A Shakeup At The City of Brownsville?

     Without so much as raising their voices, several city commissioners have exposed the shoddy, uneven, unprofessional way the City of Brownsville puts lucrative city contracts out for bids.  In recent months, City Purchasing Manager Robert C. Luna has found himself on the proverbial hotseat trying to explain away inconsistencies, irregularities and actual misrepresentations in the bidding process.  The uncomfortable questions by Commissioners Estela Chavez-Vasquez, Melissa Hernandez-Zamora and Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa have more frequently than not ended in Luna's recommendations being tabled, reworked, even changed before final approval.

     Perhaps as a direct result of the Planning and Purchasing Department's apparent ineptitude, we hear whispers about dramatic changes in city government.  City Planning Manager Ben Medina may have had his duties severely curtailed.  The Community Development Block Grant program may be in the hands of the city's grant coordinator, Lucy Garza.  The demotion in terms of responsibilities if not salary may also relate to a rumored missing or unreported $3,000,000.  However this shakes out, things at COB will not be the same.  It is said that the Planning and Zoning departments will now be actually split up.

    Is Mayor Tony Martinez providing the impetus for these changes?  Of course, other changes may come less surgically.  Finance Director Pete Gonzalez is said to be in his last year working for the City of Brownsville.  City Manager Charlie Cabler may fit that same description.

   

     Other changes may include replacing Delina Barrera at the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and Mark Sossi as City Attorney.  In Sossi's case, despite having two attorneys on his staff and turning much of the city's litigation over to other firms including the expensive Ricardo Navarro firm, he has been unable to come up with so much as a draft of a City Ethics Code, something Martinez listed as the top priority of his administration.