What Is Tony Martinez Trying to Do At Brownville P.U.B.? As Usual, He's Not Sharing the Details with the Electorate

Tony Martinez

When Mayor Martinez tried to work out a sweetheart deal leasing Congressman Filemon Vela almost free office space at City Plaza, he tried to do it on the sly.  When several blogs caught wind of his intentions, we are told, Martinez chastised his staff and the City Commission for "leaks."  Eventually, Vela was offered space at City Plaza at market rates, which he turned down.  Actually, he already has an office along the expressway plus an available stipend from the U.S. House of Representatives for office space in his district and in Washington, D.C..  He didn't need a gift from one of the most impoverished cities in the United States.

Moving forward, Mayor Martinez tried to gift the entire City Plaza complex to University of Texas system, one of the richest university systems in the world.  The plan was to move city administration from the almost ideally suited City Plaza, complete with parking garage, across-the-street parking, a municipal courtroom and convenient Health Department to the antiquated Casa del Nylon.  Cooler heads prevailed and that dumb idea was shelved with the citizenry again kept totally in the dark.

Martinez' modus operandi from Day 1 has been to work backdoor, backroom, mafioso-like, in the shadows.  He may have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the National Democratic Party, but he is as anti-democratic as they come.  Before a citizen starts to speak during Public Comment at one of his City Commission meetings broadcast on local Channel 17-12, the camera and sound is turned off.  Just as oldtimers used to say "little children should be seen and not heard," Martinez feels citizens should not be seen OR heard.

Which brings us to P.U.B.  Tony has something in mind for the utility, but, as usual, he's not revealing the plan.  Does he plan on privatizing the utility, that seems to be operating well as is, providing a generous annual contribution to city coffers?  He's not saying.  We are left to try, somewhat futily,  to connect the dots.

Whatever the plan, some of the groundwork may have been laid at this past Tuesday's City Commission meeting with the appointment of Lourdes Gavito-Galonsky to the P.U.B. board. The new appointee, 47, is the wife of Moishe Galonsky.  Jointly, they own Prestige Electronics, Inc., with business addresses at 1104 E. Elizabeth St. and 25 Sam Perl Blvd.  The Elizabeth St. address is now occupied by a dollar store.  I've been told that Galonsky is a relative of Tony's friend Abraham Galonsky(I've not been able to verify that relationship.), the previous owner of the Casa del Nylon building that the City of Brownsville purchased for $2,300,000(The sale was inappropriately negotiated by Martinez' law partner Attorney Horacio Barrera.).

Interestingly, the swing vote to select Galonsky to the P.U.B. board was made by newly-elected City Commissioner Deborah Portillo, whose family business used to occupy the the east side of the Casa del Nylon building on 14th St. downtown owned at the time by Abraham Galonsky.  Portillo may be already giving the behind-the-scene movers and shakers of Brownsville some return on their $40,953 investment in her campaign by facilitating whatever plan they have for P.U.B. that Mayor Tony is now orchestrating.  After all, they weren't supporting Portillo, a young woman who had never even voted in a city

Deborah Portillo

election, for her political ideology or ideas for the city. No one even showed up to hear her expound her platform or philosophy at the UTB Candidate Forum, so her heavy financial backing was for another reason.


At the same City Commission meeting, a contract for the Escobedo brothers, Jaime and Enrique was turned down, with even Mayor Martinez voting against it.  In a surprising twist, City Commissioner Deborah Portillo voted to award the contract to the Escobedos.  Maybe, its because their business, American Surveillance, is located at 55 Galonsky Street.