NEECE OUT AT BCIC, EX-BISD CHAIR CESAR LOPEZ APPOINTED

 Special to  El Rrun-Rrrun

As predicted, the Brownsville City Commission, by a 5-2 vote, voted Tuesday to remove former city commissioner Ben Neece and appointed former Brownsville Independent School District board chairman Cesar Lopez to a seat on the board of the embattled Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC).

Neece, who was appointed the the BCIC as the commission's representative, still had two months to serve on the board. Lopez will serve until the end of December when a permanent board member will be appointed.

District 1 commissioner Nurith Galonsky objected to Neece's removal saying that it smacked of a personal vendetta (from commissioner Jessica Tetreau) and said that if it had happened it should have happened months ago when Neece lost the District 4 election runoff to Pedro Cardenas in May's city commission election.

"Just because someone's opposed to the way he states his opinion is not a good reason to remove him. I don't believe in stifling free speech," Galonsky said.

Commissioner Rose Gowen said her "yes" vote to replace Neece was not a personal vendetta, but rather was just following the longstanding tradition on the city commission that when a commissioner lost an election, they also lost their place on boards that they served.

"It should have happened when he lost the election," Gowen said. "In no way is this a personal vendetta," she said. "I didn't know that he was still on the board."

Mayor Trey Mendez agreed and said that although "Ben and I have had our differences" he didn't feel that his removal after he was  no longer on the commission constituted a personal vendetta.

The commission then voted – with Galonsky and commissioner John Gowen against – to remove Neece from the board. Cardenas then nominated Lopez to the seat vacated by Neece and the board voted unanimously to place him in Neece's spot on the board.

According to the city's website, the removal was placed on the commission's agenda by City Manager Noel Bernal.

But city insiders are calling it "Jessica's Revenge," indicating that District 2 city commissioner Jessica Tetreau was the main mover behind the placement of the item on the city's agenda.

Tetreau has long blamed Neece for being the main supporter of the inclusion of term limits for city commissioners which prevented her from seeking a fourth term. Tetreau was elected by a write-in vote in 2011, reelected on 2015 and in 2019. Her term will expire on 2023. 

In contrast, city commissioner Rose Gowen voted with a majority to place a two-term limit on city commissioner and mayoral terms and has served three terms and won a fourth one on the May 1 election. 

Neeces' removal Tuesday followed weeks of revelations on social media that BCIC chairman Michael Limas and his brother, local attorney Fabian Limas, and Brownsville Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez have benefited personally from the free-money grants approved by the board under the BIG 2 Program.

The board members of the BCIC are Michael Limas, chairman, Traci Wickett, vice chair, Jill Dominguez, secretary, Zoraima Diaz, treasurer, Mark Horowitz, Aida Coronado Garcia, and – until Tuesday's meeting – Neece.

The Limas brothers were awarded $152,000 in three grants ($122,000 and two others for $15,000 apiece). One award was made to OZRTCH LLC August 26 for $122,000. Who was behind the OZRTCH LLC?

The other two grants of $15,000 each for downtown renovation were made at the request of former mayor Tony Martinez for improvement on his 1848 BBQ on Palm Boulevard, quite a stretch for being part of "downtown renovation." 

A newspaper article written last March indicates that the brothers have a "substantial" ownership stake and "exclusive control over remaking and managing it," along with a fourth associate. (See graphic at right)

On August 26,  the BCIC board voted to give $80,000 to Victura Properties LLC. The agenda did not state this, but Victura  LLC is listed under Mendez's name, as is the property to be improved at 1015 E. Washington St., coincidentally across Washington Street from the city's historic Coca Cola building. 

It should be noted that Mendez and the city commission appointed Limas to the BCIC where he is now chairman.

Then, during the September 30 GBIC meeting,  Mendez and former Community and Government Affairs director Ramiro Gonzalez had a grant application for $200,000 to renovate the historic Coca Cola plant which they had bought for $400,000 from an elderly woman named Carmen Peralta.

There was nothing on the application of the BCIC backup to the agenda that showed Urban 8 Properties LLC was owned by Mendez and that Gonzalez was a managing member. But when the revelations were made in social media, they pulled the application and Gonzalez resigned from his $82,900 city job. Mendez said the application for the $200,000 was made "prematurely."

He still claimed, however, that BCIC policy is specific in stating that city elected officials (like himself) and members of the BCIC board (like the Limas brothers) and other city employees (like Gonzalez) were eligible to apply for the BCIC BIG 2 grants despite the obvious conflict of interest.

Neece said he had walked out of the Sept 30 meeting when he found out the mayor and the Limas brothers were applicants to receive the free money. He also claimed that he had already drafted an amendment to the GBIC policies prohibiting the granting of renovation funds to city elected officials, BCIC members and city employees in the upcoming GBIC board October 28 meeting.

"I was going to try to get a policy change to prohibit board members, city employees and city officials from being able to tap into to those grants," Neece said. "I guess I won't be able to to at this point. I had already requested the agenda item but I'll be gone by then."