NEECE, GALONSKY HEAD TUESDAY NIGHT GBIC MASSACRE

Special to El Run-Rrun

No, they're not the musings of retired teacher and resident great writer Jerry McHale.

A majority of the City of Brownsville Commission actually did remove the entire board of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation last night after discussing it in executive session after approving an item to hire special counsel to investigate certain real-estate transactions by the GBIC also known as the Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation (GBEDC), 

With commissioners Jessica Tetreau and Joel Munguia absent, a majority of the members of the city commission – commissioners Ben Neece, Nurith Galonsky, Rose Gowebn and John Cowen – voted on the motion by Neece and seconded by Galonsky to remove all the board member. Mendez did not have to vote.

After only 17 minutes in executive session, the commissioners voted to remove Pedro E. Cardenas, Vice Chair, Sandra Duran, Esteban Guerra, Dennis Sanchez, Treasurer, Nico Schaefer, Secretary,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 illegal real-estate transactions by the GBIC administration under CEO Mario Lozoya.

An item approved by the commission Tuesday indicates 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. (City Manager's Office)"

After that passed, they voted on Item 1 of executive session that stared: 

1. ACTION, if any, to remove and replace one or more existing members of the Board of Directors for the Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation (GBEDC), formerly known as the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), as authorized by Section 504.051, Texas Local Gov’t Code, and synchronization of affected terms. (City Manager's Office).

Insiders say that that a city audit of the GBIC land transactions did not turn up any improprieties, but that the GBIC board members had been pressuring the members to remove Lozoya for about a week.When board mebers protested that they saw noting wrong in the operations of the GBIC, the item to remove them was entered into Tuesday's city agenda.

When Lozoya, Toyota USA's highest ranking Hispanic in the United States, was hired by the former GBIC board, Galonsky, with Neece's help, sued the board to try to prevent his hiring. THe effort failed, bu the campaign to hire the CEO has been an ongoing endeavor by Neece and Galonsky.

Commissioner John Cowen, who was on the GBIC board with Galonsky then, voted Tuesday to remove the entire board as well. 

That's ironic that Cowen voted to authorize the hiring of special counsel to investigate land transactions under Lozoya since it was Cowen who is suspected of leaking information to his pal on the Brownsville Housing Authority Patricio Sampayo on properties where GBIC had planned to offer a steel company to come to Brownsville.

By the time that GBIC approached the owners of the land, they found out that Sampayo had already acquired rights of first refusal and had hiked up the price, making it prohibitive for GBIC to get it. Seeing that the required property could not be deliverd by GBIC, the steel company – and hundreds of good-paying jobs – left Brownsville and sought greener pastures. Why no investigation of that land-flipping then? 

In Galonsky's case, when the GBIC and the steel company went before the zoning board, their petition for a zoning change was denied. At that meeting her father, Abraham Galonsky, a zoning board member, was heard encouraging them to look for land closer to the Port of Brownsville where he just happens to own some properties. 

Now that the entire board has been removed under a cloud of suspicion of malfeasance and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate it, where does this leave the city's economic development efforts? And now that its director knows that the city commission wants his head, where is the incentive to perform?

Galosky had championed former BEDC VP Gilbert Salinas over Lozoya and lost. Now will the GBIC be placed under the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation. Think of the incongruity. Here we have a world-class economic development and workforce training CEO being placed under a BCIC director known for doing what certain city commissioners want.

It is well known that GBIC member and local attorney Dennis Sanchez was appointed to the board to summarily dismiss Lozoya, but instead saw that the CEO was performing a good job for the city. Failing that, the Tuesday Night GBIC Massacre bared the base instincts of the commission. Who would volunteer to serve on that board after this?

"It's like cutting off your nose to spite your face," said a city staffer after the vote. "Nurith got her payback, but is it good for the city?

Both Neece and Rose Gowen are up for reelection in the May 2021 elections.