city from the coronavirus.