Last June the city welcomed a man of retirement age as mayor and three young adults as new commissioners. The mayor won a majority of the votes among five candidates, what's normally called a mandate. The new young commissioners were just happy to be there.
We citizens learned quickly that Mayor Tony was not an idea man. That should not have been a big surprise, since he verbalized no concepts, dreams or plans for the city during his campaign. At the UTB/TSC mayoral debate forum he had promised that his first order of business would be a new ethics code, gave some general platitudes about downtown revitalization and sang the chorus of his campaign that he "believed in Brownsville."
At the first City Commission meeting of the Martinez era, the mayor moved quickly to yank two critical appointments away from two newbie commissioners.
In the blink of an eye the commissioners had lost power and the area's represented by those commissioners had lost representation and influence. Some described the new commissioners as timid or having the dreaded "deer in headlights" look. Actually, that was accurate.
Two of the three seasoned commissioners did participate. Melissa Zamora questioned why Purchasing Manager Robert C. Luna seemed less than forthright with respect to awarding or recommending contractors. More often than not someone named Escobedo got sole source privileges with the city. Estela Chavez-Vasquez and Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa also learned to speak out when things were seeming being hurriedly pushed through without merit or explanation. Rose Gowen got involved in health issues almost exclusively, but otherwise just occupied a seat. Ricardo Longoria frequently explained how things had been done in the past, but Mayor Tony seemed to find his comments irritating and found a reason to stifle his comments, usually with a Robert's Rules of Order technicality. John Villarreal continued to mostly observe.
So, has the City Commission settled for lackluster? Is everyone sitting there idealess? I've said many times that I expected Martinez to hit the mayoral ground running with a yellow legal pad full of ideas for improving the city. In my naivete I envisioned him working on a rough draft of the ethics code in the weeks after the election before he took office, touring downtown, talking to the code enforcement and heritage officers and lighting a proverbial fire under their posteriors, looking at department redundancy and efficiency. But most of all, I expected him to be asking questions. How can we improve our city? OK, that fleet of ships has sailed.
But we still have commissioners, ranging in age from 29 to 52, the prime of life. What prevents them from taking a notepad with them everywhere they go and asking everyone they meet: "How can we improve our city?" Write the bad ideas alongside the good, filter them through what's practical and doable and have one or two agenda points nearly every City Commission meeting about making Brownsville better. It doesn't have to be something grandiose or costly.
No mayor or commissioner should come to any commission meeting flat-footed, without something to contribute and an opinion about EVERY non-ceremonial agenda item. Why should important agenda items be rushed through just because the mayor wants to get home to watch Boston Legal? A good city commission meeting is not a quick meeting, but a meeting that accomplishes something for the city. An agenda point, refined and streamlined by serious discussion is almost always a better decision than one rushed through.
A good chairman doesn't try to steer an agenda point, but solicits viewpoints. He or she can comment, but stepping away from moderating to add that comment. If a commissioner NEVER has anything to add or question, why is he or she a commissioner?
Recently, I received a report that some on the commission had tired of Mayor Martinez "tyrannical" control, that commissioner disagreement was taken as being anti-city or anti-progress. Hopefully, the report is untrue or exaggerated, but, if not, there is such an easy solution.
mayor=1 vote(in case of ties)
commissioner=1 vote
If a commissioner feels strongly about something, he or she only needs to sway three others to have a majority. Isn't that sometimes called "building a consensus?" It's a skill that could improve our city.
I was told years ago that the control people have over you is only the control you give them. Sometimes, you just have to take that control back.
We citizens learned quickly that Mayor Tony was not an idea man. That should not have been a big surprise, since he verbalized no concepts, dreams or plans for the city during his campaign. At the UTB/TSC mayoral debate forum he had promised that his first order of business would be a new ethics code, gave some general platitudes about downtown revitalization and sang the chorus of his campaign that he "believed in Brownsville."
 |
| John Villarreal |
 |
| Estela Chavez-Vasquez |
In the blink of an eye the commissioners had lost power and the area's represented by those commissioners had lost representation and influence. Some described the new commissioners as timid or having the dreaded "deer in headlights" look. Actually, that was accurate.
 |
| Ricardo Longoria |
So, has the City Commission settled for lackluster? Is everyone sitting there idealess? I've said many times that I expected Martinez to hit the mayoral ground running with a yellow legal pad full of ideas for improving the city. In my naivete I envisioned him working on a rough draft of the ethics code in the weeks after the election before he took office, touring downtown, talking to the code enforcement and heritage officers and lighting a proverbial fire under their posteriors, looking at department redundancy and efficiency. But most of all, I expected him to be asking questions. How can we improve our city? OK, that fleet of ships has sailed.
But we still have commissioners, ranging in age from 29 to 52, the prime of life. What prevents them from taking a notepad with them everywhere they go and asking everyone they meet: "How can we improve our city?" Write the bad ideas alongside the good, filter them through what's practical and doable and have one or two agenda points nearly every City Commission meeting about making Brownsville better. It doesn't have to be something grandiose or costly.
No mayor or commissioner should come to any commission meeting flat-footed, without something to contribute and an opinion about EVERY non-ceremonial agenda item. Why should important agenda items be rushed through just because the mayor wants to get home to watch Boston Legal? A good city commission meeting is not a quick meeting, but a meeting that accomplishes something for the city. An agenda point, refined and streamlined by serious discussion is almost always a better decision than one rushed through.
A good chairman doesn't try to steer an agenda point, but solicits viewpoints. He or she can comment, but stepping away from moderating to add that comment. If a commissioner NEVER has anything to add or question, why is he or she a commissioner?
Recently, I received a report that some on the commission had tired of Mayor Martinez "tyrannical" control, that commissioner disagreement was taken as being anti-city or anti-progress. Hopefully, the report is untrue or exaggerated, but, if not, there is such an easy solution.
mayor=1 vote(in case of ties)
commissioner=1 vote
If a commissioner feels strongly about something, he or she only needs to sway three others to have a majority. Isn't that sometimes called "building a consensus?" It's a skill that could improve our city.
I was told years ago that the control people have over you is only the control you give them. Sometimes, you just have to take that control back.
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Jim Barton for Mayor ! This Commission is a joke. We have wanna be King Tony, Loose Lips Worthless Rick, Airhead Jessica Hilton, Veg Out Rose Mamona, Latent Ding Bat John, Promiscuous Multi Partners Melissa, and Turncoat Chancla Queen Estella running this town !!!!! God Help us all. We still have the same collection of useless Department Heads they started with ! No advancement whatsoever. God help us all.
ReplyDeleteDo you really expect a different outcome when dumboCRAPS run the show?
DeleteJimmyBoy, Do you forget where you are on the map? Or are you one of those Pollyanna dudes who want everything to be clean and pretty? Well, son, you gotta look around. You gotta take your neighborhood soundings and understand the "dynamic" at play. Browntown is not Peoria. Browntown is not Carmel. Browntown is not Cape Cod. Brownsville is a goofy, little bordertown where the poor play hungry-for-power. And that's never good. Not if you are the sort of personality who likes dandruff off his shoulders and ill-bred people out of his line at the HEB register. This mayor is a border rat through-and-through. He knows his geography. He knows his homefield, and he's taking advantage. You and the Do-gooders see another Brownsville, one so unlike the real one that to imagine it is to throw your brain far, far into the night. Browntown is a Sam Peckinpah western, raging with beasts and hardscrabble folks, scorpions and snakes and spiders and rats all over the damned place. Throw yourself into that, dude! Write about how things "are," and not how they should be. That would be a sentient stab at a new beginning.
ReplyDeleteMaury Povich
Don't worry Maury. You are NOT the father!
DeleteJ
I think Maury is right-on. And, Jim, all of us have the same father, a deadbeat whose only ambition is to drink at those damned 14th Street cantinas. Our father, who art at El Siete Mares, hallowed be thy brew.
DeleteTony was the big white hope. we thought that because he was rich and did not need to full his pockets we could trust that his only reason was because he had great ideas. unfortunately we saw what we wanted to see, he never actually expressed any ideas. and though he might not want the power to get rich, he totally embraces the corrupt officials and practices, he does not want to wreck the boat to voice an opinion. he was instrumental in Sylvia Garza Perez' election, and his connection with Ernie is undeniable. his reason for being so complacent is "I have to work with him, I can't antagonize him". A men who does not stand for what is right is not principled or ethical. His religious background is all
ReplyDeletehypocrisy
Hey Jim, why don't you run for Rose Gowen's position? When is it, May 2013?
ReplyDeleteJim I would vote for u
DeleteNoooooooo-oh!
DeleteRey Guevara-Vasquez
Hey, Guevara, get a job, buey! Now you're posting blurbs? ha ha ja ja ja
Delete(Tiring of Tyrant Tony?)
ReplyDeleteHe'd probably feel more comfortable being depicted as John Paul II than as Vicente Fernandez, though.
Believe it or not, the idea man was Ahumada, but he is so ill-suited for any public office. His personality and attitude always sabotaged any thoughtful argument or initiative he tried to offer. And well, there's the matter of the $26,000 check...
ReplyDeleteI concur. Ahumada always had ideas, but he had to contend with a POS commission that brought out the worst in him. Rock and hard place situation if you ask me.
DeleteIS THE LITTLE CHUCKY (AKA ROMAN PEREZ) PATRICIA A.?
DeleteROMAN LET IT REST, EVERYONE KNOWS IS YOU.
Tony Martinez is no visionary, at least not in the world of governance. He's done nothing of any significance. And he likely will serve his time leaving a legacy of, well, Nothingness. But he's no Tony F. Mack, and Brownsville should be glad. Mack is the mayor of Trenton, New Jersey, a public servant who has take the reins of the city and run the horses raged, to his advantage. Mack's housing director resigned soon after he took office after being indicted on charges of forgery and theft. Two months later, one of Mack's appointees to the bench quit over bad checks and unpaid debts. His business administrator also quit after he stole from a Congressional campaign. The mayor's half-brother was then indicted on charges of using city resources to do private work. And his chief of staff was later found near City Hall with heroin. Last Thursday, the FBI raided Mack's offices. Trenton, says the NY Times, is a town that has stopped thriving. Many point to City Hall as the main problem, critics saying no new business wants o come to town to do business with the corrupt. Mack has laid-off a third of the police department, this while paying for a portrait of himself to hang at City hall. Then he spent $17,000 for a sign over a run-down city park, a sign that displayed his name prominently. When the city;s water filtration system failed, he did not notify the citizenry of the need to boil water. Toilet paper for city buildings ran out in February. The city is 52 percent Black and 34 percent Hispanic. Mack is Black. So cut Tony Martinez some slack. He may not be the brightest bulb in the Commission Chambers, and he may have no inkling as to how to move the city forward, but at last check there was toilet paper at City Hall.
ReplyDeleteRobert Blake
Two months later, one of Mack's appointees to the bench quit over bad checks and unpaid debts. His business administrator also quit after he stole from a Congressional campaign. The mayor's half-brother was then indicted on charges of using city resources to do private work.
DeleteIs Mack related to the Hernandezes?
Jim B., '...But we still have commissioners, ranging in age from 29 to 52, the prime of life. What prevents them from taking a notepad with them everywhere they go and asking everyone they meet: "How can we improve our city?" Write the bad ideas alongside the good, filter them through what's practical and doable and have one or two agenda points nearly every City Commission meeting about making Brownsville better..."
ReplyDeleteJim you are asking democRATAS to have any common sense. In addition, these people have never run a multimillion business, the best thing we have is a tortillero, a promiscuous car washer and a bunch a tax dollar employees!!!
HATER, IF ALL YOU CAN DO IS BERATE, RUN FOR OFFICE YOURSELF, MAY 2013.
DeleteAnd as much as he obviously hates RATAS, I'll bet they (RATAS) actually knaw at his hemorroids in the middle of the night.
Delete2Lambemelashemorranas
It's "gnaw," you Imbecile!
Delete2MeCaesGacho
(2MeCaesGacho)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind assistance.
2Medejasenchufarmeatuvieja
Hey Jim, I appreciate the BOLD print used in this post. It makes it easier to read. Can you do this more often?
ReplyDeleteI agree with most comments posted on Mayor Tony. First of all, the old man needs to cut his fricken hair as it makes him not look any younger but almost worn out. He as no vision for the city only to be looked atas someone who does care for the city. Commissioners all suck and are lame. Jim, you should run for mayor and turn this crappy bean town around becasue it only get worse with these people who think they know what there doing. The majority of them are crookds and vote in more crooks so they are the majority. Brownsville needs a ENEMA!
ReplyDeleteprobably the most inaccurate article you ever wrote Jim.... This commission, lead by the mayor and commissioners continue to implement numerous improvements to the cities infrastructure especially in the area of wellness, transportation and fiscal responsibility.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you are just trying to stir the people up but you are way off base. Thank God people like Tony are willing to run inspire of your completely inaccurate comments.
P.S> Your comment on Gowen's relative owning the Sports Park land was way off base as well. But perhaps fact checking isn't strong with your bloggers
Could you please list the facts that you commissioners and hippy, unkept looking mayor have in stor for the city. You people always seem to keep pertinent & factual information from the people of brownsville until it becomes a grand opening and than you all run out there just to be on camera and seen. Like i said,Lame, Lame, & more Lame.
ReplyDeleteOld nor Young none of them know what the U.S.Constitution mean nor follow it.We need REAL MEN or REAL WOMEN who know the meaning of the U.S.Constitution and follow it.Old or Young they are both manipulated by a corrupted Global Bankers who run the U.S.Government.These City Commissioners do not have the guts to stand up to Tyranny when they see it.Nobody wants to do the right they are all puppets of tyranny and as long as WE the People stay with OUR arms crossed THESE so called City Leaders are gonna take Brownsville to ground.BUT I GUESS ITS JUST A MATTER OF TIME.
ReplyDelete