CITY'S LAST THREE MAYORS DID NOT SERVE THE CITIZENS WELL

By Jim Barton

Brownsville Observer

Mayor Trey Mendez

Much like the citizens of Mark Twain's "Hadleyburg," Brownsville's last three mayors have proved unable to resist the temptation to use the office for personal gain.

As a mere lad, Trey Mendez, as a TSC trustee, showed some mettle in resisting the absorption of the community college by the University of Texas system, standing strong along with Adela Garza, Rene Torres and Kiko Rendon.

That stance was likely the backdrop that gave Brownsville voters enough confidence to elect Trey as mayor, but that trust was not rewarded.

Trey greatly dissappointed the citizenry when he, along with BCIC board member Michael Limas, were first in line as the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation dispersed monies contributed to the city by Elon Musk.

The stated purpose of the BCIC, a "4B" board, is to disperse funds to improve the city's "quality of life," and the board exists to keep those funds away from the sticky hands of politicians. Otherwise, the city commission would simply handle the distribution.

Once the light of day shone on Trey's greedy attempt to personally benefit from funds dispersed by a board he helped staff, fund and set guidelines for, Mendez is said to have returned his original grant of $80,000 and not picked up the additional $200,000 he'd requested.
Since then, we understand that Mendez is not seeking re-election.

Tony Martinez

Mendez' predecessor Tony Martinez bragged during his campaign for mayor that his first order of business would be to create an ethics code for city employees and officials, but, despite serving two terms as mayor, his administration never produced such a code.

It's just as well as Tony violated ethical standards left and right as mayor.
One such ethical violation was reported in Juan Montoya's El Rrun Rrun blog:

"On Nov. 3, 2015 regular meeting, a unanimous city commission – after emerging from executive session where John Guevara, representing Linbarger, Goggan Blair and Sampson LLD and city attorney Mark Sossi outlined the bids/offers for 16 properties offered for sale for tax delinquency – Martinez voted to sell himself the property.

The street address was 1226 E. Van Buren, next to the mayor's law office. The minutes show that Martinez participated in the executive session discussion and later voted for the city to accept the bids for the 16 properties, including the one he had bid on."

Martinez paid a mere pittance, $5,200, for the property, well under market value.

Without a smidgeon of transparency, Martinez also went on a downtown buying spree, purchasing numerous older buildings in or near downtown Brownsville with zero explanation to the taxpayers as to why he was committing their hard-earned tax dollars as well as their children's for the next two decades to these speculative real estate purchases.

Included in these never-explained purchases are a rest home on Madison Street for $195,101, a warehouse on Ringgold for $100,000, two tiny downtown restaurants for $83,000, leasing the home next the Cueto Building for 3 years, $90,000, the Old National Armory for $431,200, Casa del Nylon for $2,300,000 and the San Fernando Building for $315,000.

Most suspect in these deals is the one unethically negotiated by Tony's law partner Horacio Barrerra with Tony's friend, Abraham Galonsky, La Casa del Nylon. That property had been on the market for nearly two decades. The unsold merchandise, still new, but from the 80's, was considered "vintage." The negotiated purchase price was a totally confounding $2,300,000, triple its appraised value.

If Martinez' law office received a commission for negotiating that sale to the city, that's and additional ethics violation.

Martinez' obsession with Juliet Garcia and the University of Texas was also demonstrated when he tried to donate the city's beautiful Lincoln Park to the university, a move stopped only by public outcry.

Despite all these purchases, when the mayor coveted a personal office downtown, he leased, at the city's expense, yet another location, 1101-A E. Washington St. as his personal office. The remodeling, leasing was done at city expense, but Martinez NEVER used the office that sits empty to this day.

We've not even mentioned Martinez's dishonesty in pushing a 36% increase in electric rates for an 800 megawatt power plant that was never built~Tenaska, but that story has been well chronicled.

Pat Ahumada

Former Mayor Pat Ahumada, known for his abrasive personality, served two terms as mayor, and is waiting on a ruling from the city to see if the City Charter prevents him from running for the office a third time.

Ahumada, when mayor, referred to himself as the "quarterback" and the city commissioners as "blocking lineman" and got into many a verbal conflict with then City Commissioner Charlie Atkinson.

Ahumada's two trials for depositing a $26,139 check made out to Tarsia Technical into his personal account ended with one being a mistrial and the other an acquittal.

Reports indicate he was overdrawn in his own account when he made the deposit, then spent $6,000 on a trip to Tampico he said was to "promote Brownsville."

At first he denied depositing the check until he became aware of being caught on a surveillance camera.

Ahumada was also arrested three times for DWI's, convicted twice, and beat a charge of gambling when police raided his 8-liner establishment.

Ahumada was totally fooled by convicted con artist Carlos Quintanilla into promoting a bogus airline, Fly Frontera, promising flights to Mexico, but demanding upfront money to pay for rental planes, fuel and spare parts.

Supporters of Ahumada will frequently say he's "changed," but we're reminded of the Biblical quote that a "leopard cannot change his spots."