City of San Benito resident/taxpayer
Spending OPM, Act I
Ever since I read the Valley Morning Star titled "Sqn Benito Launches $1.6 Million Project to Turn Fairgrounds into Musical Mecca" back in November 2024, I was intrigued with it and I immediately thought the city was chewing more than it can bite. Cameron County tried via a proposition to the voters on an arena and Cameron County voters narrowly rejected the arena proposition. In San Benito it was never presented to the voters, but proposed by the EDC led by City Manager Fred Sandoval.
I became even more intrigued. I submitted and FOI request for "The Feasibility Study for Entertainment Venue" by the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley's Data and Information Center" on January 5.
After getting no response within the legally required 10 business days, I sent a follow-up email advising the City Administration Department that an FOI Request for information that is readily available must be released promptly as mandated by the Texas Public Information Act and not wait 10 business days or more to release the data.
The City Commission on June 18, 2024 approved agenda item #5 where it approved a proposal for Professional Services with Carpe Nox Entertainment for the San Benito Outdoor Music Venue Feasibility Study in the amount of $15,000 taxpayer dollars.
The 16-minute video of the COSB discussion on item #5 was of particular interest to me. It was the discussion of an Economic Impact Study, an Environmental Study addressing any flooding issues which are prevalent in San Benito, and a Workshop reference the Feasibility Study. Unless I missed it, I searched the CC agendas and did not find any scheduled workshops regarding the subject matter since June 2024
In my career experience as a business & systems analyst with some major airlines and insurance companies, I contributed to and have read many Feasibility Studies.
What is a Feasibility Study? As in any business or political subdivision such as the City of San Benito, the stakeholders (citizens/taxpayers) must be protected from any major investment such as the $1.6 million the city is projected to invest in the proposed Entertainment Venue.
A feasibility study assesses the potential for success of the proposed Entertainment Venue project by defining in detail the projected costs and benefits before proceeding. Any potential issues and/or problems that could arise in the project must be outlined in detail. Also Included in any feasibility study is a ‘Business Plan’.
Having said all that, here is the "The Feasibility Study" I requested and received from the City of San Benito. It is a five page document that costs the taxpayers $1,500 or $3,000 per page. The 1st Page is a Cover page and the last page is an explanation of the Methodology employed in The Feasibility Study.
This is nothing more than an Executive Summary with estimated projections. There is no outline of the human resources needed, project schedule or financing requirements. There is no multi-year cash-flow analysis. A cash-flow analysis focuses on an entity’s available cash to cover operating expenses, pay down debt, and reinvest in expanding a business. Will the City have available the financial resources to maintain the entertainment venue in the future?
The City of San Benito is considered a non-profit which is not in the business of making a profit. The revenues and expenses of the City General Fund must balance out. The Enterprise Funds are self-funded. The purpose or goal of Enterprise Funds (i.e. Water and Sewer Fund) is to recover the costs of providing services through user fees.
An ROI or return on investment analysis must also be presented in detail to justify the taxpayer investment dollars expense. An ROI is a metric that measures the profitability of an investment or event. Basically, it compares the amount of money spent on an investment to the amount of money earned from it.
Breaking even would be OK but losing money would not justify continuing the event or expanding it.
Bottom line, IMHO, is that the City of San Benito should stay out of the major Entertainment Venue and focus on the streets and the failing infrastructure that is causing main water breaks on a weekly basis and major street flooding on one inch of rain or more.
I firmly believe the taxpayers of San Benito would rather see the City address these issues before investing in an entertainment venue at a cost of $1.6 million taxpayer dollars. There are too many unanswered questions to be investing this kind of taxpayer dollars to a project with so many what-ifs.
Sorry but I am just not getting a warm-fuzzy feeling about this major taxpayer-funded investment until a real ‘Feasibility Study’ is conducted and made available to the general public.
The 16-minute video of the COSB discussion on item #5 was of particular interest to me. It was the discussion of an Economic Impact Study, an Environmental Study addressing any flooding issues which are prevalent in San Benito, and a Workshop reference the Feasibility Study. Unless I missed it, I searched the CC agendas and did not find any scheduled workshops regarding the subject matter since June 2024
In my career experience as a business & systems analyst with some major airlines and insurance companies, I contributed to and have read many Feasibility Studies.
What is a Feasibility Study? As in any business or political subdivision such as the City of San Benito, the stakeholders (citizens/taxpayers) must be protected from any major investment such as the $1.6 million the city is projected to invest in the proposed Entertainment Venue.
A feasibility study assesses the potential for success of the proposed Entertainment Venue project by defining in detail the projected costs and benefits before proceeding. Any potential issues and/or problems that could arise in the project must be outlined in detail. Also Included in any feasibility study is a ‘Business Plan’.
Having said all that, here is the "The Feasibility Study" I requested and received from the City of San Benito. It is a five page document that costs the taxpayers $1,500 or $3,000 per page. The 1st Page is a Cover page and the last page is an explanation of the Methodology employed in The Feasibility Study.
This is nothing more than an Executive Summary with estimated projections. There is no outline of the human resources needed, project schedule or financing requirements. There is no multi-year cash-flow analysis. A cash-flow analysis focuses on an entity’s available cash to cover operating expenses, pay down debt, and reinvest in expanding a business. Will the City have available the financial resources to maintain the entertainment venue in the future?
The City of San Benito is considered a non-profit which is not in the business of making a profit. The revenues and expenses of the City General Fund must balance out. The Enterprise Funds are self-funded. The purpose or goal of Enterprise Funds (i.e. Water and Sewer Fund) is to recover the costs of providing services through user fees.
An ROI or return on investment analysis must also be presented in detail to justify the taxpayer investment dollars expense. An ROI is a metric that measures the profitability of an investment or event. Basically, it compares the amount of money spent on an investment to the amount of money earned from it.
Breaking even would be OK but losing money would not justify continuing the event or expanding it.
Bottom line, IMHO, is that the City of San Benito should stay out of the major Entertainment Venue and focus on the streets and the failing infrastructure that is causing main water breaks on a weekly basis and major street flooding on one inch of rain or more.
I firmly believe the taxpayers of San Benito would rather see the City address these issues before investing in an entertainment venue at a cost of $1.6 million taxpayer dollars. There are too many unanswered questions to be investing this kind of taxpayer dollars to a project with so many what-ifs.
Sorry but I am just not getting a warm-fuzzy feeling about this major taxpayer-funded investment until a real ‘Feasibility Study’ is conducted and made available to the general public.
12 comments:
Topless sunbathing feels nice and liberating... Especially when I know the neighbors can see... Do the bottoms need to come off too? Any offers to come over and take them off? :-)
As with poverty and weeds, there are a lot of brown-skinned MAGA Republicans in San Bene! Puro escrape. Mayra went to school in this outhouse.
Rodriguez, just move fucka! We do not need your ass!!!
Todo es transa. It i$ all a cheating game about money.
You're out of topic moron!
I'm in. ha ha ha
San Benito...a trashy little cesspool of humanity where nobody works and most everybody has a Lone Star Card. A town people drive AROUND instead of driving through. A town of clicka punks selling their dime bags of weed on every street corner. San Benny is one BIG FUCKING BARRIO!
Mira nomás, que porqueria.
https://youtu.be/8jARQ5aTIKw?si=hdghTmci9w7F1Z31
Fred Sandoval is corrupt. EDC board member Morales is corrupt. Orlando Papas is corrupt. The mayor is a moron along with half of the commission. Now Ruben Cortez is lingering around San Bene. You think the feds aren't looking at the resaca city?
The last thing San Benito needs is an outdoor music venue. Fix the streets, fix the infrastructure, fix and build sidewalks, clean up the city. The city of San Benito looks like a dump with trash littered, used tires littered, overgrown grass on vacant land and abandoned buildings falling apart. The $1.6 million dollars would be put to better use to clean up San Benito.
"Wasted days and wasted nights. "
Okay so why is the protector of the citizens of San Benito Julian Rios X-EDC President suing the city and is seeking the courts grant him 100 thousand dollars for damages he suffered . Like what is he talking about? Remember HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY. BE TRUTHFUL TO THE PEOPLE OF SAN BENITO MR RIOS.
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