AT PUB, SITUATION NORMAL (AFU) THE SAME OLD GANGA

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Texas Senator for District 27 Morgan LaMantia hooked up with the three Brownsville Public Utility Board babes at the Harlingen Rotary Shrimp Fest this past Saturday.

At top, former PUB chair Sandra Saenz who oversaw the utility at the tail end of the Tenaska Power Generating Plant scandal and who has had a lifelong close personal and business relationship with former Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez stands to the right of the senator.

On La Mantia's left is PUB board member Sandra Langley, a local bank executive who traveled to South America with Martinez to South America "exploring business opportunities" on the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation dime before the new board of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation rescinded its contact with the BEDC because they were producing no employment opportunities for local residents, but racked up huge travel bills with jaunts to all parts of the globe. Martinez even traveled to Turkey and the Netherlands under the pretext, again with no tangible results.

When the forensic audit was released charging that both Martinez and former CEO John Bruciak had lied to the city commission and ratepayers that the plant would still be built and continued the artificially high rates that totaled more than 41 percent over the five years, Saenz and Langley voted to place Bruciak on a two-month paid administrative leave compliments or PUB ratepayers. Bruciak announced his retirement after that period and walked away with his retirement benefits in place. 

And then there is new General Manager and CEO Marilyn (Del Bosque) Gilbert appointed by the PUB board Monday night. She was  was PUB Energy Risk Manager and Director of Energy Services under Bruciak. Gilbert and Bruciak insisted that the PUB had to add a "required 13.75 percent power margin" to the Tenaska equation that forensic auditors determined was not required by any state or federal energy agency such as ERCOT but were false assertions by the two.

And: "During our July 21, 2022 interview with Ms. Gilbert, when asked about the ERCOT requirement for Load Serving Entities (“LSEs”) such as BPUB she stated, “LSEs were required to have a reserve margin…ERCOT passes it along to the LSEs that they need to maintain certain requirements. Yet she could provide no definitive source for that information.  In our interview with Mr. Bruciak thirty minutes later, we again asked about an ERCOT 13.75 percent capacity reserve margin requirement for LSEs.  He stated that he understood that it was a “requirement that ERCOT [had].”  

He continued that BPUB was “carrying it not because we wanted to but we were because [of a] condition of ERCOT that they wanted you to carry [a reserve margin].”  However, CRI has determined that the statements made by both Mr. Bruciak and Ms. Gilbert appear to have been intentionally false. ERCOT, as the independent system operator for the region, did in fact use a 12.75 percent target reserve margin capacity internally to manage the region’s power needs and had discussed increasing its margin to 13.75 percent around 2011.  

Yet, notwithstanding Management’s false statements above, according to an ERCOT representative on August 5, 2022: “ERCOT does not have a Reserve Capacity Margin requirement for LSEs.  There has not been a change to no longer have a requirement for Reserve Capacity Margin.  There has never been such a requirement in the ERCOT market.  [Emphasis added]” 

"Further, given the above interference and manipulation of the narrative and the overall process, it is our opinion that Management intentionally misrepresented or omitted key information in order to ensure that the Project (and its related rate hikes) would be approved by the Board and ultimately the COB." 

Both Saenz and Langley vote to make Gilbert CEO at PUB and remain fiercely loyal to Martinez who will be in the know of the inner workings of the board, and getting heads up on economic development and real-estate opportunities. Coincidentally, Langley and Gilbert are St. Joseph Academy graduates.  Go figure. The girls party it up on Saturday, then come back Monday and make her PUB CEO. Does the word "fix" come to mind? 

It is almost certain with this cast of characters (minus LaMantia) that the ratepayers of Brownsville won’t ever see a penny nor ever know exactly how many millions were stolen through inflated collections. Situation Normal, All Fucked Up.