TREY MENDEZ CLAIMS REPORTS OF HIS FINANCIAL DEALINGS WITH THE BCIC ARE "FAKE NEWS"

Mayor Trey Mendez  utilized his Facebook Public Official page to respond to criticism of the propriety of our mayor requesting hundreds of thousands of dollars from our city's 4B "quality of life" entity to fix up several downtown buildings he'd purchased.

We will offer some analysis directly below the mayor's statement. 

Mayor Trey Mendez

A lot of fake news and false accusations have been circulating over the past week regarding a downtown building that I purchased with a friend many months ago. The property had been on the market for years, almost 90% vacant, and in major need of a restoration. It was listed with a respected local realtor and had multiple offers. For reasons unknown to me, two other offers fell through, and the owner selected ours. The property was appraised by a bank and financed through a normal process.

The property was eligible for grant funding through BCIC to assist in the rehabilitation and development. Because city commission members and BCIC board members were also specifically allowed to apply, an application for funding was submitted in accordance with the guidelines. Before the application even made it to the BCIC board, some individuals took offense to the application due to political agendas, unfounded assumptions and false accusations of an "insider deal" purchase. After careful consideration, the application for grant funding was withdrawn prior to review by the board, as was another that had already been approved. As Mayor, I am constantly attacked and accused of improprieties. Most disappointing though, is when people publish blatant lies with no accountability to the truth. Some are paid to do so, while others seek relevance or simply enjoy causing trouble.

I've been invested in my community for years and I have nothing to hide. In my 11+ years of public service, I have been yelled at, protested against and threatened countless times. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, nor will I stop believing that our City is capable of great things, and that a positive narrative and strategic thinking, combined with a unified effort to lift our city up, will raise the quality of life in Brownsville for everyone. Many more good things are on the horizon. Thank you for allowing me to serve as your Mayor.

Analysis: The concerns expressed in our articles dealt with one primary issue; the propriety of the mayor to use or apply for hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, an entity for which he has a clear hand in staffing, funding and setting guidelines, a board set up to disperse monies for "quality of life" projects in the City of Brownsville.

Trey has an answer for that.

He states: "Because city commission members and BCIC board members were also specifically allowed to apply, an application for funding was submitted in accordance with the guidelines."

Does that sound right to you?

City Commissioner Pedro Cardenas might disagree, as he stated at Wednesday's City Commission meeting during a session on ethics:

"If you were responsible for setting the guidelines, you shouldn't go near it."

Should a city commission member who appoints citizens to be members of the BCIC, funds their board, sets guidelines for that board's operation, be allowed to request funding from that very board?

Am I wrong in thinking that to be a textbook example of the "appearance of impropriety" and "conflict of interest?"

Trey also claims that even BCIC members are eligible to apply for the monies they disperse.

Well, heavens to Betsy, that sounds like corruption encouraged, not merely tolerated.

Trey mentions a building he "bought with a friend."

That "building" was the downtown Coca Cola Building, 12,000 square feet of history adjacent to the City Commission/U.S. Post Office building.

That "friend" was Ramiro Gonzalez, a city official for the past decade, working primarily as a City Planner, but more recently given a more pretentious title, the Director of Government and Community Affairs.

We broke the story that Ramiro, as City Planner, had discovered a tract of land on Central Boulevard with no legal owner, was allowed to buy the tract by the City Commission for the mere pittance of $7,145, then was gifted two additional tracts by the City Commission worth at least $50,000.

In the wake of that story and reports about Trey and Ramiro's $200,000 request from the BCIC to fix up the Coca Cola Building, Ramiro resigned his $82,500 job with the city.

Next, another local blogger and I went back into BCIC minutes to locate additional money requests by the mayor.

We learned that Trey Mendez had also been awarded $80,000 to upgrade the building at 1015 East Washington.

It was a veritable "free for all" for cash money at the BCIC as BCIC Chair Michael Limas himself, the nephew of disgraced Judge Abel Limas, sentenced to prison for racketeering and bribery, applied for and was granted $122,000 to remodel one of his buildings.

BCIC Chair Limas had another application ready for approval by the same BCIC in the amount of $160,000, but, for some reason, got cold feet at the last minute and rescinded the request.(Some have hinted that the presence of District Attorney Luis Saenz at that very BCIC meeting September 30 may have spooked Limas.)

Close Mendez friend Attorney Dennis Sanchez, appointed by Mendez to GBIC, received $32,000 from the BCIC on behalf of Las Ruinas L.L.C. Juan Montoya of El Rrun Rrun noticed that, in Cameron County records, Trey Mendez is the contact for Las Ruinas L.L.C.

Trey Mendez uses the Trumpian phrase "fake news" to describe these reports. We'll let the reader decide what's fake and what's real.

"Let the reader use discernment." St. Matthew 24:15

Trey chafes at the phrase "insider deal," but, when you are drawing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a board you staff, fund and set guidelines for, please explain why that should not concern our city's hardworking taxpayers whose tax monies are being used in that way.

TRESPASSING CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST ELEVEN MIGRANTS

 from Texas Tribune

Charges have been dropped against 11 migrants arrested under Gov. Greg Abbot's border security initiative after the men told attorneys they were marched for about 20 minutes to a fenced ranch by law enforcement, then arrested for trespassing.

Without video evidence or a written report of the August incident from U.S. Border Patrol, Val Verde County Attorney David Martinez dismissed the trespassing charges Monday after the men had spent nearly two months in state prison.

The men had fled on foot after a highway traffic stop by Border Patrol agents, according to an arrest affidavit. 

The migrants later told attorneys that when found near the highway, officers made the migrants walk for about 20 minutes and climb, hands zip-tied, over a nearly 10-foot fence onto a ranch before they were arrested for trespassing by state troopers.

The migrants also said officers cut the Val Verde County landowner’s fence so a police dog could get onto the ranch property, a defense attorney and prosecutor told The Texas Tribune.

A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson said the migrants’ claims were inaccurate, stating that the fleeing men jumped a fence onto private property. 

A Border Patrol spokesperson said any suggestion that officers led migrants to private property so they could be arrested for trespassing is “absolutely false.”

But the muddled situation is just one instance in which Martinez, a Democrat elected to prosecute misdemeanor cases, said he felt compelled to drop charges because of uncertainty over whether DPS arrests pass legal muster. 

In September, a Venezuelan man crossed the Rio Grande near Del Rio with a married couple and walked up to an open gate attended by state troopers, Martinez said after his office reviewed body camera footage of the encounter. The officers moved aside to let the migrants walk through and then arrested the single man for trespassing. The couple was referred to Border Patrol.

“The troopers could have easily said, ‘Hey, this is private property, you can’t come on.’ But they moved out of the way seemingly as an invitation,” Martinez said.

Martinez rejected the case Monday. DPS declined to comment on the arrest.

The cases are examples of the more than 100 trespassing arrests under Abbott's "catch and jail" border security directive that Martinez has dismissed or rejected. 

The prosecutor has tossed 123 of 231 trespassing cases brought before him by DPS since July, Martinez said at a legislative hearing Monday. So far under his prosecution, 58 men have pleaded guilty to trespassing and been sentenced to 15 days in lockup.

Typically, men whose cases are dropped are released to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for immigration processing in Del Rio. 

Others who are convicted of trespassing are taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, having already served their 15-day state sentences. 

In both situations, federal authorities can deport the men or release them into the United States pending asylum hearings.

Since Abbott ordered state police to begin arresting migrants suspected of having crossed the border illegally for the state crime of trespassing on private property, DPS has arrested about 1,300 migrants on the charge, the agency director reported. 

The men, picked up almost exclusively in Val Verde and Kinney counties, are jailed in state prisons retooled as immigration jails.  

The quickly assembled system of arrests, detentions and releases of migrants has been plagued by missteps since its onset, including families being improperly separated, violations of due process,  and a lack of coordination among federal, state and local officials.

In a legislative hearing called out of concern over legal blunders in Abbott’s arrest initiative, DPS Director Steve McCraw told lawmakers Monday that the people his officers arrest for criminal trespassing are trying to avoid law enforcement, not seek asylum.

“When we talk about criminal trespass, it’s that they’re paying coyotes, they’re paying cartel operatives, smugglers to move around and through to avoid being detected,” McCraw said.

In Kinney County, a rural, conservative region next door to Val Verde, many of the hundreds of migrants jailed for allegedly trespassing are arrested at a remote depot as they arrive on train cars from the border.

In Val Verde County, home to Del Rio, however, Martinez said the vast majority of the cases he tosses out are those in which he learns that the arrested migrants had credible asylum claims and were looking for law enforcement to turn themselves in. 

He has said he began dropping such cases after he heard McCraw tell lawmakers in August that police aren’t looking to arrest asylum-seekers, but are instead targeting dangerous criminals.

Other times, Martinez has thrown out trespassing charges for insufficient evidence or questionable circumstances surrounding the arrests, like the cases he tossed Monday. A defense attorney told lawmakers Monday that the incidents are not unique.

“We have heard reports and several of our clients have recounted that they are actually called over onto the river onto private property,” said Kristin Etter, whose organization, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, represents hundreds of the arrested migrants.

In the case of the 11 men who said they were escorted to another property and made to climb the fence onto a ranch, Martinez said he didn’t have a report from Border Patrol officers, who reportedly initiated the stop and apprehended the men after they fled. 

Without it, he wasn’t sure if the property where the men were first apprehended was the one listed in the report provided by DPS. If the cases moved forward in court, he said, DPS would be unable to testify where the men were first detained.

“I did not have any way to prove where these people were apprehended because we did not have a supplemental report from Border Patrol, so there was a lack of evidence,” Martinez said.

According to a DPS arrest affidavit, the men fled Border Patrol officers during an August traffic stop and jumped a fence onto a local ranch whose owner previously agreed state police could arrest people for trespassing on the property. 

At least one of the men was found by a Border Patrol dog handler, the affidavit said, and DPS responded to the chase and arrested the men.

Border Patrol reported Tuesday that after more than a dozen men fled on foot from a highway traffic stop into private property, federal agents took custody of the driver and two other people, while DPS arrested the other 11 men.

Martinez and Etter, who represents the men, said the migrants told them the fleeing men had hopped over a small fence bordering the highway, but, when found, were zip-tied and escorted by law enforcement to another property and made to climb a fence. 

Martinez said he was told that Border Patrol led the men onto the other property, and DPS requested that the men be brought back over the fence again where they were arrested.

Etter said it was unclear if the land the men were originally found on was public land.

With their cases dismissed, the men were expected to be sent back to Val Verde County and handed over to CBP officials for processing, Etter said Tuesday. 

The Venezuelan man whose case was rejected by Martinez on Monday is also expected to be transferred to CBP.

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DISBAND GBIC AND BCIC NOW!

 

Mayor Trey Mendez

It's beyond time for the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation to be disbanded.

So foul is the odor of the Trey Mendez administration and the BCIC, hiding behind limited liability corporate entities, not one, not two, but at least three such, to funnel money to the mayor and his goofy cronies like Ramiro Gonzalez and Michael Limas.

We had a small share in uncovering facts, but Juan Montoya has nicely captured and summarized what's currently known in his blog, El Rrun Rrun(https://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2021/10/bcic-has-been-very-very-good-for-trey.html).

While much of the current scandal has centered around the BCIC, the City Commission has turned GBIC into the polar opposite of what a 4A "economic development" entity was meant to be, intentionally and unethically staffing the entire board with the city commissioners and the mayor.

4A was designed to REMOVE the awarding of economic development assist money from politics, lest politicians get their grubby little hands on it and divert it to themselves and their cronies.

Brownsville is teeming with honest, intelligent, educated citizens who could serve, if asked, so the current makeup of GBIC is intentional, not accidental, temporary or provisional.

Disband BCIC and GBIC now! Save the $1,000,000 or so it costs us each year for staff, building and attorney fees.  Both entities are doing NOTHING for the city except funneling money into the hands of rotten politicos.

Much of the blame can be laid squarely on Trey Mendez, who fooled many of us into thinking he was different from the scum that have scandalized Brownsville and Cameron County politics in the past.

Choir boy looks cannot hide the fact that Trey has been and continues to be a greedy profiteer, using programs designed to help a community pick itself off the poverty floor to enrich himself to an extent no other Brownsville mayor has done.

Just saying the word "community," as in Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, brings a little throw-up to my mouth.

I have to take responsibility for taking my eye off the proverbial ball for a while as I used to cover the city.

For nearly a year, I was almost AWOL, recovering from triple bypass surgery and relishing my own personal reinvention with a new wife and outlook.

But, now I'm back, doing whatever it is that I do, observing, while trying to understand the mechanisms that control Brownsville, while still holding it back.

A couple years ago, watching Trey's inauguration, I felt a hand on my shoulder.  It was outgoing Mayor Tony Martinez, saying "Give 'em Hell, Jim!"

Trey Mendez et al deserve every bit of the exposure, criticism and yes, Hell, they are receiving now.  They are not worthy of our city or its people.

DANIEL LENZ CALLS FOR MAYOR TREY MENDEZ TO RESIGN

Daniel Lenz

Daniel Lenz placed this message on Facebook yesterday:

Brownsville Mayor Juan Trey Mendez, I call on you to RESIGN immediately. You have embarrassed yourself, but more importantly, you have been an embarrassment to our City. We expected better from you, we deserve better than you.

LVERA added a similar view in response to someone defending the mayor:

The issue at hand is not the nation's ethics, nor who else applied for funds. Stop deflecting. "Documentable say"? GTFO HERE WITH THAT!

The issue is how much money has the mayor obtained from grants to "upgrade" his properties downtown. Brownsville does not fight tooth and nail against improving.

Brownsville can not progress because of the fat cats always making a cash grab and taking opportunities for improvements away from the common folk who might not be as aware of the programs out there available to help local businesses. 

You said "the mayor is doing something that will in a way aid the downtown revitalization", what is he doing? 

He is enriching himself in the process and making less funds available for everyone else and that has a air of impropriety. 

Will the mayor face the electorate and give us the answers we want? 

How much public money has the mayor received to improve his businesses? How much?

BCIC'S MICHAEL LIMAS AT THE CENTER OF BROWNSVILLE CONTROVERSY

 

BCIC's Michael Limas

As if the dispensing of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to Mayor Trey Mendez to fix up his downtown building purchases is not enough, the BCIC's Michael Limas is now associated with another Brownsville firestorm.

Limas, in addition to his service at BCIC, is also a financial planner associated with Equitable.

City Manager Noel Bernal

Recently, without consultation with the City Commission or informing the employees involved, City Manager Noel Bernal transferred the city's retirement system from Nationwide to Equitable, Limas's company.

Employees WERE NOT NOTIFIED and are angry.

Perhaps, this is yet another BCIC-connected matter that will draw the attention of District Attorney Luis Saenz.

Perhaps, also, the City Commission should have a discussion with City Manager Noel Bernal about the chain of command.

BITS & PIECES OF A FANTASTIC CITY COMMISSION DISCUSSION ON ETHICS WITH RESPECT TO 4A & 4B CORPORATIONS

 

James McCoy

Attention:  James McCoy, City of Brownsville Agile Project Manager and "Host" of the City Commission broadcast.

Your audio was garbled.  It was only possible to pick up bits and pieces of what the mayor and city commissioners were saying.

That was not true when Evonne Lopez contributed remotely on the domestic violence proclamation nor when County Judge Eddie Trevino spoke on the proposed entertainment venue.

Just to see if the problem was my own hearing, I listened in briefly on the Maricopa County Livestream of the Cyber Ninja Audit of Maricopa County's 2020 Election.  It was crystal clear.

The City of Brownsville needs to work on its audio, plain and simple.

Despite the poor audio, the discussion on Chapter 38 of the city code on ethics with respect to 4A and 4B corporations was fascinating.

Just to backtrack a bit, old friend, Pastor Brad, prayed over the meeting from his seat in front of the city commissioner's table in the Brownsville Public Library meeting room.

Brad asked God for a blessing on the victims of flooding in our community and then for a special anointing on Mayor Mendez and the commissioners.  His prayer was offered "in the name of Jesus Christ," excluding other world religions.

APPLICATION OF CHAPTER 38 ETHICS CODE ORDINANCE TO 4A  AND 4B CORPORATIONS

Interim City Attorney Victor Flores

Interim City Attorney Victor Flores, who seemed to be auditioning for the permanent job of City Attorney, after saying three times this would be a "high level" topic, opened the discussion with a chart featuring the words "ethical," "legal" and "moral."

Then he excluded the "moral" part, saying that "we're not going to touch."  LOL

Legal, he said was "obvious."

So, we're back to "ethical."

What interim City Attorney Flores seemed to be after was "input" from the commission so he could rewrite and expand Chapter 38 of the ethics code and then bring it back to the City Commission for tweaking and approval.

Please remember that former Mayor Tony Martinez promised an ethics code and never delivered.  It wasn't until former City Attorney Rene De Coss took the bull by the horns to actually write an ethics code that we got to where we are today.

But, this discussion was focused on protecting the 4A "economic development" and 4B "quality of life" project funding from abuse.

Most seemed to agree that city officials and city employees should be barred from applying for 4A and 4B monies.

As Commissioner Pedro Cardenas said:  "If you were responsible for setting the guidelines, you shouldn't go near it."

Language in the city code restricting the family of city employees drew some attention from Commissioner Nurith Galonsky, saying:  "If the child of a city employee or official is 35, living in a separate household, should they be restricted from some of these programs?"

Commissioner Rose Gowen wanted to make sure the restrictions were not too broad, but precise, likening a physician treating a cancer with surgical precision, not a "sawed off shotgun."

Galonksky raised the subject of property tax exemptions, but some felt that was a discussion for another day.

Gowen volunteered that she had such an exemption, feeling she had the same rights as her neighbors to take advantage of the provision.

Gowen and Galonsky both wanted "entry level" employees of the city not excluded from helpful programs.

John Cowen referenced the "Mungia case," evidently referring to former City Commissioner Joel Mungia.

I'm not familiar with that matter.

Just an observation:  A few years ago, when people like Debbie Portillo, Estela Chavez-Vasquez and John Villarreal were on the commission, Commissioner Rose Gowen seemed to be the default intellectual.

There's been a considerable upgrade with Trey Mendez' familiarity with legal procedures, Galonsky and Cowen giving serious, thoughtful input and contrary to my initial expectations, Cardenas holds his own with common sense, cut-through-the-bullshit observations.

Jessica Tetreau, as always, comments from her life and city experience.

But, if this configuration of the Brownsville City Commission has a leader, it would be Roy de los Santos.  De los Santos comes to the table with ideas.  He had to be cautioned by interim City Attorney Flores that he was "going too far" at this preliminary point of the discussion.

Anyway, James McCoy, please get the audio fixed so the citizens can actually hear the proceedings and my report will be more accurate, more surgically precise as Rose Gowen might put it.

BTW, I'm glad to see the commission addressing some of the issues raised on this blog in recent days.

BEYOND COVID-19~ MIKE PENCE SYNDROME `

 

It's doubtful former Vice President Mike Pence thinks of himself as a tragic figure.  One could guess he was told as a boy to "chin up" and not complain.

He's certainly stoic and likely devout, but one can only have their ego crushed, subordinated and mocked so many times before it becomes diminished.

A man who was taught that "whoever looks at a woman so as to have a lust for her has already committed adultery in his heart" has to die a little inside when the man he's subordinated himself to says "grab them by the pussy."

I've been around men who were smooth with women and "grab them by the pussy" is not a phrase they would ever use.  Those are words only someone awkward with the opposite sex, someone who views them as a piece of meat would employ.

But Pence had to absorb that blow to his religious psyche, then watch the would-be pussy grabber hoist a Holy Bible in the air as if he was in some way representative of that book, the book Pence claimed as his life guide.

No man, no matter how loyal or stoic, could stand beside Donald Trump for four years like the proverbial, but racially insensitive cigar store Indian, unless he thought it was a good career move that would be rewarded in the end.

Yet, in the end, Trump turned on Pence like he's turned on almost everyone who's ever worked for or with him, blaming Pence for his orderly execution of duty at the Presidential inauguration, saying "you don't have the courage to make a hard decision.

On January 6 bullies incited by Trump chanted "hang Mike Pence," one of them even setting up a noose.

Pence, acting as if none of that actually happened, still conducts himself as a good Trump soldier, even claiming the "media" was responsible for January 6.

Pence, after four years of subservience to a despot, has had every vestige of intestinal fortitude ripped out of him.

Even the Biblical "righteous indignation" is missing.

Just so you know, this story is really not about Mike Pence.

BINGO!!! WE FOUND ANOTHER DOWNTOWN PROPERTY TREY ASKED THE TAXPAYERS TO FIX UP FOR HIM!!!

 

1015 East Washington Street

Whatever you think of Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez' ethics or efforts to improve flood control in our city, the young man has been a busy little beaver in acquiring downtown properties and asking the taxpayers to fix them up for him.

This month it was the historic Coca Cola Building for which the mayor was asking $200,000 from the taxpayer-funded BCIC to bring up to speed, a request later "removed" or "withdrawn" depending on your source.

But, folks kept telling me that the mayor had a request approved at the last BCIC meeting.

Scouring the agenda for the August 26, 2021 BCIC meeting (a copy of the approved minutes is not yet online), we discovered a request, not from Urban 8 Properties, L.L.C., the firm Trey used with Ramiro this month, but Ventura Properties, L.L.C., for $80,000 from the BCIC to remodel a building at 1015 East Washington Street.

Ventura Properties, L.L.C. lists its office address as 754 East Levee Street and its' "principal" as Juan Mendez, surely Juan "Trey" Mendez, the Mayor of Brownsville.

If a twinge of conscience caused Trey to "withdraw" the $200,000 BCIC request to fix up the Coca Cola Building, will he now return the $80,000 granted last month to fix up a the property pictured above at 1015 East Washington?

CITY COMMISSION, GBIC PUBLISH IDENTICAL AGENDAS, MEETING PLACE AND TIME~ ARE THEY NOW ONE AND THE SAME?

 

Based on postings at the City of Brownsville website, it would appear that the City Commission and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation were conjoined twins, totally synchronized, if not one and the same.

Both are scheduled for October 5, 2021 meetings at 5:00 PM in the Brownsville Public Library's meeting room.

 The published agendas are identical, same proclamations, works sessions, consent agenda items and items for individual consideration.

The only differences are the headings and the signatures.

One agenda is headed "Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation" and the other heading is "City Commission of Brownsville."

One agenda is signed by John Cowen, Jr., Chair of the GBIC and the other agenda is signed by Laure Morgan, City Secretary.

We messaged two City Commissioners, getting an answer from one:

Barton:  Are GBIC and the City Commission now synchronized, essentially one and the same?

Commissioner De los Santos:  No, the GBIC board is made up of city commissioners currently, but I've already advised my resignation is effective 10/31/2021 and I expect to appoint a citizen to succeed me at the Nov 2nd city commission meeting.  I will get GBIC back to a citizen run board by mid 22, but the change is starting in less than 30 days.

Barton:  Today's meetings are at the same time.  The agendas are exactly the same with the only difference being the top heading and signature, one signed by John Cowen, Jr., the other by Laure Morgan.

Commissioner De los Santos:  I'm pretty sure the GBIC agenda was published as there will be a quorum present, but to the best of my knowledge we are not meeting as GBIC today, but only as the City Commission.

Barton:  Ok. . .to protect against a walking quorum charge

Commissioner De los Santos:

Right

Barton:  OK  thanks

Commissioner Jessica Tetreau added this observation:  

"I've always been strongly against the commission replacing the entire board.  Both BCIC and GBIC need major changes in their structure."

You s

WHEN WILL THE CITY OF BROWNSVILLE, CAMERON COUNTY AND BISD WEAN THEMSELVES AWAY FROM LINEBARGER, GOGGAN, BLAIR & SAMPSON?

 

Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson

For many years Cameron County's taxing entities have clung to one huge law firm, Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, to collect delinquent taxes.

Year after year the City of Brownsville, Cameron County and the Brownsville Independent School District go through the motions of pretending to listen to and rate three or four legal firms vying for the role of delinquent tax collection, but, in the end, Linebarger et al is awarded the contract.

Of course, Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson spreads millions of dollars in campaign contributions across Texas annually, not forgetting the politicos of Brownsville and Cameron County.

Does the relationship between Linebarger and the politicians seem like a healthy one?

For how long will Cameron County, City of Brownsville and BISD officials continue to be bought?

BROWNSVILLE'S CITY COMMISSION HAVING DIFFICULTY WITH ETHICS

Mayor Trey Mendez

Our city got a textbook example of the "appearance of impropriety" and "conflict of interest" with Mayor Trey Mendez' recent request for $200,000 from our city's 4B entity, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation to upgrade a downtown building he'd purchased.

At the last meeting of the BCIC,  just as the group was about to go into executive session, I asked a board member about the mayor's request and was told "it's been removed from the agenda."

Just to refresh our recollections:

In 1992 the City of Brownsville decided to take advantage of a 1989 Texas law allowing the establishment a 4A entity to receive 1/2 cent of the 8-1/4 cent sales tax collected to use for economic development. 

One of the original, stated purposes of diverting tax dollars from cities' general funds into separate 4A and 4B entities was so that economic development and quality of life projects would not be "politicized" by being under the exclusive control of elected officials who might be tempted to disperse patronage in the form of 4a and 4b projects.

The whole 4A and 4B process is designed to assure the taxpayers that public officials are not using the funds to benefit their cronies, much less themselves.

That's why Mayor Mendez' request that $200,000 of 4B monies be diverted to restore or upgrade the historic downtown Coca Cola Building was such a bad look.

Well, it was more than a bad look.  It was unethical, immoral, if not illegal.

Section 38-31 of the Brownsville, Texas Code of Ordinances prohibits a city official doing anything for personal benefit at the "risk and appearance of impropriety."

If that's not bad enough, the City Commission has appointed itself, its own members, along with the mayor, to form the entity responsible for dispersing approximately $5,000,000 annually on "economic development" projects, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation.

Two and one half years ago we pointed out the inappropriateness of city commissioners sitting on GBIC.  

Now, the situation is much worse with ALL of the GBIC members being city commissioners as well as the mayor himself.

If the city commissioners are going to control how monies are dispersed for economic development projects, why are we renting the historic Young House at 500 East Saint Charles Street and spending over $1,000,000 annually to staff GBIC including attorneys fees?

If the City Commission is going to disperse economic development funds, simply disband GBIC, saving millions, and let the City Commission use its general fund for economic development projects.

Remember, after all, that 4A "economic development" funds and 4B "quality of life" funds are  DIVERTED from the general fund with the intention that qualified citizens with business expertise, NOT POLITICIANS, will control the distribution of those monies.

Here's the current inappropriate composition of GBIC:  

Commissioner John Cowen, Jr., President

Commissioner Nurith Galonsky

Commissioner Roy de los Santos

Mayor Trey Mendez

Commissioner Pedro Cardenas

Commissioner Jessica Tetreau

HOW LOCAL POLITICIANS MAY ENRICH THEMSELVES BY ACQUIRING TAX DELINQUENT PROPERTIES

 

Trey Mendez

It's not unusual for local politicians to increase their wealth by accumulating real estate.

One extremely profitable local option, especially for politicos with an access to capital to purchase properties and pay contractors, is to purchase tax delinquent properties not yet listed for tax auction.

Looking at the Cameron County Appraisal District's list of properties, it would appear that Juan Mendez III, a single man, has acquired at least four properties, former County Carlos Cascos ten properties and former County Judge and current State Democratic Chair Gilberto Hinojosa sixteen properties.

Historic Coca Cola Building Downtown Purchased After Paying Delinquent Tax Lien of $12,396.02

Now, we're not saying all these purchases were of tax delinquent or auctioned properties, but just as the Coca Cola Building was sold in that scenario, other properties may also have been acquired that way.

The unique opportunity to profit comes from bidding on tax lien properties at auction as those usually sell well below actual value.

Even when a property owner loses their property to an auction, they have one year to buy it back at the auction price plus 25%, plus "costs."

After one year, but before two years, the repurchase price changes to auction price plus 50%, plus "costs."

Those "costs" include any money the new owner must spend to secure the property, not including an addition or remodel.

But, if the roof leaks, the new owner may buy a new roof.  If the windows are broken, new windows.  If the door can't be secured, a new door or new locks.  All labor and materials are costs the new buyer must be reimbursed for should the former owner want to repurchase.

Just for illustration, a property is bought at an auction for $50,000 and the new owner spends $15,000 on a new roof, $5,000 on new windows and $2,000 on new doors and locks. 

That property can now be bought back in the first year for $50,000 plus 25% or $12,500, plus $15,000, $5,000 and $2,000 or a total of $84,500.

After one year, the buyback cost is $97,000.

Should a local property be merely tax delinquent, even with a tax lien, but not yet scheduled for auction, an interested seller would need to deal only with the current property owner, who is already under threat of their property being scheduled for auction unless they can come up with the delinquent tax amount.

When I last checked Cameron County was allowing properties to be tax delinquent for as long as eight or nine years whereas counties like Harris County (Houston) were sending properties to auction after a delinquency of only eighteen months.

Properties with delinquent taxes, but not yet listed for auction, can be "red-lined," that is scheduled for the next available auction.

While the county furnishes the public with lists of properties available for auction, there is not a list available to the public of properties "red-lined" for the next auction.

Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson, L.L.P. is the firm handling such tax auctions locally.

The whole tax auction, tax delinquent purchasing process is sort of a reverse Robin Hood situation, with the rich, who can afford the purchases, taking from the poor, who lose their properties because they can't pay their taxes.

HOW DO WE CHARACTERISE CITY OFFICIAL'S INSIDER DEALING?

With regard to our story on Mayor Trey Mendez and former city staffer Ramiro Gonzalez' purchase of a downtown property having a tax lien along with a request for a huge grant from a taxpayer funded entity to make repairs on that same building, we received this question:

Jim in your opinion, is this criminal or just simply unethical ?

Let me add two other descriptive phrases; the appearance of impropriety and simply opportunism.

So, for the sake of discussion, we have four options:

1.   An illegal act

2.  An unethical, but not illegal act

3.  The appearance of impropriety

4.  Simply opportunism

Please remember the reader asked for my "opinion."

We'll separate our discussion into two articles, first dealing with the Ramiro Gonzalez' purchase allowed by the City Commission in 2014.

Ramiro Gonzalez

We'll start with Ramiro Gonzalez' purchase of a tract of land he discovered in 2014, during his tenure as City Planner, that he claimed had no apparent ownership.

Ramiro's request to purchase the tract was actually on the City Commission agenda with a graphic showing the location of the property and its size and shape.

We don't know if Ramiro paid for the survey to the left or if the work was done for free by a city department.  The survey reads "prepared for Ramiro." 

Ramiro claimed, in a binder attached to the agenda item, that an "independent certified appraiser" valued the .245 acre tract at $7,145.

But, Ramiro was not getting simply a .245 acre tract, but also two other adjacent tracts of .64 acres and 1.089 acres were being thrown in on the deal by the City Commission.

Using the simple math of Ramiro's "independent certified appraiser," if a .245 acre tract on Central Boulevard(the agenda item said "Lakeside" to make the property seem less valuable) is worth $7,145, then .245 acres, plus .64 acres, plus 1.089 acres, for a total of 1.974 acres would be worth at least $57,568.

That means that, if Ramiro's self-furnished appraised value of .245 acres with frontage on Brownsville's retail commercialized Central Boulevard is accurate, and I think it's way low, the City Commission gifted him over $50,000 in free land.

Likely, that violates the City Charter and is illegal, but it is obviously unethical.  

The City Commission is entrusted with protecting Brownsville's assets, not giving them away.  Property under the city's care should have been sold to the highest bidder, not gifted to a city employee, no matter how valued.

What's so ironic is that Tony Martinez promised during his first campaign for Mayor the "first act of his administration" would be the creation of a city ethics code. 

He never fulfilled that promise, likely a good thing because he obviously has little understanding of ethics or chose to ignore ethical standards to compensate a valued aide outside normal methods.

The City Commission gave Ramiro Gonzalez another another freebie, closing a right-of-way that existed on the property:

c) APPROVAL on SECOND and FINAL READING of Ordinance Number 2014-1590, authorizing the City Manager to abandon and close a portion of Lakeside Boulevard Right-of-Way, located in the Brownsville Land and Improvement Company subdivision. (Carlos Lastra-Engineering)"

Ordinance 2014-1590, conveying the land to Ramiro Gonzalez and eliminating the right-of-way, passed unanimously.

Those on the City Commission at that time:

Ricardo Longoria, Jr.

Jessica Tetreau

Deborah Portillo

John Villareal

Estela Vasquez

Rose Gowen

While our report did not garner much attention in May 2014, we did receive the following comments:

2. AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 9:41 AM

   CONFLICT OF INTEREST PURE AND SIMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

   ReplyDelete
3. 
   AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 10:45 AM

   Pinche viejo mamon lo masco y no lo trago. Da asco nomas de verlo.

   ReplyDelete
4. 
   AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 10:53 AM

   Mira mira mira, que mamones son estos cabrones de la cuidad!

   ReplyDelete
5. 
   Ricardo MirelesMay 17, 2014 at 11:31 AM

   I wish God would come amd see what assholes run our city!

   ReplyDelete
6. 
   AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 12:32 PM

   You want to get rid of the people fucking over the city, vote them out of office. It's not enough to bitch and moan about the obvious problem. The lazy asses that don't vote are our biggest obstacles to changing business as usual. And for those who bitch but don't vote, they should be dragged out of their houses by their hair and beaten like a gong.

   ReplyDelete
7. 
   AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 3:28 PM

   God doesn't give a shit about this town. Stop waiting on someone else and do shit yourself!