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| Eduardo Campirano, Board Member of Rio South Texas-Economic Council |
We first heard about the Rio South Texas Economic Council at the February 12, 2014 meeting of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation when Rachel Flores, then BCIC Director, mentioned the payment of $17,500 in "dues" to the organization.
Ms. Flores explained, in a brief conversation after the meeting, that this regional group was trying to enhance the RGV's image, lest the image of border violence affect commerce and tourism. Flores was excited that Eduardo Campirano, CEO of the Port of Brownsville was a board member of Rio South Texas. Flores stated that, for once, Brownsville would have more representation than the Upper Valley. Incidentally, the Port of Brownsville kicks in $17,500 to Rio South Texas.
Rio South Texas has carefully copied the model set by United Brownsville, an unelected, unaccountable board that collects at least $200,000 in "dues" from 8 local entities, then rewards officials from those entities with the status of membership on the "coordinating board."
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| Debbie Portillo, named Tri-Chair of United Brownsville, also Co-Chair of Marketing/ Public Relations for Rio South Texas |
While United Brownsville has no official role of governance, it horns itself into city issues as if mirroring the City Commission. Its meeting agendas discuss the Resaca Restoration Project, Curbside Recycling and even the application for All-America City, duplicating decisions already made in actual city government. Young City Commissioners like John Villarreal and Estela Chavez-Vasquez were named to the board immediately after their election in 2011. Now, young Debbie Portillo has that honor, named Tri-Chair of United Brownsville.
Rio South Texas, copying United Brownsville's modus operandi named young Portillo a "co-chair" after the City of Brownsville kicked in their $17,500 "dues."
So, what does Rio South Texas do for the money? Essentially, it runs a very amateurish website reporting good things about the Rio Grande Valley. Here is the mission statement: The Rio South Texas Economic Council (RSTEC) welcomes the opportunity to introduce you to the The Real South Texas. We have a dedicated staff ready to introduce you to the dozens of commuinities(sic) that make up the Rio South Texas Economic Council. In addition to community orientation, we can help conduct labor interviews, utility and permitting representative meetings, site and industrial park visits and introductions to colleges, technical schools and employment services.
When I clicked on a link to the section What's New, I received this warning: ACCESS DENIED: You are not authorized to access this page.
Under Regional Profile, the site makes this claim: Rio South Texas is growing at a phenomenal pace. Job growth has outpaced that of the state, and by 2012, the projected employment growth rate in the McAllen-Mission-Edinburg MSA is estimated at about 38.5 percent, compared with the state's mere 25 percent rate. (What about Brownsville guys? We pay dues too!)
The site has a section entitled Available Properties. 133 business properties are listed as available in the Rio Grande Valley, none in Brownsville. You may recall young Ms. Portillo introduced an agenda item at a recent City Commission meeting to list some of the city's properties on this site. That didn't happen.
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| Raudel Garza, former Executive Director of Rio South Texas |
Once again, Brownsville taxpayers get very little in return for their hard earned tax dollars.
Interestingly, demonstrating that not everyone is as gullible as Brownsville's City Commission and boards, the San Benito Economic Development Council declined to fund Rio South Texas at their August 21, 2014 meeting.
Interestingly, demonstrating that not everyone is as gullible as Brownsville's City Commission and boards, the San Benito Economic Development Council declined to fund Rio South Texas at their August 21, 2014 meeting.
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Mr. Barton,
ReplyDeleteThat's a picture of Maryann Villarreal, office manager at Harlingen EDC, not me, Mr. Raudel Garza. I resigned my position as executive director of RSTEC a bit over two years ago to take on the role of Manager and CEO of Harlingen Economic Development Corporation. RSTEC was formed to market the Valley as one by EDCs throughout the Valley. It has helped small and large Valley cities come together to attract new companies and jobs. While I was there, we attended trade shows, visited with media from Dallas and Houston, coordinated visits from prospective companies, gathered marketing info and helped small communities to promote themselves, among other things.
RSTEC now is undertaking the challenge to change the negative perceptions that many in the national and state media seem to focus on. Some of the information on the website may be outdated, and for that I think we can all say we have some work to do to get it updated.
RSTEC Board members are made up of mostly directors from EDCs, local universities and colleges, workforce boards, and other public entities, but are most certainly accountable to their respective boards, city commissions, and their communities and the people.
San Benito EDC decided not to participate in RSTEC because SBEDC felt it needed to spend its resources on marketing itself at trade shows. Ask their director about it. No where did San Benito EDC, in my opinion, feel that regionalism wasn't important.
Members in RSTEC leverage their funds to accomplish what we alone could otherwise not do. To say that Brownsville taxpayers get very little in return is inaccurate at best.
Members can upload properties onto the website, and are responsible for updating those entries.
For more information on RSTEC, feel free to call Alma Colleli, former San Benito EDC director and current RSTEC executive director at 956-928-0641 or call me at 956-216-5081, or Mr. Campirano.
CHECK YOUR PUB BILL YOUR GETTING FUCKED JUST THE BEGINNING I HEAR
DeleteMy apologies for using the wrong picture. I've removed it.
ReplyDeleteYou confuse a girl for a guy? Wow! No credibility here.
DeleteI agree. And looks like some facts are misrepresented too. What up with that?
DeleteWhat facts were misrepresented?
DeleteMy primary contention is that Brownsville taxpayers get nothing out of this. It's a duplication of services. Nothing that Rio Texas does isn't already done more professionally by realtors, journalists and school administrators. By "scam," I don't mean illegal, just a waste of tax dollars.
Jim
It's okay to write and then re-write, Jim. Your posts always need editing.
Delete"It's okay to write and then re-write, Jim. Your posts always need editing."
DeleteThat's fine. I type my stories directly on to Google Blogger then hit "publish." Frequently, I will notice a few things needing correction, adjustment as I read the story back. If not, I have an astute readership, friend and foe, not hesitant to point out typos or factual errors, knowing that I immediately make the correction.
But, you make a good point about the "Rio Texas" website. According to former Executive Director Raudel Garza, the website had been up for two years, yet basic words like "grandma" and/or "communities" were left misspelled. That indicates zero editing or zero readership, likely both. How long had the glitch not permitting entry to the "What's New?" section been there? It doesn't matter. No one cared anyway. The website was simply an exercise in justifying the tens of thousands of tax dollars being syphoned from local communities.
Mr. Barton,
DeleteThe reference to "Grandmo" is my kids' grandmother. That's what they call her, "grandmo".
Those newsletters were basically my blog. It wasn't a misspelling. The newsletters were sent out to RSTEC Board members and others who expressed an interest in receiving them, through Constant Contact. They were reposted on the website at that time, because others asked me to do it.
By the way, I enjoy reading different perspectives on current issues, and I'll comment on some from time to time. As far as this one goes, I just like to keep up with what's going on in Brownsville too.
sounds like another attempt by the upper valley to horn in on Brownsville's authority
ReplyDeleteIf these "Directors" were any good at anything they would be in the private sector actually providing goods and services that customers want. Instead, as Jim has clearly pointed out on numerous occasions, these public boards mainly waste time and money and in one instance made up wildly exaggerated employment numbers in a lame attempt to justify their existence.
ReplyDeleteUnited Brownsville, RSTEC both have a place in our society and government, but the problem is that they are structured in a way that it is more about someone else's agenda and some times duplicative and counter productive. United Brownsville and RSTEC should be working under the auspices of the the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council, both are regional, as United Brownsville tries to promote itself as being, but I guess I am just to practical. This is my opinion and if you think about it, this makes sense. We should work together as a region and as metro-plexes where the common denominator's match.
ReplyDeleteThe Tenaska deal is another project that should have been through a regional approach, as Brownsville alone does not need a power plant, but regionally would make more sense to be able to provide low cost electricity to attract economic development, but not at $1.7 million per megawatt when it costs approximately $900 K per megawatt anywhere else.
The biggest problem is our elected officials, they do not take to heart making the city the agenda, it is all about personal agendas and none have any business background, as they claim. Then you have the blatant abuse of power where taxpayers money is being squandered to help friends, like the Nylon Building that was appraised by the Appraisal District at $680 K and Mayor Tony Martinez ramrodded the purchase and I mean ramrodded the purchase at a cost of $2.3 million dollars. Go figure and they called me a thief when a bank teller wrongfully deposited a check into my account.
This is a difference between the powers that control and the grassroots who try to make a difference. When powers that control steal they call it good business, but if someone from grassroots makes a mistake they call him a thief. If someone from the accepted establishment gets busted for DWI, they call him or her a result of a social incident, while they will call grassroots a borracho.
The result now is that we have abdicated good government to United Brownsville and you will see more and more infiltration on the public boards with personal agendas pushed at the expense of the majority. They really do nothing or very little, because they do not want to spend the time, sacrifice their resources, or time from family and will take credit for anything or everything that others do or that was going to happen anyway, as we have seen. You will not even know when the deals are cut, personal friends hired or placed in positions they should not be at. Most importantly, who is going to want to run for public office, when we allow those who have the power over us to ruin people financially and to destroy their reputations? Just look at the political landscape now, how many on the city commission and the PUB Board do you think have the courage to stand up and say NO, when it needs to be said? We have given them carte blanche now!
Our efforts needs to be to change the political landscape with some strong independent candidates, because if not, then be prepared to continue paying high utility rates, tax assessments, and no representation.
Mr. Pat Ahumada, has there been strong independent candidates running before? Because as "normal" Brownsville citizen I'm only aware of the ones that are currently in charge?
ReplyDeleteTry a new web browser. Didn't get any access denied message. Just old stories.
ReplyDeleteMr. Paredes, you are right! None seem to appear to be independent, but that is the challenge to find independent candidates for the upcoming May 2015 election. We had a lack of independence back in the early 90's when I ran, which is why I pledged to make the City the agenda, which is very difficult to do when a lot of people with special interest wants a piece of the pie. So many were use to city subsidies. You would not believe how much the city subsidized so many entities through free electricity, free security, free infrastructure for developments, free parking at the Jacob Brown, free warehouse space at the airport, free rent at the River View Golf Course, the freebies does not include the direct financial assistance the city provided to some entities. The tide was turned when transparency was brought in to city government, but unfortunately we have regressed to what we once were with the deals being cut at taxpayers and pub rate payer's expense.
ReplyDeleteMr. Ahumada, and who's going to step up and not only find those independent candidates, but support and guide them, because the way I see it; if no one steps up, things are going to continue the way they are.
DeleteMartin, sometimes he have to hit bottom to self examine ourselves and make the change needed. I do not know, if we are there yet or not. When the citizens get tired of not being heard or represented, then they will sound the alarm and vote for change. In the mean time, I can only say that it is hard to see how this great city with all of its' assets is not the leader it should be in the region. Just imagine all the opportunities that have passed us by or the potential we have that goes unfulfilled, because we lack leadership. Leaders should be pushing for healthy progress, but instead we are react to what goes on in our city. Brownsville should be pushing hard for a desalinization plant, the weir project to fruition, which is very probable, but when you have leaders like County Judge Carlos Cascos trying to undermine, then we fail. I know for a fact, Judge Cascos went out of his way to undermine my efforts. I was told by high up Mexican officials County Judge Carlos Cascos did not support the weir project and claimed telling them not to support the project, because it was a very bad. Can you imagine someone going out of their way to hurt their own city? Then when I left office, Judge Cascos went back asking Mexico to support the weir project, because it was now a good idea. Makes me sic to know the pettiness we have in our city. This is why Brownsville fails on many levels, but the citizens can change this by instilling in their children differently. Citizens must be willing to support those who are in office to do what is right. This in itself is not easy, when we see so many officials going along to get along, because they are afraid to rock the boat. Respectful debate on the issues is great, it is a sign of a healthy community. When people do not debate the issues or bad decisions made, like the Nylon Building and the projected $1.7 million per megawatt power plant proposed, then the community is dying. How can the obvious flagrant abuse of a position be acceptable? Hopefully, new blood will run for the upcoming positions and not be afraid to do what is right, but it is not easy, particularly when some go out to hurt you or destroy you, as they did with me. Stop and think, a check that was deposited by a bank teller by mistake when he filled out the deposit slip knowing I was not the payee, brought out many haters wanting me to go to prison for 30 years was supported by many. Jerry McHale was the worst calling me thief and to this day his hate and venom permeates our community, when it was an honest and simple mistake, but it cost me $200,000 to go through the process and prove my innocence, while many in the community stood by and preferred to believe the worst and support the lynching. This too destroys and kills a community when you have people like Chris Valadez and Jerry McHale cowardly going out of their way to assassinate people's character and they are no angels. Chris forgets he was actually caught stealing electricity from PUB and this is what Judge Cascos surrounds himself with. Probably, like you, I am an idealist and want to believe more good people exist than bad and that good will prevail over evil, but it is hard to go against them when they are so vocal and we are so silent.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think it only comes down to that? Being more vocal? Would that make the community get involved and demand change?.... Honestly, I recently started following local politics and the things I been finding out makes me completely disappointed not only in the people in charge but in the community, who most of the time don't even care or know what their "chosen" candidates are actually doing. Most of what it appears to be real information it's hidden in blogs and not out in the mainstream media like it should be.
DeleteIndifference kills! Being vocal on the issues and candidates helps, but it certainly takes more than that. We as a community must care and get involved.
ReplyDelete