HOW NURITH GALONSKY COULD PERMANENTLY ENDEAR HERSELF TO DISTRICT 1 AND THE CITY OF BROWNSVILLE

Nurith Galonsky

Nurith Galonsky, candidate for City Commissioner, District 1, has literally blanketed Southmost with her campaign signs and seems to be constantly campaigning or blockwalking.  

That may get her into the runoff, but then, high-priced consultant Rodrigo Moreno may then ask her to "double down" on her payments to Pink Ape Media if she expects to unseat incumbent Ricardo Longoria, Jr.(Her recent Campaign Finance Report showed she'd already paid Moreno $28,000 for "consulting" services.)

There may be another option for Galonsky, a bold course of action that would endear her forever to the residents of, not just District 1, but the entire city.

Galonsky, who sits on the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, could get to the bottom of how much money has been generated by the huge utility raises for the purpose of  building the Tenaska Power Plant, how those funds have been used and how much remains in that fund.

Mayor Martinez, who engineered the resolution to raise rates through the City Commission in 2012, but ALSO sits on the P.U.B. board, has consistently refused to share this information with the ratepayers. (P.U.B. General Manager John Bruciak also arrogantly refuses to come clean on this matter.)

When I approached Tony Martinez after a recent forum, sharing the basic arithmetic of the rate increase, with Brownsville's ratepayers contributing approximately $325 million towards the building of a $500 million power plant or 65% of the total cost, while receiving only 25% of the power, the mayor said my first figure was correct, but that the the plant was going to cost a "billion."

Then, he tried to hedge on his "billion" dollar estimate, not able to quickly do the math in his head, and said it would be proportionate to the contribution of the ratepayers.

That would mean the power plant would have to cost $1.3 BILLION, that is, if the Brownsville ratepayers are only paying 25% of the actual cost.(No one has ever reported the plant costing that much to build.)

Back in 2014, this blog looked at the cost from another angle:

"First of all: Is $340,000,000 for 200 megawatts of power a good price? Not according to charts on what a typical natural gas powered plant should cost. While Brownsville's cost averages out to $1.7 million per megawatt, the national average is $917,000 per megawatt. That would be the equivalent of paying $6.09 per gallon for gas when H.E.B. has it for $3.29 per gallon. That's the deal Tony Martinez and his cronies are cooking up for you.(They are likely other hidden costs that will drive our actual cost even higher.)"

Of course, now it appears that the Tenaska Power Plant will not even be built, but still the rate increase, that was only to be in effect for five years, 2013-2018, is still being collected.

Although we've referred to the electric portion the rate to have been increased 36%, it is really closer to 42% since it's actually being compounded.

Nurith, obviously your family has the means to easily deal with the higher rates, but your community, District 1, the people you say you care about so much, are struggling to pay this higher rate with ZERO accountability from P.U.B. or the City of Brownsville as to HOW these monies are being dispersed.

What a service it would be, Miss Galonsky, for you, as a candidate for District 1 and a member of the P.U.B. Board, to get to the bottom of this for your constituents!

While we can't guarantee such a bold move would give you the victory May 4, it would indeed be a public service and that's why you are running, right?