PUB MEETS TODAY TO "DISCUSS" FORENSIC AUDIT; INDICATIONS ARE THAT THEY WILL DO WHAT THEY'VE DONE SO FAR: NOTHING

By Juan Montoya

When the Brownsville Public Utility Board meets today at 5 p.m. expect them to do the same thing that they have been doing during the years of their terms of service to rein in their lying and deceiving CEO and General Manager.

Nothing.

Almost a week after a forensic audit was released that documented the deliberately fraudulent acts of PUB CEO and General Manager John Bruciak, former mayor Tony Martinez, and a handful of
engineering and energy consulting companies and the utility's millionaire legal vendors, nary a peep from the board responsible for protecting the ratepayers of the city-owned utility.

The forensic audit report documented the superbly flawed origin of the City of Brownsville and energy company Tenaska agreement to build a $500 million 800 MW gas-fired electric energy plant and Bruciak and Martinez's manipulation of the PUB board (the city mayor is an ex oficio member) and the city commission to continue the project and the high rates necessary to fund the project, while at the same time knowing Tenaska had terminated it. 

PUB told Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC, the auditing firm, that of the $125 million collected from ratepayers as a result of the increased utility rates, only $29 million remained. Meanwhile, utility bills have soared through the roof, with residential and commercial customers paying double or triple their usual monthly bill. 

The report says that the consulting firm R.W. Beck in 2008 warned PUB that using "vintage" energy need projections would not give them a true picture of future needs, but PUB resisted the advice and directed  its engineers to continue using those projections – which turned out to be incorrect –  to justify pushing the project. There was, in fact, no need for the plant, or to increase utility rates by 36 percent, or 42 percent taking into consideration the increase in rates form water and wastewater services.

In fact, in today's meeting, there is only one item in executive session remotely dealing with the board taking any action on the burgeoning controversy of the revelations of willful deception and fraud by the principals named in the forensic audit. It states:

In the last paragraph of the forensic audit, Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC states "Given the findings above, we recommend that our report be forwarded to the authorities for their review

and determination of next steps."

Despite the inclusion of the item, "No van a hacer nada," said a city administrator. 

Today, a crowd of protesters is expected to speak out and demand Bruciak's immediate suspension and that a criminal investigation be pursued on other principals like Martinez as was suggested at the end of the forensic audit. They have raised a petition of almost 500 signatures demanding the board take action.

Sources close to the City of Brownsville Commission say that board member of the PUB have asked the city commissioners to suspend and fire Bruciak, but have been told in turn that the responsibility lies on the PUB's board.

"No tienen los huevos o ovarios," said a source closely allied with member on the city commission. "The city commission can't suspend or fire the CEO," they assert. " They wanted to be PUB board members? Bite the bullet and do what's right."

But who's on the board? Conflict of interest anyone?

Well, let's see. You have Sandra A. Saenz, the Chair, Martinez' longtime personal secretary and a business tenant of Martinez with her Spanky's Hamburgers, and Sandra Lopez-Langley, a banker and former Brownsville Chamber of Commerce director and who traveled on a  Columbian junket with Martinez paid by the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation under Jason Hilts, supposedly seeking foreign investment in Brownsville.

(The picture at right during picture one of these trips depicts Colombian Oscar Ruiz Brochero, the director of a business forum, with Sandra Lopez-Langley, a Business Development Officer at First Community Bank, and Martinez.)

You have vice-chair Patricio Sampayo, a Brownsville Housing Authority Board member who was in cahoots with city commissioner John Cowen to make a pile of cash after he learned that the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation needed several tracts of land in north Brownsville to bring a steel plant to the industrial park GBIC would create. Less than a week later, GBIC found out that Sampayo had acquired rights of first refusal and they had to deal with him at an inflated dollar-per-acre cost. 

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 GBIC Director Mario 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. 

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 BHA and land speculator Sampayo.

Jude Benavides, so far, has taken no public stand on the issue nor has his fellow Pd.D Joseph L. Hollmann. PUB board member Art Rendon, known for his circumspect demeanor on the board on par with his behavior on the board of the Texas Southmost College will probably stick true to character and try to kick the can down the road since his son is part of the Martinez Law Firm staff.

And last, but not least, there's Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez III, the ex-officio member who is now engaged in several business and real-estae enterprises with Martinez. It is believed that Mendez allowed Martinez to "plant" the PUB board with his supporters as well as giving cushy jobs to his friends when he left office.

 

Early indications are that the board will hem and haw and merely acknowledge that receipt of the forensic audit.

And Martinez, when interviewed about the audit, says Bruciak should be kept on board and allowed to keep the remaining $29 million and consider it as "savings" because "they need it."

PUB ratepayers and residents – and the protesters –  are hopeful that perhaps the board will defend them tonight, suspend Bruciak, call for a criminal investigation, and do what's right. 

Good luck.