ZONTA CLUB NAMES P.U.B. CEO MARYLIN GILBERT – MAJOR PLAYER IN TENASKA $120 MILLION DEBACLE – WOMAN OF THE YEAR

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Did you read the Brownsville Herald story about Marilyn D. Gilbert, General Manager and CEO of the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, being named Amelia Earhart STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Woman of the Year by the Zonta Club of Brownsville?

Either the ladies at the Zonta ( and the Herald) are not up on local events, or perhaps the leadership who made this choice has chosen to ignore the evidence pointing to her pivotal role that facilitated the PUB-Tenaska scam that fleeced local rate payers with five utility hikes to build a electric generating plant that never came to be.

Gilbert, who was at PUB as Director of Energy Services and Energy Risk Manager in 2012 when she and PUB management including then-GM-CEO John Bruciak, Fernando Saenz, Assistant GM/COO, and Leandro Garcia, CFO made the pitch for the $500 million Tenaska Brownsville Generating Station to the city commission aided and abetted by then-mayor Tony Martinez, was named in a forensic report conducted by Carr, Riggs, and Ingram (CRI) CPAs and Advisors.

They convinced the city commission then to approve five utility rate hikes that increased local PUB bills by 41.5 percent to finance the plant.    

The forensic report found that as part of its planning cycle, BPUB engaged engineering firm R.W. Beck in 2008 to conduct a 20-year load forecast (the “Beck Forecast” or the “Forecast”).

The Beck Forecast projected growth in system energy requirements and annual peak demand for the years 2009 through 2028; the annual peak demand would grow to 405MW by 2018. The Forecast also noted that the economic data used in the forecast after 2007 was projected, i.e. historical data used in the study was from 2007.

It further noted that the most recent years of data were also subject to substantial revision. Because of this, the Beck Forecast recommended that the forecast be updated periodically and cautioned that “plans for large capital expenditures, which are based on such forecast” be made with care and an allowance for flexibility.

At a special Board meeting in December 2011, BPUB discussed the key issues in the Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) and management emphasized imminent capacity shortages identified in the IRP as part of the presentation given before the board. 

The audit indicates that Gilbert, along with the others, made presentation to the PUB board that:

* Did not accurately reflect the reality of the project status,” according to the report. “Because of this, management was able to defend rate increases that were no longer necessary for a Project that would not be built."

* And in 2011, before Gilbert left PUB in 2014, to later return in 2022, the forensic audit "found that she and the other members hid the fact that the pursuit of the project was driven by a contrived capacity shortage, which was manufactured by management through the addition of a reserve margin and the intentional use of an outdated and overstated load forecast. 

"Subsequent presentations made before the PUB and COB did not accurately reflect studies and were biased toward the project or omitted pertinent facts. Given that the PUB Board and City Commissioners are not energy experts, they were reliant on Management to aid their decision-making with regard to the Project."

* Gilbert, in her July 21, 2022 interview with the forensic auditors, denied that the forecast was not updated and claimed several times that consulting firm, Black and Veatch (B&V) looked at the 2009 Beck Forecast and generated a new load forecast to reflect new data points. As discussed in detail below, these statements were obviously false. An email by Gilbert on August 2, 2011 reiterated management’s intention, “The R.W. Beck load forecast will be used without any changes.”

* Using the outdated Beck Forecast, management directed B&V to add an additional capacity reserve margin of 13.75 percent to the load forecast thus enhancing the perceived capacity shortage and continuing the high utility rates to continue the Tenaska project forward. 

*Further, the auditors found that Bruciak and Gilbert were key players who made false statements about the 13.75 percent capacity reserve margin. "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].” 

*However, CRI determined that the statements made by both Mr. Bruciak and Ms. Gilbert appear to have been intentionally false. 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 (like PUB). 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."

Gilbert became the first woman to lead BPUB when the utility’s board appointed her general manager and CEO in February 2023 after Bruciak retired and left PUB in disgrace but with his full retirement.

She told the Brownsville Herald  she was “humbled and honored” by the Zonta Club recognition.

“It’s crucial that we continue to empower women, helping them achieve their dreams through encouragement and by sharing our experiences,” Gilbert said. “I look forward to continue to do the work that I love for the betterment of our community.”

The Zonta Club of Brownsville is a chapter of the Zonta International USA Caucus, an international membership organization dedicated to building a better world for women and girls by empowering them through service and advocacy.