WILL BCIC BOARD MEMBERS BE REMOVED? TREY MENDEZ, DENNIS SANCHEZ SCENARIO

Mayor Trey Mendez

Perhaps in response to recent revelations that Mayor Trey Mendez and BCIC Chair Michael Limas have been using our city's BCIC Board of Directors as their personal ATM, City Manager Noel Bernal has placed the following item on the agenda of the upcoming October 19, 2021 City Commission Meeting: 

BOARD APPOINTMENTS 1) Consideration and ACTION on Resolution Number 2021-077 authorizing the removal and appointment of members to the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC) Board of Directors. (City Manager's Office)

If acted upon, the above agenda item would remove BCIC Chair Michael Limas, Vice Chair Tracy Wickett, Secretary Jill Dominguez, Treasurer Zoraima Diaz and members Mark Horowitz, Aida Coronodo Garcia and Ben Neece.

That action alone might not get to the root of the problem.

For one thing, the BCIC Board of Directors is an unpaid board, operating under the auspices, direction and supervision of a corporation with salaried employees.

BCIC CEO Josh Mejia, in a report to the Brownsville Observer, stated that in 2020 the BCIC staff consisted of four full-time and one part-time personnel with a combined annual salary of $297,500.

The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation's website describes the corporation's role as "administrative support" for the BCIC Board.

Certainly, that "administrative support" by the salaried corporation would at least share responsibility to vet funding and project requests.

So, are the board members a mere scapegoat?

If the City Commission is intent on cleaning up the process, shouldn't the salaried members of the corporation, ultimately responsible for "administrative support," also be terminated and replaced?

To illustrate how the BCIC has been operating or, in some cases, being played, let's use as a case in point, a funding request from respected local attorney, Dennis Sanchez.

Attorney Dennis Sanchez

Juan Montoya's El Rrun Rrun summarizes it best:

"Then, on the same meeting of August 26, Dennis and Marianne Sanchez under the LLC Las Ruinas II came before the board for $32,500 to remodel a property located at  1144 E. Madison. 

It also should be noted that Dennis Sanchez was appointed by Mendez and the city commission to another sales-tax funded entity – the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC) – as a board member until it was disbanded and the city commission appointed themselves as board members.

A corporate search of the Las Ruinas II LLC reveals that Mendez was listed as the contact person for the LLC. 

Mendez is still listed as the Las Ruinas Properties II LLC contact person in the corporate listing. Texas Secretary of State records show Mendez relinquished his place as managing member and Dennis Sanchez replaced him this past March.

Did Mendez merely loan the Sanchezes the LLC so they could go to the BCIC well and never told the board that he formed the LLC before he passed it on for them to use for their application?"

So, it becomes a subterfuge of hidden ownership, multiple L.L.C.'s, utilizing friends you've appointed to boards that dispense 4A or 4B funding.

City government becomes, not an opportunity to serve the people, but a cash cow for personal enrichment.

Michael Limas

Breaking news:  As I'm typing this story, I get a text informing me that the contract for the restaurant at the new airport terminal has just been awarded to Michael Limas.

That contract award may be totally legit, but, with all that's transpired in the last two months, all a taxpayer can say is "really?"

What's happening with our city?

In recent days, going through my mind is a feature of the old Carol Burnett Show, as spoof of a soap opera, Carol named "As the Stomach Turns."

Brownsville's city government has made many citizens queasy recently.