DOES FORMER CITY OFFICIAL RAMIRO GONZALEZ BECOME THE SCAPEGOAT FOR THE MAYOR'S LACK OF ETHICS?

 

Elon Musk, Mayor Trey Mendez

In a long Facebook post Monday, just before midnight, former Brownsville Director of Government and Community Affairs Ramiro Gonzalez touched on his recent resignation, but stopped short of explaining why he submitted it.

As we reported in the Brownsville Observer the day it happened, Gonzalez, in his words, "was asked to resign or get terminated and given a couple of hours to make that decision."

That ultimatum was likely issued by City Manager Noel Bernal, under whose auspices Gonzalez most recently served.

Gonzalez claims "many knew" why he resigned, but does not explain further, choosing to use the rest of his farewell letter to discuss his passion for downtown revitalization and list the projects he worked on during his 12 year tenure with the city.

The timing of Gonzalez' resignation coincided with a report in this blog and in Juan Montoya's El Rrun Rrun that Ramiro Gonzalez and Mayor Trey Mendez had joined forces to purchase the historic Coca Cola Building in downtown Brownsville, then submitted a request to the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation for $200,000 to refurbish the building.

Coca Cola Building

We also reported that Mendez had submitted and been awarded $80,000 the previous month from the BCIC for remodeling yet another downtown building.

Both of those submitted grants were requests for a portion of $10,000,000 SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had donated to the City of Brownsville for downtown revitalization, but the funds were being administered and controlled under BCIC and City of Brownsville guidelines.

At the same time that the mayor was requesting $280,000 for building upgrades from a city board, BCIC Board Chair Michael Limas was requesting $282,000 to make upgrades on his downtown buildings.

No world exists where it's ethical for a city's mayor, city officials and the board chair of the board dispensing those monies to step first in line to claim at least $562,000 in funds donated to the city for economic development.  City officials are elected to serve the city, not enrich themselves opportunistically from city funds.

Now, if Mayor Mendez was involved in the very situation prompting the City Manager to call for Ramiro Gonzalez's resignation, shouldn't the mayor resign as well?

Mendez has already stated he will not resign and, he can't be forced to do so.  He's an elected official, not someone working under the City Manager.

So, Ramiro Gonzalez becomes the scapegoat.

As for the $562,000 in grants to Mayor Mendez and BCIC Board Chair Michael Limas, we understand those requests have been withdrawn.

Why were they withdrawn if everything was on the up and up as Gonzalez implies in his resignation farewell?  Certainly, it was not a twinge of conscience as the withdrawals occurred only after light shown on these unscrupulous maneuvers.

Does the resignation of Ramiro Gonzalez and the rescinding of grant requests of grant requests make you feel better about the ethics of Brownsville's public officials?

We think not.

Other ethical issues have surfaced recently in the city which we will reiterate in a subsequent article.