SUDDENLY, THE MEMORIES OF PUB AND THE GALS ARE GONE

Special to El Rrun-Rrun 

Shades of Winston Smith!

You remember Winston. He is the hero in the George Orwell novel 1984 where, as a member of the Outer Party, working at the Ministry of Truth he rewrites to conform to the state's ever-changing version of history.

We have, apparently, a few members of that Ministry here now that the Brownsville Public Utility Board-Tenaska boondoggle has exploded.

Try to find the photos of city commissioner Nurith Galonsky, former PUB board chair Ana O'Quin,  current PUB chair Sandra Saenz, PUB board member Sandra Langley et al, together and you won't find them, in contrast to their pre-PUB/Tenaska scandal posts where they were cavorting together in Mexico City, or anywhere else, for that matter. 

The postings, photos or any other commentary have been erased and deleted, a la Winston Smith.

For all practical purposes, it never happened.

Why the sudden shyness?

Is it because any indication that they are associated and bear the stigma of having been PUB board members, or enjoying a close personal or business relationship to former mayor Tony Martinez, or PUB CEO and General Manager John Bruciak might cast suspicion on their roles in the sordid affair that fleeced the PUB ratepayers of more than $125 million with nothing to show in return?

That they were there when the taking was good and did nothing to stop the pilferage?

Go to their Facebook pages where you usually found them together. They are no longer there. Any indication of their former association together or with anyone associated with the PUB administration has disappeared.

In 1984, Winston revises past editions of The Times, while the original documents are destroyed after being dropped into ducts known as memory holes which lead to an immense furnace. 

Galonsky, in particular, has been adamant in protecting Bruciak and has steadfastedly opposed any criticism hurled at the overpaid underachiever and deceiver who kept the fact secret that Tenaska had unilaterally terminated its participation with PUB as early as 2017, and didn't inform the city commission until three years later, allowing its legal representatives to continue buying right-of-way from Hidalgo County for gas and water pipelines (and transmission line) for a plant they knew would never get built.

In fact, some of those properties were acquired though the eminent domain process – the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation – because they were supposedly to be used for a public purpose. But any public use purpose was abandoned once Tenaska and PUB had terminated the project.

Will there be fallout from the property owners when they realize that there was no public purpose anymore for the government to seize their land?

Some of those right-of-way may very well have been purchased from her father Abraham Galonsky and his associates, like the late Emilio Sanchez, bringing the issue dangerously close to Nurith, who served on the PUB board during that time.

And reports from the inner workings of the city commission indicate that Nurith has been performing yeoman's work to try to stave off criticisms and the censure of Bruciak, shown by the forensic audit to have been a prime mover in the multi-million deception.

The Facebook photos of the gals and their PUB pals have all been thrown down the memory holes so people can forget about that as if it never happened. But we will all remember every time the PUB bills arrive in the mail and we have to pay double or triple the usual rates.