COMMISSIONERS APPOINT THEMSELVES TO BE THE GBIC BOARD

By Juan Montoya

One week after removing the entire board of directors of the Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation (GBEDC), formerly known as Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), a majority of the city commission appointed themselves to take their place.

Mayor Trey Mendez abstained and commissioner Joel Munguia was not present during the Zoom meeting.

The majority did this after they amended the city's board appointment policy allowing city commissioners and individuals to be on more than one city board.

Under state law, the city commission must appoint a board of directors with at least five members to serve terms up to six years. The statute does not specify qualifications. The board members serve at the pleasure of the commission and may be removed and replaced at any time and without cause. All funding agreements approved by the GBIC must also be approved by the commissioners.

Under the motion made by city commissioner Ben Neece, the entire commission will now serve as an "interim" GBIC board of directors for a year. 

So does this mean that the commissioners will have to approve in their role as a city council all the funding agreements they approve as GBIC members? It could also turn out to be a double-edged sword since any failure wold be placed at their door. And addressing city issues while they constitute a quorum is another land mine they must avoid.

The GBIC, as does the BCIC, receive some $5 million yearly as their quarter-cent share of the city's 8.25-cent  sales tax. GBIC is mainly focused on job creation and attracting manufacturers to the city while the BCIC is concerned mostly with quality-of-life projects.

Neece and commissioner Nurith Galonsky have long criticized the GBIC board and had urged the termination of CEO Mario Lozoya. When Lozoya was hired, Galonsky, then a board member, – with Neece's aid – sued in district court trying to overturn the choice. The lawsuit went nowhere and was dropped.

Last week, the city commission – with Jessica Tetreau and Joel Mungia absent – voted to remove all the board members.  The commissioners voted "to authorize special counsel to initiate and pursue a Rule 202 discovery petition on behalf of the City of Brownsville to secure further factual information pertaining to certain real estate transactions completed by GBIC identified in the City Auditor’s Report presented on November 3, 2020."

They were Pedro E. Cardenas, Sandra Duran, Esteban Guerra, Dennis Sanchez, Nico Schaefer, Graham Sevier-Schultz, chair, and Jason Wolfe.Why the drastic action?

Nothing was said at the meeting, but their removal leaves the impression that they were somehow involved in supporting questionable real-estate transactions by the GBIC administration under CEO Lozoya. Some former GBIC board members claim the audit presented on Nov. 3 gave them a clean bill of health on that issue and could not understand the item for discovery by special counsel. 

There were some signals given out last week after the removal of  the GBIC board. Ramiro Gonzalez, Director of Government and Community Affairs, was overheard by several people at a local eatery outlining the plans by the commissioners to run the GBIC through a proxy at the city manager's office. Sure enough, at last night's meeting, his comments were confirmed.

How the GBIC will now operate with the city commissioners as interim board is to be seen. Will Lozoya and his staff answer to the city manager or one of his representatives and carry out the directives of the commission? And will the commissioners have the authority to hire and fire the CEO and its staff? If the setup is implemented, the rumors of the planned termination of Lozoya's reign at the helm is almost a certainty at the first meeting of the commissioners in their new role as board members of the GBIC. 

City Commission legal counsel Rene De Coss was authorized to file an updated and restated certificate of formation and other pertinent documents with Secretary of State on behalf of the Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation (GBEDC), formerly known as Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC)."

In other action, the board voted to appoint or reappoint member(s) to the Brownsville Public Library System Advisory Board, the Brownsville Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee. (Multimodal Transportation ­ Mobility), the Main Street Advisory Board (Planning and Redevelopment) the Cameron Appraisal District Board of Directors, and the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC) Board.