HOW DO WE CHARACTERISE CITY OFFICIAL'S INSIDER DEALING?

With regard to our story on Mayor Trey Mendez and former city staffer Ramiro Gonzalez' purchase of a downtown property having a tax lien along with a request for a huge grant from a taxpayer funded entity to make repairs on that same building, we received this question:

Jim in your opinion, is this criminal or just simply unethical ?

Let me add two other descriptive phrases; the appearance of impropriety and simply opportunism.

So, for the sake of discussion, we have four options:

1.   An illegal act

2.  An unethical, but not illegal act

3.  The appearance of impropriety

4.  Simply opportunism

Please remember the reader asked for my "opinion."

We'll separate our discussion into two articles, first dealing with the Ramiro Gonzalez' purchase allowed by the City Commission in 2014.

Ramiro Gonzalez

We'll start with Ramiro Gonzalez' purchase of a tract of land he discovered in 2014, during his tenure as City Planner, that he claimed had no apparent ownership.

Ramiro's request to purchase the tract was actually on the City Commission agenda with a graphic showing the location of the property and its size and shape.

We don't know if Ramiro paid for the survey to the left or if the work was done for free by a city department.  The survey reads "prepared for Ramiro." 

Ramiro claimed, in a binder attached to the agenda item, that an "independent certified appraiser" valued the .245 acre tract at $7,145.

But, Ramiro was not getting simply a .245 acre tract, but also two other adjacent tracts of .64 acres and 1.089 acres were being thrown in on the deal by the City Commission.

Using the simple math of Ramiro's "independent certified appraiser," if a .245 acre tract on Central Boulevard(the agenda item said "Lakeside" to make the property seem less valuable) is worth $7,145, then .245 acres, plus .64 acres, plus 1.089 acres, for a total of 1.974 acres would be worth at least $57,568.

That means that, if Ramiro's self-furnished appraised value of .245 acres with frontage on Brownsville's retail commercialized Central Boulevard is accurate, and I think it's way low, the City Commission gifted him over $50,000 in free land.

Likely, that violates the City Charter and is illegal, but it is obviously unethical.  

The City Commission is entrusted with protecting Brownsville's assets, not giving them away.  Property under the city's care should have been sold to the highest bidder, not gifted to a city employee, no matter how valued.

What's so ironic is that Tony Martinez promised during his first campaign for Mayor the "first act of his administration" would be the creation of a city ethics code. 

He never fulfilled that promise, likely a good thing because he obviously has little understanding of ethics or chose to ignore ethical standards to compensate a valued aide outside normal methods.

The City Commission gave Ramiro Gonzalez another another freebie, closing a right-of-way that existed on the property:

c) APPROVAL on SECOND and FINAL READING of Ordinance Number 2014-1590, authorizing the City Manager to abandon and close a portion of Lakeside Boulevard Right-of-Way, located in the Brownsville Land and Improvement Company subdivision. (Carlos Lastra-Engineering)"

Ordinance 2014-1590, conveying the land to Ramiro Gonzalez and eliminating the right-of-way, passed unanimously.

Those on the City Commission at that time:

Ricardo Longoria, Jr.

Jessica Tetreau

Deborah Portillo

John Villareal

Estela Vasquez

Rose Gowen

While our report did not garner much attention in May 2014, we did receive the following comments:

2. AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 9:41 AM

   CONFLICT OF INTEREST PURE AND SIMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

   ReplyDelete
3. 
   AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 10:45 AM

   Pinche viejo mamon lo masco y no lo trago. Da asco nomas de verlo.

   ReplyDelete
4. 
   AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 10:53 AM

   Mira mira mira, que mamones son estos cabrones de la cuidad!

   ReplyDelete
5. 
   Ricardo MirelesMay 17, 2014 at 11:31 AM

   I wish God would come amd see what assholes run our city!

   ReplyDelete
6. 
   AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 12:32 PM

   You want to get rid of the people fucking over the city, vote them out of office. It's not enough to bitch and moan about the obvious problem. The lazy asses that don't vote are our biggest obstacles to changing business as usual. And for those who bitch but don't vote, they should be dragged out of their houses by their hair and beaten like a gong.

   ReplyDelete
7. 
   AnonymousMay 17, 2014 at 3:28 PM

   God doesn't give a shit about this town. Stop waiting on someone else and do shit yourself!