$29 MILLION QUESTION: WHAT TO DO WITH LEFTOVERS? WILL PUB BOARD, COMMISSION ALLOW DEBAUCHERY TO CONTINUE?

By Juan Montoya

They went through more than $100 million in cash they collected from Public Utility Board rate hikes on ratepayers over the last eight years and only have a $29 million kitty set aside.

The $29 million was stashed to pay the debt service while "construction" of a power plant was underway, they said.

And they have 50 miles of water and natural gas Right-Of-Way costing between $100 to $110 million that they bought from here to Edinburg and list it as "an asset" even though they have no use for it at all now.

And they "wrote off" $9.5 million of Tenaska money without an explanation to PUB ratepayers, who paid the cash through high utility bills.

But then they had the gall to propose using some of the leftover $29 million on 18 items which included the purchase of furniture for their new administration building annex under construction next to the main PUB offices. Or to invest it in the Hidalgo Power Energy Plant improvements.

They removed the furniture item from their list only after word got out.

"They" are the top administrators under PUB CEO-GM John Bruciak, your public servants.

And for the past eight years (2012 to 2020), they have run roughshod over the city commission and city residents living high off the PUB hog while the residents endure oppressive economic conditions, topped off with artificially-high utility bills to pay for their make-believe electric plant.

It wasn't until yesterday that they officially told the cit that they had decided in December 2017 to suspend the construction indefinitely.

The city commission's acquiescence was all based on their advice that to build the plant they pass utility rate hikes in 2012-2013 that saw ratepayers shoulder a 36 percent increase in electric rates over the next four years, a 20 percent increase in water rates over the same period, and a 6 percent hike in waste water costs over two years.

And starting in 2013 – when the utilities rates started to rise – Bruciak, who lives in South Padre Island, saw his salary rise from $184,059.20 in 2013 to $303,576 today, an increase of $119,517, or 39.37 percent.
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Asst. GM and COO Fernando Saenz, who commutes from Austin weekly, also saw his salary rise from $160,014.40 to $273,603.20, an increase of $113,598, or 41.5 percent.

And CFO Leonardo Garcia went from $160,014 to $263,286, an increase of $103,271, or 39.2 percent.

Now we know the project failed due in large part to their flawed analysis of the energy market.

If they had delivered this kind of performance in private industry, they would be out the door on their ear before you could say Jack Robinson. But we're in Brownsville, Texas. And things happen here that would never be allowed to happen elsewhere.

Instead, with PUB chair person Ana O'Quin striving hard to be relevant letting everyone know that she was the board chair and thanking everyone for discussing the matter, everyone agreed to "move on" from this disaster and work together in the future and "improve communications" between the PUB and the city commission.

Are some of the board members who agree with O'Quin and city commissioners so out of touch with the ratepayers who they represent that they are willing to give the PUB administration the benefit of the doubt after eight years of such an abject performance and the loss of millions of the people's money?

Do they know what it is for some local residents who can't keep up with the PUB bills and  get their utilities cut off, some of these homes with elderly and children in the home? In some ways, COVID-19 gave these unfortunates a chance to keep the lights on because of the emergency at hand. But that can lies just a bit down the road.

The board should remember they were appointed to represent the interests of the residents of the city, not to cover and protect the grievous errors of the administrators. Or have they been blinded by the glitter of the luxuries and excesses shown board members on out-of-town trips where the wining and dining largess of the PUB is the stuff of legend? The trips to the ranch in Bandera?

Some are content because the lights don't stay out as long as they used to after a hard rain, and that the PUB has finally got around to use chemicals to control the stench of sewage around wastewater treatment plants.There, of course, is always room for improvement, but at this juncture, is a rather low bar to set for a modern municipal utility in 2020. 

There is nothing "professional and progressive" about this administration or of the PUB board members and city commissioners who have chosen to turn a blind eye to its failures while residents struggled with artificially-high utility bills that ended up losing their multi-million dollar investment.

Bruciak is now in his 22nd year as PUB GM-CEO and this latest failure is but one of the laurels on his service record. CFO Garcia just recently recovered a $1.3 million payment his department approved to the wrong vendor and an internal audit found there were no safeguards to prevent its occurrence.

If the board members – and the city commissioners – don't make a clean sweep of the administration and its "culture" of pilferage of the public's money and abuse of their trust, they might as well throw upon their hands admit it and allow the debauchery to continue. Many of the current board members and city commissioners vowed to put a stop to the malfeasance when they were candidates for office or agreed to serve on the board.

Voters should ask them: If you are not willing to take the rogue PUB by the horns now, why did you run for office or agree to serve on the board?