BCIC: NO 200K FOR MAYOR, FORMER CITY MANAGER STAFFER

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

With Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz and his trusted cadre looking on, the board of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation pulled an item from their agenda which would have given City of Brownsville Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez and former city manager's office staffer Ramiro Gonzalez a $200,000 grant for their historical building improvements.

The pair, both managing members of the so-called Urban 8 Properties LLC  formed in June 2021, had sought the grant money from the BCIC to make the improvements on the historical Coca Cola Plant in downtown Brownsville that they purchased for $382,000 last August through a loan with Texas National Bank.

The BCIC meeting was held at noon Thursday.

When the identity of the Urban 8 property owners was revealed on social media prior to the meeting of the BCIC where their application was to be considered, Gonzalez resigned his $82,900 city position as the Government and Community Affairs director under City Manager Noel Bernal.

The pair had bought the property from Cameron Peralta, an elderly woman who owed more than $12,000 on a delinquent-tax lien, in August and had applied for the $200,000 grant through the BCIC, a board whose members are appointed by the mayor and the city commission.

The presence of Saenz at the meeting where the $200,000 grant application was to be considered apparently loosened the tongue of the BCIC board members, one of which – Michael Limas – said he would abstain from another application for $160,000 to improvement to a historical building next to his business, Las Ramblas, because he had planned to rent it from her after the improvements were made.

"The BCIC's BIG grants seem to be awarded to a close-knit number of friends," said a participant in the meeting. "It's a little club giving each other the public's money like it was theirs."

 Saenz did not address the board or the meeting participants, but the message was clear: "We're watching you."

Meanwhile, reports are that the family of the woman are livid about the sale of the historical Coca Cola Plant Building which dates back to 1927. They say that Peralta neither speaks nor reads English and wonder who explained the details on the purchase contract to her. Was it Mendez? Or was it Gonzalez?

Now, having to do without of the anticipated $200,000 in free grant money, will the two continue their plans to restore the historical building? And we are told that Saenz and his minions are not done and are probing a little deeper into the BCIC's operations handing out money to Mendez and his inside group of favored friends.