Will the City Manager and the City Commission Allow the Taxpayers to Be Heard?

"The taxpayers should not be heard"

The absolute arrogance of Brownsville's mayor and city commissioners to have only their words aired on the public broadcast of city commission meetings and preserved in City of Brownsville videos, while blocking the public comment of the taxpayers, continues to astound many is this city of 200,000. Even more befuddling is that the City of Brownsville continues this practice despite the fact that the passing of House Bill 283 last June meant that, effective January 1, 2016, excluding public comment from the City of Brownsville video is illegal in the state of Texas.

A letter received from the Texas Attorney General's Office, signed by Assistant Attorney General Neal Falgoust of the Education and Enforcement Division, assigning our complaint an ID number, details paths to enforcement.  Of course, the city can simply choose to obey the law or wait for enforcement.

"Sweepstakes" winner in
country's poorest city

City Manager Charlie Cabler, who oversees the broadcast and videotaping of city commission meetings, recently defied the odds by winning the equivalent of the Publisher's Clearing House "$5,000 per Week for Life Sweepstakes" by having his salary increased to $220,000 annually. $220 grand+$650 monthly car allowance+cell phone allowance+health benefits+retirement easily exceeds $5,000 per week.(By the way, the odds of winning the PCH Sweepstakes are 1 in 2.15 billion.)  Cabler, paid so handsomely to run the city, could simply make certain the City of Brownsville videos comply with the law.

Melissa Zamora-Landin

Any one of the city commissioners could place on the agenda the restoration of the broadcast of public comment.  At least the citizenry would then clearly see in a city commission vote who wants their voices to remain silenced. The last city commissioner courageous enough to do that, Melissa Zamora, was instantly blindsided by the tandem of Mayor Martinez and City Attorney Mark Sossi when she tried to introduce the agenda item. Here is this blog's report on that incident from August 2011:

Conspired with the mayor to block the
broadcast of public comment in 2011

"Melissa Hernandez-Zamora seemed dumbstruck when City Attorney Sossi stood up to give opposition testimony concerning the broadcast of public comment item she had placed on the agenda. It was obvious that Commissioner Zamora had not been advised of the behind-the-scenes manipulation by Mayor Martinez and his eager cohort Sossi. Sossi, after all, had the most to lose from public comment broadcast since it was comments about his questionable ethics that triggered the ban in the first place. As Zamora got her bearings, Martinez waved Sossi the "go ahead". Sossi made no attempt in his feeble, highschoolish power point to express a legal opinion. There was no mention of free speech, the first amendment, the constitution or even the phony liability issues he has pretended previously. Those might have been worthy legal issues. Instead he expressed only viewpoints, unscientific at best, but most likely simply wrong. With a straight face he used a pie chart to illustrate the greater "diversity" of commenters since the ban, not even having the honesty to acknowledge that many of those new participants were speaking out against the anti-democratic ban. He also railed against grandstanding as he grandstanded."