Did the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation Hold an Illegal Executive Session?

"The Boxer"

by Paul Simon

"I have squandered my resistance

For a pocketful of mumbles,

Such are promises

All lies and jest

Still, a man hears what he wants to hear

And disregards the rest."

Nine Entities Asking for a Total of $528,100
from the BCIC

Hilario De Leon of the Brownsville Beautiful Project asked for $15,180 to buy more "shovels and rakes."   

Felipe Pena asked for $67,200 to create an outdoor gardening area for kids.

Does "Belden Connect" have a familiar ring?  Well, the City Commission just approved a $400,000 project to narrow E. 6th Street and connect the Belden and Battlefield Bike Trails.  You may also want to add $208,000 for Belden Connect, a landscaping project adjacent to E. 6th.  

Newly hired Planning Director Mike Warrix asked for $68,000 to create a master plan called The Mitte Cultural District Master Plan Project.  He promised "public input," something totally foreign to Brownsville planning in recent years.  

Even the Brownsville landfill, represented by Public Works, got into the act.  They want to turn the Old Scale House into a tourist and bird observation room. The landfill chose a pretentious name for the project~Tourist Centre Project(Notice the English spelling).  They want $17,600 for that project.

Anyway, we sat through two hours of this meeting, waiting for consideration of Agenda Item 8:  "Discussion and possible Action to hire employee for vacant executive director position."

Upon reaching that agenda point, the meeting went into a spontaneous "Executive Session" not listed on the agenda as required by the Public Information Act.  I overheard someone say that the new director position "would not be considered today."  Ramiro Gonzalez and the 4 other unnamed candidates for the position filed out of the room.  

City Attorney Mark Sossi was present when this occurred.  

Since the Attorney General's Office was closed, I emailed a legal expert who referred me to certain pages in the AG's Texas Open Meetings Act Made Easy. Here is a quote form Page 23 of that document:  

"The rules for posting closed meeting items are the same as the general rules for posting issues
that will be considered in an open meeting.  146 Most local governments indicate on the posting
that the governmental body may be going into executive session on a particular topic and the
statutory section that allows such an item to be considered in a closed meeting. However, the
Act does not require the notice to state which items will be discussed in a closed meeting.
Should a governing body consistently distinguish between subjects for public deliberation and
subjects for executive session, an abrupt departure from this practice could render the notice
inadequate.  14"

As mentioned above, the rules for posting closed meeting items are the same as the 

rules for posting items that will be considered in open session.149 The Open Meetings Act 

requires only that the posted notice give reasonable notice of the subjects that will be discussed.

 

Also, this point:

"There is no requirement that the local entity indicate whether an item will be handled in open or 

closed session."

So, it may be, that even though Agenda Item 8 was listed as if it would be discussed in open meeting, the plan was to go into Executive Session.  No Brownsville board has ever done this.  They've always distinguished between agenda items in the open meeting and executive session items.  For this one action, the BCIC seems to have gone contrary to established procedure.  

Another observation on the Texas Open Meetings Act and the BCIC Board.  The legitimately "open" aspect of this board's meetings is the gracious sharing of agenda items by Administrative Assistant Vanessa Villarreal.  

As for the meeting itself, it simply is inaudible for observers and therefore not open in any real sense.  I know public speaking skills have taken a hit in recent decades.  No one on this board enunciates, articulates, projects their voice beyond a mumble, audible at table level.  This is likely intentional.  Of course, visitors next to us are on their smart phones, uninterested, but, for Nena and I, we can only shrug our shoulders and try to look at the agenda and attempt to read lips.  At least former Director Rachel Flores could be heard.