OH, BUT WE WANT SUPPORT FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

By Juan Montoya

The planning and organizing for Thursday's U.S. Dept. of Commerce SelectUSA Virtual Tour where the city's assets and attractions will be shown to a domestic and international audiences to encourage direct foreign investment has been on the front burner for the staff and board of the Greater Brownsville Investment Corporation for months. 

Aside from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, participants will include U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, Mayor Trey Mendez, officials from the Port of Brownsville, officials from the North American Bank, Tamaulipas, Texas Southmost College, input from the Brownsville Independent School District administration, universities on both sides of the border, and renown economists extolling the opportunities of doing business along this part of the U.S-Mexico border.

The virtual tour will also have an international audience of would-be investors that will be available in Chicago, New York, London, Frankfurt, Hanoi, china and South Korea.

And, of course, it also had the all-important participation of the the Texas Governor's Office in then person of Adriana Cruz, Executive Director of Economic Development & Tourism. After all, Brownsville is the Latin American door to the United States and was the only city among 13 chosen situated  on an international border.

And, of course, the participation of the Texas Governor's Office in the person of Adriana Cruz, Executive Director of Economic Development & Tourism is crucial.

There, was, however, a hitch. 

Some GBIC board members learned that some members of the Gov. Greg Abbott's staff were miffed that the chairman of the GBIC, Graham Sevier-Schultz, had posted the vulgar entry above telling Abbott to "go fuck yourself" after the governor ordered one mail-out ballot dropoff site  per county.

The danger was that the governor's office would retaliate against Brownsville's efforts to attract manufacturers here because of the inopportune posting by the chairman of the GBIC board, whose organization is coordinating the event.

"After all that work, we were in real danger of not having the critical participation of the governor's office in the event," said a board member. 

"How does it come to be that the chairman of our board – by his infantile and vulgar postings on Facebook – can derail the efforts of his organization, and all these federal, state and local entities without giving it a second thought?"

Only after the governor's staff was convinced by GBIC staffers and board members that the Sevier-Schultz posting was done without any of the board members or the staff's approval or consent, did they acquiesce and continue their support of the virtual tour.

But that's about par for the course. Sevier-Schultz has not been known for the maturity of his actions. Not long ago, he was miffed when the board questioned "lending" $500,000 to the Brownsville Community Development Board so it could compete with "payday" lenders. The plan was for the GBIC to lend BCDC the money at 2 or 3 percent interest over 10 years and then the housing corporation would make loans at 16 percent to borrowers.

Only member Dennis Sanchez - who seconded the motion - voted with Sevier and it died on a 3-2 vote.

A board majority later in the meeting after heated discussion voted to deny funding the plan pushed by Sevier and CDCB'S Nick Mitchell-Bennett.

At that point, when Sevier-Schultz saw that the proposal would fail, he chided the board members and said: "The motion dies, and so does this organization. This is totally ridiculous."

Cooler heads prevailed and reminded Sevier-Schultz that making payday loans was not a legitimate use of Part A corporations who are authorized to use their sales-tax budgets taxes to foster economic development.

Sevier-Schultz – who was waiting in tables in Dallas and peddling coffee on the Linear Park less than five years before – is now the chairman of the GBIC which receives about $5 million in Part A sales-tax receipts annually. He was first appointed to the GBIC in 2019.

He is also Mayor Mendez's business partner in Dodici's, a pizzeria at the corner of 12th Street and Adams. Did Mendez approve of his partner cussing out the governor to the potential damage to the city's efforts?

How is it possible that he can be placed in a position from which he can derail the city's economic development by such intemperate behavior? If the city continues to place its economic development future in hands like his, what can residents possibly expect from the use of their money?