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When UTB agreed to rent El Cueto Building on Madison Street for administrative purposes for 3 years at $90,000 annually, $270,000 total, those monies became a taxpayer asset accounting for wear, tear and use on El Cueto, another taxpayer asset.
A deal was swung that, in lieu of paying the $270,000 rent, UTB would "pave" the parking lot. A professional paving job was considered equal to the $270,000 owed the taxpayers.
Did the hardworking taxpayers get appropriate value for their $270,000? It appears not. The pictures below reveal a "paving" job none of us would be satisfied with on our driveway, let alone commercial property. The non-rolled asphalt, topped by loose gravel, appears to have been haphazardly dumped on bare ground with little surface preparation. The gravel and asphalt do not quite make it to the property corners or the street.
"Roundup" appears to have been used to deaden the grassy areas, giving the loose gravel a surrounding belt of brown. Nice work, Juliet, UTB. Way to hammer out a deal Charlie, Tony!
The City of Brownsville always gets the short end of the stick when dealing with UTB and Juliet Garcia. While this much lauded "Leader of the Year," wants only the finest for her interests, she thinks nothing of the City of Brownsville getting shitty work.
None of our city leaders care enough to protect city/taxpayer assets, not Cabler, certainly not Martinez or the City Commission.
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It is sad to say that this mayor who wanted my job and promised the moon is not a fiscally responsible mayor or one who feels he has a fiduciary duty to protect the taxpayers, as we saw with the Casa Nylon fraud when the city paid $2.3 million for a property that is valued by me at $635,000 and by the Cameron Appraisal District at $680,000. The Cueto lease and other real estate purchases shows this mayor to be willing to spend taxpayers money recklessly. This mayor is also pushing very hard for the Tanaska Plant, which we do not need at a cost of $340 million by forcing this project on the rate payers through utility rate increases. When I was mayor, we had the highest utility rates and we brought them down under my leadership, now they are again one of the highest rates and will go higher with this power plant project that we do not need with Tanaska. If this mayor wants to build this power plant, which I opposed when I was mayor, then he should bring together all the public entities within Cameron and Hidalgo County and built a plant we control, instead of funding a plant for Tanaska and allowing them to control operations and management of the plant. We as a utility that is owned by the municipality should not allow Tanaska to own us. Jim, ask for the utility rate comparison with other utility companies in the state and add the projected rate increases to see if this is a good deal. It makes me sick that I worked hard for the citizens of Brownsville and was blasted for all I tried to do and now you have this blatant abuse of authority pushing for a power plant that is going to put us in debt to a tune of $340 million, increase our utility rates and we will not be in charge of our own destiny. if you dig enough, you will find Eddie Trevino and the mayor being the authors of this scam. You might as well sell PUB. I wish I did not care, but I do and this is wrong.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, remember when Juliet pushed the bond issue which was opposed and failed, then it was reintroduced and passed with the promise that the tax rate would not increase? We were suckered punch, because the reason the tax rate was not increased is because the bond issue was structured in a way that the debt was never serviced, only the interest. Yes, they pulled the wool over our eyes, we have been paying interest no principal on the bond issue. These people have no integrity, no scruples and they lie to you with a strait face, no tax increases, but the debt will never be retired. I wonder how this adversely impacted the bottom line in the TSC/UTB split and Juliet was the savior of our people.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't thrown up yet, ask to see the invoice from SSP Design from when the mayor asked to have an exotic parking lot designed that obviously never happened. Kick back? AEP money? So many questions and this guy keeps getting away with it.
ReplyDeleteJulieta and Tony don't give a shit about the public and public property. Neither would accept this paving job on their property or property that was meaningful to them. Julieta and Tony deserve each other and we surely wish both would go away. They are causing the city to go broke and helping us swirl down the toilet.
ReplyDeleteCan you get SSP's invoice and publish it?
ReplyDeleteYou are focused on the nickles, when millions are being negotiated for a Power Plant that should be on a voter Referendum. We have a utility monopoly, which prohibits the private sector like CPL, AEP, and others to compete against PUB. Now the mayor with others are allowing TENASKA to enter where no other private company could for all these past years. The rules were designed to protect PUB's monopoly and to keep rates down, but with this deal we will fund the upstart costs for Tenaska, guarantee loans at municipal rates and allow them to be in control of a plant that generates electricity for them to sell on the grid, when we do not need to spend $240 million for a plant that Tenaska wants. Someone needs to ask for information under the Open Records Act on anything related to this venture. i.e., private meetings/dinners, direct and indirect donations, paid trips for hunting or other excursions, calls to and from with TENASKA. Already we are seeing rates that are higher than other utility companies and this deal is tied to rate increases, which will make it even worse, but keep looking into the nickles, while the mayor is pushing for the Tenaska deal at our expense. The 800 megawatt plant will provide 200 megs for Brownsville at more than a million dollar per megawatt to construct, plus the cost of the water that we are obligated to furnish and other costs to burden the rate payers. Even your water is being hocked.
ReplyDeleteEl Pat!
ReplyDeleteJim, I like old hippies as much as the next guy, but you've got to remember how the real world operates. In Spanish we say, "El que traga mas saliva, come mas pinole."
ReplyDeleteEventually old hippies like you will join the old chicanos like Montoya and just hop on the train with the shakers and movers. Ideals and ethics have very little to do with it.
"I have seen the enemy, and it is us" You know what I mean.
Keep up the effort!
Jim, please make correction in my typing at $62.16 psf foot, not 621.62, my decimal was a mistake for being in a hurry. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI don't have the facility to edit your comment, only approve or remove. Your correction will stand here, though.
DeleteJust leave the post out and I will rewrite it later. I gotta go.. Thanks,
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ReplyDeleteAs always in a hurry, but I will try to articulate the issue that I am very much concerned about, under the hypothetical condition that the information I have is true, including cost. The mayor is pushing hard to build the Tenaska/PUB 800 megawatt power plant, with PUB obtaining 200 megawatts of generation at a cost of $340 million to the rate payers of Brownsville. Including in this cost is the purchase of ROW and building of a gas pipeline from Edinburg to Brownsville at a cost of approximately $40 to $55 million, plus we are to supply all the water from the Southmost desalinization plant. All of this is tied to rate utility rate increases.
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ReplyDeleteMy issue is that I do not trust the mayor who obviously has no regard for his fiduciary duty to protect taxpayers, as we saw with the purchase of the Nylon Building for $2.3 million dollars, when it is valued by the Appraisal District at $680,000 and by me at $635,000. The Nylon building is located in a depressed market and the city had no need for the building. The building needed a lot of maintenance and repairs and has no parking. The Chinito Building, which is newer and better than the Nylon building sold for $13 psf built on a city block with plenty of parking and the old Greyhound building on a city block also sold at a very low price. The city failed to even negotiate a price in the purchase, which leads me to who is protecting our interest in the Tenaska/PUB project?
Based on what I know a 800 megawatt gas generated plant can be built on 30 acres at a cost of $800K to $1.0M per megawatt and we are building this plant based on the cost to us that is estimated at $340 million for $1,700,000 per megawatt is very alarming to me. My concern is also that our rates were the highest in 2007-2008 and we brought them down, now they are once again on the rise and higher than others, when we are municipally owned and a none profit utility company. When will we ever learn not to trust those who have proven to be self serving, because I assure you the Nylon purchase was not in the best interest of our city and neither is this plant the way I understand it to be. But even if I am wrong, like Reagan said "Trust, but Verify", because they are suppose to represent our best interest and their actions indicate the opposite. Tenaska will benefit from partnering up with a monopoly like a municipal owned company that will provided many benefits to their investment with minimal or no risk and the taxpayer will be hogged tied to the decisions being made or pushed by this mayor.
Yes, it has been proven he is well connected to the Bishop and perhaps the Pope, is well connected to Carlos Marin and the United Brownsville group, and is also well connected to the Federal Judge Hanen whose wife participated in a deal that should have never occurred in the purchase of a building we do not need or have any use for it, but no matter how well connected he is, I do not trust he will put the city's best interest before himself.
The double standard is so blatantly obvious, when the DA Luis Saenz who is fighting corruption selectively wanted to give me 30 years for a mistake the Finance Director made in issuing a check that got to me by mistake and then destroyed the log that would have proven who picked up the check, then the mistake made by a bank teller when he erroneously filled out the deposit slip knowing I was not the payee and not telling me, but instead deposits the check into my account and I am dragged through the mud accused as a thief and everything else, but these people can blatantly be stupid and knowingly make deals that hurt our city. Amazing! What is more amazing is the people like Cheezme, McHale, Montoya and others who salivated to ruin me and have no remorse or shame when they have no evidence of me doing something illegal to hurt our city.
The Tenaska/PUB Electric Plant needs to be taken off the table, because we do not need it at that cost. If my memory is correct, the life expectancy of a plant like this one that will be built is approximately 30 years, before new technology makes it obsolete and 200 megawatts is enough to supply 125,000 homes, which is more than what we need now or in the long term. We already have interest in the Oklaunion and the Edinburg plant.
If we want to build a plant, then let's build it with other municipalities or go at it on our own for what we need. Plus, the reforms taken place with Mexico will be an opportunity to buy cheap energy from them by extending a connection across the Rio Grande River. Simple! At a much reduced cost.