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| 1015 East Washington Street |
Whatever you think of Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez' ethics or efforts to improve flood control in our city, the young man has been a busy little beaver in acquiring downtown properties and asking the taxpayers to fix them up for him.
This month it was the historic Coca Cola Building for which the mayor was asking $200,000 from the taxpayer-funded BCIC to bring up to speed, a request later "removed" or "withdrawn" depending on your source.
But, folks kept telling me that the mayor had a request approved at the last BCIC meeting.
Scouring the agenda for the August 26, 2021 BCIC meeting (a copy of the approved minutes is not yet online), we discovered a request, not from Urban 8 Properties, L.L.C., the firm Trey used with Ramiro this month, but Ventura Properties, L.L.C., for $80,000 from the BCIC to remodel a building at 1015 East Washington Street.
Ventura Properties, L.L.C. lists its office address as 754 East Levee Street and its' "principal" as Juan Mendez, surely Juan "Trey" Mendez, the Mayor of Brownsville.
If a twinge of conscience caused Trey to "withdraw" the $200,000 BCIC request to fix up the Coca Cola Building, will he now return the $80,000 granted last month to fix up a the property pictured above at 1015 East Washington?
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Mendez knows, unlike you, that he lives in a capitalist society. He's playing the game and until he breaks the law he's fine. Being mayor does not preclude you from engaging in business. If it looks bad, well, looks are not playing in our courts.
ReplyDeleteGo Trey. Beautify downtown!!!
Make Brownsville Great Again.
If he were an elected federal official it would be a crime to use his office to make money in his private business. The appearance is if a money hungry ugly man. If he can live with that look, good for him. Nothing wrong with using the system legally to make money, but that changes when you are mayor. He should resign and then make all the money he wants revitalizing downtown.
DeleteWhy do we need to only show concern about criminal activities? What about ethics? Does it not bother you that the mayor has asked for at least $280,000 to repair his buildings, all of it "free money" supplied by the hardworking taxpayers of this fairly poor community? Does it not bother you that the mayor personally sits on one of the boards that decides how 4A "economic development" monies are dispersed?
DeleteNo, it does not bother me one whit - because the mayor is doing something that will in a way aid the downtown revitalization you always bemoan.
DeleteAnd ethics, you say?
What freakin' ethics? The nation does not seem to care about ethics at the moment. What rock have you been under? You haven't answered my questions: who else applied for the funds, and did the mayor have a documentable say in who gets the money?
Brownsville always fights tooth and nail against improving.
The issue at hand is not the nation's ethics, nor who else applied for funds. Stop deflecting. "Documentable say"? GTFO HERE WITH THAT! The issue is how much money has the mayor obtained from grants to "upgrade" his properties downtown. Brownsville does not fight tooth and nail against improving. Brownsville can not progress because of the fat cats always making a cash grab and taking opportunities for improvements away from the common folk who might not be as aware of the programs out there available to help local businesses. You said "the mayor is doing something that will in a way aid the downtown revitalization", what is he doing? He is enriching himself in the process and making less funds available for everyone else and that has a air of impropriety. Will the mayor face the electorate and give us the answers we want? How much public money has the mayor received to improve his businesses? How much?
DeletePinche enano culero!
ReplyDelete