COWEN: A MASTER OF STEALING OTHER PEOPLE'S THUNDER

By Juan Montoya

Now we know who City of Brownsville city commissioner John Cowen really is: A self-serving, narcissistic, bald-head buffoon who steals others' thunder to make himself look good. 

Just his past Friday, Cowen, the city commissioner who is now head of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, (GBIC) was featured in the cash-cow daily Brownsville Herald as the lead spokesman  announcing the first tenant of the North Brownsville Industrial Park, which opened for business on Paredes Line Road south of the S.H. 550 loop in 2012.

He told the toothless daily that the new tenant at the park – Excel Bobbins & Plastic Component – shows "our collaboration with (the company) is a clear example of GBIC's commitment supporting expansion within our local business community and helping businesses take advantage of market opportunities."

He forgot to mention the the company – Excel Bobbins & Plastic Components – actually started the process by which the company will build a new 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on five acres at the site way back on March 20, 2019.

And he conveniently forgot to tell the pandering newspaper that the initial approach to build the facility was handled by former GBIC CEO Mario Lozoya, the top Hispanic whiz-kid for Toyota USA who was forced out of the GBIC's top spot with the help of commissioners Nurith Galonsky and Ben Neece, Rose Gowen, including Cowen himself.

In short, it was Cowen who was the prime suspect for sabotaging a project for the  high-tech steel mill by Dynamic Steel  which would have brought the $1.9 billion environmentally-friendly plant and 600 high-paying jobs at $75,000 a year by relaying inside information that reached the ears of his pal on the Brownsville Housing Authority and land speculator Patricio Sampayo.

The city's tax base would have doubled if the plans for the steel mill would have gone through. A week after Cowen was given two private briefings by Lozoya, the GBIC realtors found that Sampayo held the option on three parcels of land totaling 141 acres which were critical for the plant's construction. But Sampayo was asking for $25,000 an acre where before GBIC could have acquired it for $19,000 an acre. GBIC refused. The potential profit of the land extortion scheme? A neat $864,000.

If it hadn't been for land speculation, the lack of real-estate for a suitable industrial park to attract industry, and the entrenched attitude that if a certain few people can't profit economically from projects they won't happen, the city's residents might have benefited and would have had a high-tech, $1.9 billion environmentally-friendly steel mill that would have doubled the city's tax base.

Instead, officials from Steel Dynamics are opening the steel mill on a sorghum field outside Sinton where before they had said Brownsville was on the top of the list to bring the plant here on land that the GBIC was acquiring.

Even more cynical was the fact that Cowen voted to authorize the hiring of special counsel to investigate land transactions under Lozoya since it was Cowen who was the most likely suspect in the  leaking the information on the steel plant. Why no investigation there?

GBIC should have more news related to the industrial park soon, he told the daily Friday.

"We do have another tenant that's supposed to break ground this year, so there's definitely movement, and hopefully we'll build on this momentum and get this park ramped up," Cowen said..."We are primed as an organization to provide that resource (land) full potential."

Really, John?

Which one of the other 15 companies listed as recruited by Lozoya and in their final stages now will you take credit for next?

Although GBIC hasn't closed on the deal with the second tenant, he said, the two parties are "99 percent of the way there," Cowen said.

"We continue to get a lot of calls from companies that want to expand or develop in Brownsville," he said. "I think it's a good time to invest in Brownsville."

All those prospective companies planning to come to Brownsville were recruited by Lozoya with the full support of former GBIC board members Pedro E. Cardenas, Vice Chair, Sandra Duran, Esteban Guerra, Dennis Sanchez, Treasurer, Nico Schaefer, Secretary,Graham Sevier-Schultz, chair, and Jason Wolfe who were replaced by the city commission.

Since the commissioners appointed Asst. City Manager Helen Ramirez under their direction at $195,000 to replace Lozoya, the only "accomplishment" that has been reported by the GBIC - established to create good paying jobs for local residents - was the hiring of OUTSIDE consultants at $450,000 to help Ramirez. An interesting, if not corrupted,  application of the concept.

Placing Cowen at the head of the GBIC is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. What other inside info is going to find its way to the ears of his land-speculator pals?