Tony Martinez Gets His Wish~No One Signs Up for Public Comment!

The Tony Martinez mayoral administration registered a landmark at the City Commission meeting June 5, 2012.  Did Tony unveil the new ethics code he stated was priority one of his administration?  No, he has City Attorney Sossi working on that, so don't expect any progress of note any time soon.  Did Tony unveil a new plan to revitalize downtown?  No.  Tony is not an idea man.  Yet, the crowning achievement of the Martinez administration was blatantly obvious Tuesday night.  Finally, after a year's work to stifle, suppress, squelch and extinguish any semblance of public participation in city government, Mayor Tony got his wish:  No one signed up for public comment.

Actually, it was initially the previous mayor, Pat Ahumada, who gave a giant "F U" to representative democracy and the citizens of Brownsville when he shut down the broadcast of public comment toward the end of his turbulent, DWI and theft-charged administration.(Many felt that this step back into the dark ages was initiated by City Attorney Mark Sossi who may have felt the sting from a public commenter who hinted that he was paying his considerable debt to his previous employer by sending them a huge amount of Brownsville's legal work)  Many of us incorrectly assumed that the new mayor would be more free speech friendly and undo the Muammar Gaddafi style decision of the previous administration.

Here is the original quote from Tony Martinez reported in  Mean Mister Brownsville when the mayor made it clear he opposed free speech and citizen participation in Brownsville's government:

"Mayor Martinez now said something that 91% of the electorate who voted to change mayors hoped they would never hear: 'I'd like to continue doing things the way the previous administration did them. It's been working pretty good so far. I don't want to change that.'  That was shocking at the time because we all thought we had defeated Ahumada.

Then, several months into the new city administration,  Commissioner Zamora put the reinstatement of the broadcast on the agenda.  Behind the scenes Mayor Martinez and City Attorney had worked up a little surprise for Zamora.  Sossi, who can't seem to find 15 minutes to work on an ethics code, something this city of 200,000 doesn't have, spent all week working up his infamous pie chart to demonstrate to the City Commission audience how pulling the switch on the broadcast of public comment had actually enhanced representative democracy, not stifled and choked the life out of it.

Here are comments from Mean Mister Brownsville, August 12, 2011, the day after Commissioner Zamora tried to reinstate the broadcast of public comment:

"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, afterall, 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.

It's been said that the broadcast of public comment is a litmus test for Brownsville's new city administration. It's not the biggest issue facing the city, but its handling gives notice as to the direction the city is taking. It does not look good for transparency, inclusiveness and democracy at this point.  It likely never crossed the mayor's or city attorney's mind that public comment is dead.  For Martinez, a quick commission meeting is a good commission meeting.  Sossi could likely make a pie chart to make that case.