Public Information Request Flubbed by City of Brownsville~Revealing Information, Nonetheless

Our Public Information to the City of Brownsville was pretty straightforward:



7/15/14
Ms. Von Hatten,

I'm seeking a copy of the lease or rental agreements(even if free) between BikeTexas and bcWorkshop and the City of Brownsville for the properties on E. 11th Street. I believe the addresses are 609 and 615 E. 11th.

Thanks,
Jim Barton

On July 31 we reminded City Secretary Estela Von Hatten that at least 10 business days had passed without receiving the information we sought.  On 8/1 Ms. Von Hatten wrote back:

Mr. Barton,
Attached is information responsive to your request regarding Bike Texas.

Purchasing did not have an agreement or lease for bcWorkshop.Thank you for the reminder. If we locate bcWorkshop information, it will be sent to you. 

Thanks.

Estela Von Hatten

City Secretary/Local Registrar

Ms. Von Hatten is always prompt to respond to our requests.  In this case, what the city sent us had nothing to do with our request.  They sent nothing about a lease or rental agreement with BikeTexas or bcWorkshops. What the city is likely trying to hide is that they are allowing these two entities, both involved in bike trails and bike trail design, FREE rent in city owned and city-remodeled buildings.

Actually, last fall BikeTexas approached a downtown business owner about renting out office space.  Rent was agreed upon with the BikeTexas representative to return January 2014 and sign a lease.  That never happened.  The downtown business owner later found out that the city had offered BikeTexas free rent in the San Fernando Building, purchased with taxpayer dollars in 2012 for $315,000.  

"It's hard enough to rent office space downtown, but now we have to compete with the city offering free rent," stated the business owner.

The three small offices at 609, 611 and 615 E. 11th were purchased by the city for $125,000 with another $131,000 allocated by the City Commission for remodeling, which does not include labor.  City trucks can be seen daily at these locations with as many as 8 city employees on the job.  

As City Planner II Roman McAllen explained during a walk-through:  "609 will be utilized by bcWorkshops, 615 by BikeTexas with 611 being sort of a buffer between the two."

The question that remains unanswered by the city:  "Will the two entities pay rent and, if so, how much?"

Mayor Tony Martinez

Since Tony Martinez became mayor in 2011, he has treated city assets, taxpayer assets as if they were his own.  He tried to provide free rent for newly-elected Congressman Filemon Vela, until the bloggers exposed the glad-handing.  Later, Martinez wanted to gift City Plaza to UTB.  Lincoln Park is still not safe from being given to the ultra-rich UT system, bulldozed for a couple buildings, despite UT's considerable land holdings across the interstate.  

Please notice that Mayor Tony never offers any of his office space on Palm Boulevard in his efforts to suck up to his elite friends.  

What the city did send us instead of leases or rental agreements is the Professional Consultant Services Agreement dated 9/4/13 between the City of Brownsville and The Bicycle Coalition Education Fund dba BikeTexas.  The agreement calls for the city to pay BikeTexas $66,227 for consultant services through 9/30/14.  Any additional services will be "negotiated separately."  

The city also sent us the Request for Proposal from BikeTexas for the consultant gig, but no lease agreement.  Either someone in the city does not understand what a lease agreement is or they are trying to placate us with many pages of material irrelevant to our original question and hope we forget about it.  We think the latter.

We will analyze the agreement for consultant services in a followup article, as well as the RFP.  One item worth mentioning now, but analyzed more fully in the next article, is that Brownsville Metro's Norma Zamora is designated to "administer the contract on behalf of the city."

Brownsville Metro Director Norma Zamora

That raises several red flags.  Norma Zamora does not work for the city, but is employed by First Transit. The City of Brownsville pays First Transit $225,000 for a managerial contract that includes Brownsville Metro Director Norma Zamora and Assistant Director Andrew Munoz. Does the city pay Zamora to "administer" the consultant's contract with BikeTexas or does she do this as an after hours volunteer?  BTW, the city also pays First Transit $1,400,000 annually for a maintenance contract for the Brownsville Metro buses, a contract recently renewed despite abysmal performance.