CITY COMMISSION: BRING BACK "QUALITY OF LIFE" TO BCIC; QUESTION 30% ADMIN COSTS, REQUESTS FOR MORE STAFF

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

When Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation CEO and Executive Director Cori Peña submitted her budget request to the city commission Tuesday, she got a not-so-gentle reminder from the members that the BCIC had strayed from its voter-approved "quality of life" mission to elbow out the economic development mission of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation.

Peña lamely tried to say that the BCIC was awaiting the completion of a strategic plan that was due to be finished by February 2024 that would direct it toward its original mission.

"It seems that quality of life projects are being squeezed out for economic development projects," said commissioner Rose Gowen through remote participation. "It's a bit upsetting that every time you mention quality of life it has to have an economic development impact attached to it. It all has to hinge on economic development impact. That was not your mission that the voters approved in 2002."

"Quality of life is not the poor stepchild," she said. "It seems like quality of life is being squeezed out by economic development." 

Gowen also pointed  out that the pie chart and budget projections that Peña submitted with her presentation hid the fact that the BCIC administrative costs listed as constituting 14 percent for  administration was actually nearer to 30 percent, and that she was coming to the city commission asking for at least three more positions to assist her in administering the BCIC.

"This item about hiring more staff, I do have questions about that as well."

Peña said that she needed the additional a staff because the economic development projects on the planning board were being shortchanged because she didn't have the extra staff.

"Well, you certainly shortchanged the quality of life, I agree with that," retorted Gowen. "And you don't need a strategic plan to tell you to do quality of life. The voters told you to do that in 2002. If I remember correctly, it passed in a majority, not a narrow margin." 

Peña presented a request for a FY 2024 Expense of $13,049,101 which she said she had discussed with city manager Helen Ramirez previous to the meeting. She said she was proposing that administrative costs be increased from $1,838,630 to $2,196,101 with a transfer from the BCIC's $5,855,067 unrestricted funds.

Commissioner Tino Villarreal Jr. asked Peña and Ramirez for a breakdown in the management of the Sports park and Ramirez said that except for a manager and one administrative staff, the rest of the city employees were maintenance workers.

However, Villarreal said that he had been on the BCIC board in the past and that he had gone to the park this past weekend to host a sports event and found that the fields there were in dismal shape. He said that he usually rented the fields at St. Joseph Academy to visiting teams but that a student's funeral had prevented him from doing it this past weekend.

"I was there last Sunday (for a football event), and you have a bunch of fields that you don't use," he said. "I held the turf in my hands," he said. "It didn't look too good."

Mayor John Cowen also said that although he applauded the BCIC's downtown economic development efforts that needs exist in the rest of the city in parks and trails and other amenities that would benefit residents there.

"We need to figure it out together," he said. "We work for the same people. You guys have done a lot on the economic development side, but we need your help...to be equitable to the parks community."

Commissioner Linda Macias, who remains on the BCIC board as a member despite promising to leave the board during her campaign, moved in to assist Peña during the grilling, and said the BCIC could amend the budget request and increase the $2 million for quality of life projects with an additional amount from unrestricted funds before the strategic plan was complete in February 2024. 

"So we don't have to wait until the strategic plan is complete, we can amend the budget now to increase the quality life, can't we?," she asked Peña, who rapidly acquiesced.

Commissioner Roy de los Santos – whose motion to deny the BCIC budget request failed – said that the BCIC's budget should reflect what was good for the entire community, not just the economic development side. The commission then voted, with De los Santos voting no, to consider the budget amendment to add to the $2 million "quality of life" amendment.  

"We can't say that we can't cut the grass because we took on more than we can chew," he said.