City Commission Meeting Notes~8/07/2012

Craig Grove

Action Item #7, the appointment or reappointment of one member to the City Planning & Zoning Commission resulted in the appointment of Craig Grove of the Grove Realty Team. 

As we learned in an earlier meeting, Grove's application had been on file for some time while some commission members simply did not attend the meetings.  

Prior to the appointment Mayor Martinez chastised City Manager Charlie Cabler for about the third time for submitting candidates to serve on boards without identifying their district of residence or the attendance records of current board members.  

NON-SMOKING ORDINANCE CONSIDERATION TABLED

The commission chambers were full with citizens keenly interested in Action Item 5C:  

c) APPROVAL on SECOND and FINAL READING of Ordinance Number

2012-1556 an ordinance to Repeal Chapter 54, Article VI, Smoking in Public

Places Section 54-171 thru 54-179; and promulgating a New Chapter 54,

Article VI, Smoking in Public Places by replacing it with Sections 54-171 thru

54-188. (Arturo Rodriguez – Health)

Consideration of this item was tabled until the next regular meeting on August 21, 2012.  Possibly with an eye on the large audience,  Martinez mentioned that more workshops may be necessary before voting on approval of this item but was vague on when those might occur.  

Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau

(Quarterly Report – Bean Ayala, CEO)

Bean Ayala

Bean Ayala always gives his report to the commission with a certain zest.  Department heads that come before the commission are essentially selling their department.  

This does not reflect on Bean, but I have little trust in economic impact estimates for convention or event attendees, especially when state figures are used to reflect the impact of visitors to Brownsville.

One staff member went to Guadalajara to promote Brownsville, handing out 500 travel fliers and being interviewed on Mexican TV.  

New Police Chief Approved

New Police Chief Introduced by Former Police Commander

After going through the motions of a lengthy search, Brownsville did what it almost always does, promoted in-house.

Orlando Rodriquez was approved as the new police chief by the city commission.  

Interestingly, City Manager Charlie Cabler, who introduced Rodriguez, is himself a former Brownsville police commander.