Brownsville Taxpayers Tire of Buying Snake Oil from United Brownsville and the BEDC

Snake oil salesmen of the Old West kept movin' along.  They knew the shit they sold didn't cure cancer, halitosis or whooping cough and that, they would likely be strung up if they lost their bearings and returned to the same town by accident.

Brownsville taxpayers have purchased more snake oil than they care to admit, primarily the spiel of Carlos Marin and Fred Rusteberg, the Imagine Brownsville/United Brownsville scammers.  The book alone, the Imagine Brownsville Comprehensive Plan, cost the city over $900,000 and now sits on a book shelf somewhere at city hall gathering dust without a single page of the document ever being implemented.

Imagine Brownsville morphed into the unwieldy United Brownsville Coordinating Board, a sort of shadow city government that required $200,000 support from locals annually.  If you paid taxes, you contributed.  If you also paid a P.U.B. bill, you contributed twice.  If you paid tuition at TSC or UT-B, you kicked in money yet a third time.

Carlos Marin(Fred Rusteberg is departing
behind him after stepping down as President
of United Brownsville.)

As local entities saw the light and balked at paying their "dues," Fred Rusteberg jumped ship(retired), leaving the smooth-talking Irv Downing to handle the wake and funeral.

United Brownsville is no more, without accomplishing much of anything except making snake oil claims, but every Brownsville taxpayer's wallet is considerably lighter.

Jason Hilts

No one has sold more snake oil in Brownsville than Jason Hilts, Executive Director of the Brownsville Economic Development Council, BEDC, for fifteen years, until he quit last April like a rat abandoning a sinking ship. 

The loquacious Hilts always talked a good game with huge companies to be named later under code names like Project Sizzle.  "1,000 jobs at a minimum of $55,000 per year!" the snake oil salesman would shout.  Finnish foundries, Turkish pipe welding companies, desalinization plants never came as hinted.

Jason Hilts, Tony Martinez, involved in
economic development in Colombia

Oh, but the BEDC would recruit industry in South America, Colombia to be exact.
BEDC and city officials went to the distant location on the ruse of economic development spending at least $312,541 in taxpayer dollars including $197,000 on an office in Barranquilla, which incidentally became one of Brownsville's "sister cities."  Sixteen expensive revisits by the BEDC delegation were needed to "check on things," all at taxpayer expense.

Not a single industry in Colombia decided to do business in Brownsville.  Not a single job was created.  Not all was lost, though.  It was reported that someone in the delegation developed a long distance relationship with a Colombian lass.

UPDATE:  Chairperson Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa has announced that the GBIC will no longer be funding the BEDC. She and fellow board member and city commissioner, Cesar de Leon, have had enough. 

“We appreciate your service but we have decided to go in a different direction for the future,” Tetreau-Kalifa wrote to BEDC Board Chair Steve Muschenheim.

There is more bad news for Chairperson Muschenheim.  On the agenda of the Metropolitan Planning Organization for their next meeting is severing their association with the BEDC.

Despite losing funding and authorization from the city, association with the MPO, an entity responsible for everything related to transportion, roads, highways, etc., BEDC Chair Steve Muschenheim is not deterred.

"They didn't terminate BEDC, they just let the contract expire for funding," Muschenheim told the Brownsville Herald.

"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Uparsin," the so-called handwriting on the wall

Muschenheim may not see it, but more and more in Brownsville do:  The proverbial handwriting on the wall.  

Brownsville taxpayers are tired of snake oil and starting to spit it up.  Starting.

ADDENDUM:  The Brownsville Economic Development Council cannot be allowed to just fade and die.  They have been far too loose with taxpayer monies.  They must be held accountable.

EVERY project recommended to the GBIC by the BEDC must be audited, including every bit of BEDC & company travel. (A couple years ago, Tony Martinez, Jason Hilts and Tony Capella went on a whirlwind trip at taxpayer expense to Italy, Turkey and the Netherlands.(Their Netherlands leg of their trip was a total waste as their business contact had left the company, but I'm sure the boys had fun in Amsterdam.) As usual, nothing for Brownsville came out of the extravagantly expensive trip. Three old men had some fun on the taxpayers' dime.