H0W BCIC'S CEO PENA MADE THE SAUSAGE: LIKE GBIC'S EX-CEO HELEN RAMIREZ, WILL SHE BE REWARDED FOR GOING ALONG?

Agenda Item for BCIC Thursday, August 31, 2023, 5:00 p.m meeting relating to CEO Cori Peña to be held at eBridge Center for Business and Commercialization, 1304 E. Adams St.

By Juan Montoya

Remember the agenda item last April 27 when the board of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation tried to amend its bylaws to allow immediate family members of city officials and board members and city employees to apply for grants, some for as much as $200,000 or more?

Well, guess what, the BCIC had already been awarding some of its board members, city officials, and their family members cash grants using the subterfuge that they abstained from voting money for themselves or their kin.

The amendment, it would appear, was an effort to "taparle el ojo al macho" to hide the fact that they acted against their own bylaws. 

The item emitted too much of a smell and it was voted down by the board even though CEO and Executive Director Cori Peña, Community Development Manager Miriam Suarez and board member Cesar Lopez argued for its adoption.

Now, as a result of its past blatant transgressions, the BCIC has become the target of a compliance audit by the city's auditing department whose scrutiny of the operations of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC) which bordered on graft and negligence resulted in a scandal that might yet trigger a law enforcement response. https://myrgv.com/local-news/2023/08/26/audit-reveals-irregularities-in-gbic-agreement-with-financial-services-company/

In the past we have documented instances where the BCIC under former chair Michael Limas, elected officials and appointed officials and the immediate families of the latter were routinely handed over grants ranging from $5,000 to $200,000 despite the BCIC bylaws prohibitions. In fact, BCIC board members "fixed" the vote on items where they or their families were involved and simply abstained from voting  and pocketed the cash, thank you.

This one for $32,500 to Felicia Fruia Edge while she sat on the BCIC board, and abstained: 

This one to Fabian Limas, brother of BCIC chair Mchael Limas, who abstained

And then this one to BCIC Chair Limas:

This one to Alejandro Treviño, whose brother, BCIC member Arturo, abstained:

The instances where this has happened are too numerous to mention here, but we're sure they will surface. Former mayor Trey Mendez and former BCIC chairman Limas were some of the biggest transgressors and used various LLCs to conceal their participation. https://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2021/10/ramiro-treys-200k-things-didnt-go.html    

During the meeting of August 26, 2021, the board approved a 80,000  grant to Victura Properties LLC for property improvements of the building at 1015 E. Washington St. whose owner was listed as then-Mayor Trey Mendez.

At that same meeting, the board approved a $190,750 property improvement grant to OZTRCH LLC for the building at 1107 E. Washington St. without revealing the fact that the LLC listed BCIC chairman Michael Limas as its owner. Limas, of course, abstained and the motion to approve passed unanimously.

Throughout all that time CEO Peña has been a pliant BCIC employee promoted to Executive Director who recommended that the questionable grants be awarded to her bosses on the board, and has reaped the profits of her acquiescence and has seen her salary jump from some $37,500 to $75,000 in May 2019, to her current salary of some $120,000. A $82,500 raise in four years ain't nothing to sneeze at.

This Thursday, there is a meeting of the BCIC board which will consider the following item:

Interestingly, at the same meeting there is also an item for a grant application from Gonzalez, Mendez's business partner, who is coming back to the well for another $45,000 for a fire suppression system at the same Coca Cola Building, this time not as Victura Properties, but as Urban 8 Properties LLC. 

 

We saw the black eye that the city has taken after the city audit of former GBIC CEO Helen Ramirez, who is now city manager, and who bent the rules to hand out a $1 million contract to a company that never delivered on their obligations and who the city is now going to court to try to "claw back" $500,000. Good luck.

Is it BCIC's turn? And will Peña get her just rewards for her complicity and pliant performance in the handing out of the public's cash to city and board officials and their immediate families?