Pat Ahumada Discusses Brownsville's Political Future

Pat Ahumada

The good news is that with planning and uniting by setting aside differences we can polarize the current political establishment and return government to the people of Brownsville by encouraging Trey Mendez to run for mayor, Rey Montanaro for District 2 and recruiting other good candidates to run for At Large-A in 2019. I assure you, the current corruption will end by electing these kind of public servants who are willing to give of their time for the better good of Brownsville.

It takes time to plan and the time is now. In the short term, we hear Erasmo Castro, Martin Sarkis, William Garza and Judge Ben Neece are planning to run for different positions in 2017, which I hope you discourage with the exception of Ben Neece. Ben is of, for, and by the people, he will make a great District-4 city commissioner and I hope you encourage him to run.

I met with William Garza yesterday and told him he was not electable and told him why. Neither is Erasmo Castro and Martin Sarkis, who in my opinion are would be running for the wrong reasons. In my opinion it it is about the title, power, and attention and not public service, but everyone is entitled to run if they want, but I think they take away votes from those who can win and do a better job. We need true public servants who seek to do the job with transparency, integrity and ethics, all of which the current administration lacks. We need individuals who are willing to say NO when it needs to be said and stand up to special interest. We need accountability on management and we need above all else good transparent government. We need people who get elected and will do something, other than wait for things to happen. Hopefully some good citizens seriously think about running for At Large B and District 3 which are both up for election in May 2017.

The corruption is allowed because we allow it. We elect people that have low standards, go along with what is wrong when they know it is wrong and have done a lot of damage to our city, as the current elected individuals on the commission have, in my opinion. Just ask yourself what has Cesar de Leon, Jessica Tetreau, Gowen, Villarreal done for our city? They were given the opportunity and their lack of engagement and initiatives in my opinion is very poor. I am sure they have all done some good, but they have beeen more busy with personal agendas, politics and doing nothing, or allow our city to be poorly managed that over all the score card is failure. They may be nice people, but Brownsville can do better in electing people who will be true public servants without a personal agenda or an ego to feed. We need to elect people who will actually work on behalf of the citizens of Brownsville and not just wait for things to happen to take credit, when it was going to happen anyway.

If you do not like what has been going on with our city, it is up to us to set differences aside for the common goal to elect people that will be the voice of the people for good government. Let me remind you they are responsible for continuing to fund United Brownsville, which is accountable to no one and has produced nothing. They are rsponsible for the Casa Nylon purchase and other real estate purchases that has scammed taxpayers. They are responsible for allowing Tenaska to scam us and approved higher utility rates. This city cannot be a single issue city with bicycle lanes, this city needs leadership to address the needs and priorities, not just bicycle lanes.

I ask everyone to encourage Trey to run for mayor in 2019, Rey Montanoar for District-2 in 2019 and Ben Neece for District 4 in 2017. I also encourage some good people who want to run for the right reasons to bring change to our city to come forward. I personally will support only candidates with the heart and soul to give of themselves with nothing to gain to serve our city, as I did. I love Brownsville and want to see Brownsville fulfill its's potential.

Merry Christmas,
Pat Ahumada