Can We Trust Charlie Cabler's Promise About Lincoln Park?

City Manager Charlie Cabler

Affable, accommodating, evasive, out of the loop. City Manager Charlie Cabler can be all of the above as he deals with day-to-day city operations, interacting with city staff and citizens while trying to survive, job-intact, under a mayor seen by city insiders as abrasive and headstrong.

Cabler, essentially a cop in a business suit, has watched as the mayor unethically dipped into the $3,060,000 Texas AOP Refund, leased a downtown mayoral office at 1101-A E. Washington that he never used, used his law partner Horacio Barrera to "negotiate" the city's purchase of La Casa del Nylon at 1304 E. Adams for likely triple its value, $2,300,000, and tried to give City Plaza to the University of Texas system.  Martinez, described by a city commissioner as a "loose cannon," has tested Cabler's patience with one bone-headed move after another. 

Who knows for certain if Cabler tried to curb Tony on any of the above or just went along to get along, but there is one promise Charlie can keep, proving he's worthy of his $168,810 annual salary.  

Last March, when it looked like Lincoln Park was on the verge of being sold or transferred to the University of Texas system, Cabler said this:  “When and if this gets put on the agenda, it'll be open to the public for them to come and give their input to our commission," he explained.(March 18, 2014, valleycentral.com)

With recent rumblings indicating this idiotic proposed transfer of an irreplaceable taxpayer asset to one of the world's richest universities may still be on the back burner, we are holding Charlie to his word.  

Give the citizens of Brownsville an opportunity to weigh in on this.  Then, make damn well sure, city commissioners, you listen to the people.  Lincoln Park is a taxpayer asset.  Your job is to protect the city's assets, not squander them.

Gilbert Velasquez

Gilbert Velasquez, a local graphic designer and Brownsville Historical Association member, used social media last March to bring together opposition to transferring Lincoln Park.  Velasquez will be paying careful attention to any city action or movement to transfer the park.