Eavesdropping on the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation's Board Meeting 12/19/2013

Differentiating the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation from other "advisory" or suggestion city boards are the substantial monies received from Brownsville taxpayers, $4,176,233.24 in fiscal 2013.(These funds come from 4B sales tax revenue, 1/4 cent on each taxable dollar spent in the City of Brownsville.)

The board is a blend of appointed non-salaried members and salaried city staff with Rachel Flores, the Executive Director of the BCIC, but Dr. Rose M.Z. Gowen, the board chairman.

Actually, it was Flores who recently acknowledged receipt of our Public Information Request about how monies were dispersed during fiscal 2013, but also, the balance brought forward from 2012 and the balance on hand at the end of the fiscal year:

Dear Mr. Barton,

We have received your information request from the City Secretary. We will begin collecting the information and will send it to you in a timely fashion. Thank you for your interest in our organization and have a Merry Christmas.

Sincerely,
Rachel

While waiting for the result of that request, we had an opportunity to sit in on the December 19, 2013 BCIC Board meeting held in the City Commission chambers at 12:00 PM.  Ms. Flores was most gracious, providing us with a packet including the meeting agenda, but with numbered tabs to locate handouts for each agenda item.  Once the meeting was underway, Vice-Chair Jude Benavides wondered if were able to hear the comments adequately.  We were invited to move our chairs closer to the board table.  

Agenda item #5, "Consideration and ACTION on the Watermelon Festival" illustrated the way the board can operate.  Evidently, $10,000 had been earmarked for a feasibility study on creating a watermelon festival in Brownsville. Since two other cities, Alamo and Edinburg, had already planned for and initiated similar festivals, those were monitored carefully as a model for Brownsville's festival.  

The Alamo festival was considered too small of a scale for Brownsville with minimal vendor participation.  It was noted, that the Edinburg model, while similar to what Brownsville had in mind, was still not profitable.  Some consideration had been given to including a watermelon aspect with the July 4 activities at the Sports Park, but that was found to be outside the growing season for watermelons. 

The board decided to curtail plans for a watermelon festival.  The $9,600 remaining from the feasibility study was made available for other projects.  

A sheet showing financials for the BCIC Board 11/02/2013 to 12/19/2013 showed that the board had spent $35,425 for the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art's "King Tut Sculpture Project," $8,000 to the City of Brownsville to promote the "Brownsville Metro Bus Ridership Campaign," $75,849,92 as a payment #7 for the Belden Trail and an additional $15,405,56 to Edward Abstract and Title to purchase the property at 325 W. Fronton St. for "Belden Trail Garden #3." 

Under "MISC" on the financial report was $25,000 given to United Brownsville for "annual dues."  The word "dues" used in this context is bothersome since the annual contribution to United Brownsville is voluntary, not obligatory, but the informal, unofficial organization is becoming so deeply entrenched this City of Brownsville views this as a financial obligation, which it certainly is not as we explained in a recent MMB article:

The United Brownsville Coordinating Board carries itself as if supervising the City of Brownsville, Cameron County, the Port of Brownsville, BISD and the public utilities. They plan for Brownsville, presume to speak on its behalf, take credit for projects in the city, integrate actual city officials into their board, but its all a scam. The leadership triumvirate, IBC Bank President Fred Rusteberg, outgoing UTB President Juliet Garcia and a loquacious UTB official, Irv Downing, have not been elected, appointed, anointed or have the birthright to any standing in the governance of Brownsville or Cameron County. There is no mention of a United Brownsville Coordinating Board in the city charter.(Although the UB website lists their address as 1301 E. Madison St. their nonprofit registration with the State of Texas, updated December 13, 2013, uses 1001 E. Elizabeth St., the address of the Brownsville City Commission.)

The funding for United Brownsville embarrassingly comes entirely from 8 taxpayer or ratepayer entities, none of which have the intestinal fortitude to question the $25,000 expenditure for a fake administrative board that only has as much power as given by naive public officials. 8 X $25,000=$200,000. That is United Brownsville's operating budget, but no where near what individual players hope to siphon off from local projects steered their way by the unauthorized, elitist board. The nontransparent, unaccountable board recently used City Finance Director Pete Gonzalez to issue a totally bogus "financial report:"(http://meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot.com/2013/11/guidestar-invalidates-united.html)