TREY MENDEZ CLAIMS REPORTS OF HIS FINANCIAL DEALINGS WITH THE BCIC ARE "FAKE NEWS"

Mayor Trey Mendez  utilized his Facebook Public Official page to respond to criticism of the propriety of our mayor requesting hundreds of thousands of dollars from our city's 4B "quality of life" entity to fix up several downtown buildings he'd purchased.

We will offer some analysis directly below the mayor's statement. 

Mayor Trey Mendez

A lot of fake news and false accusations have been circulating over the past week regarding a downtown building that I purchased with a friend many months ago. The property had been on the market for years, almost 90% vacant, and in major need of a restoration. It was listed with a respected local realtor and had multiple offers. For reasons unknown to me, two other offers fell through, and the owner selected ours. The property was appraised by a bank and financed through a normal process.

The property was eligible for grant funding through BCIC to assist in the rehabilitation and development. Because city commission members and BCIC board members were also specifically allowed to apply, an application for funding was submitted in accordance with the guidelines. Before the application even made it to the BCIC board, some individuals took offense to the application due to political agendas, unfounded assumptions and false accusations of an "insider deal" purchase. After careful consideration, the application for grant funding was withdrawn prior to review by the board, as was another that had already been approved. As Mayor, I am constantly attacked and accused of improprieties. Most disappointing though, is when people publish blatant lies with no accountability to the truth. Some are paid to do so, while others seek relevance or simply enjoy causing trouble.

I've been invested in my community for years and I have nothing to hide. In my 11+ years of public service, I have been yelled at, protested against and threatened countless times. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, nor will I stop believing that our City is capable of great things, and that a positive narrative and strategic thinking, combined with a unified effort to lift our city up, will raise the quality of life in Brownsville for everyone. Many more good things are on the horizon. Thank you for allowing me to serve as your Mayor.

Analysis: The concerns expressed in our articles dealt with one primary issue; the propriety of the mayor to use or apply for hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, an entity for which he has a clear hand in staffing, funding and setting guidelines, a board set up to disperse monies for "quality of life" projects in the City of Brownsville.

Trey has an answer for that.

He states: "Because city commission members and BCIC board members were also specifically allowed to apply, an application for funding was submitted in accordance with the guidelines."

Does that sound right to you?

City Commissioner Pedro Cardenas might disagree, as he stated at Wednesday's City Commission meeting during a session on ethics:

"If you were responsible for setting the guidelines, you shouldn't go near it."

Should a city commission member who appoints citizens to be members of the BCIC, funds their board, sets guidelines for that board's operation, be allowed to request funding from that very board?

Am I wrong in thinking that to be a textbook example of the "appearance of impropriety" and "conflict of interest?"

Trey also claims that even BCIC members are eligible to apply for the monies they disperse.

Well, heavens to Betsy, that sounds like corruption encouraged, not merely tolerated.

Trey mentions a building he "bought with a friend."

That "building" was the downtown Coca Cola Building, 12,000 square feet of history adjacent to the City Commission/U.S. Post Office building.

That "friend" was Ramiro Gonzalez, a city official for the past decade, working primarily as a City Planner, but more recently given a more pretentious title, the Director of Government and Community Affairs.

We broke the story that Ramiro, as City Planner, had discovered a tract of land on Central Boulevard with no legal owner, was allowed to buy the tract by the City Commission for the mere pittance of $7,145, then was gifted two additional tracts by the City Commission worth at least $50,000.

In the wake of that story and reports about Trey and Ramiro's $200,000 request from the BCIC to fix up the Coca Cola Building, Ramiro resigned his $82,500 job with the city.

Next, another local blogger and I went back into BCIC minutes to locate additional money requests by the mayor.

We learned that Trey Mendez had also been awarded $80,000 to upgrade the building at 1015 East Washington.

It was a veritable "free for all" for cash money at the BCIC as BCIC Chair Michael Limas himself, the nephew of disgraced Judge Abel Limas, sentenced to prison for racketeering and bribery, applied for and was granted $122,000 to remodel one of his buildings.

BCIC Chair Limas had another application ready for approval by the same BCIC in the amount of $160,000, but, for some reason, got cold feet at the last minute and rescinded the request.(Some have hinted that the presence of District Attorney Luis Saenz at that very BCIC meeting September 30 may have spooked Limas.)

Close Mendez friend Attorney Dennis Sanchez, appointed by Mendez to GBIC, received $32,000 from the BCIC on behalf of Las Ruinas L.L.C. Juan Montoya of El Rrun Rrun noticed that, in Cameron County records, Trey Mendez is the contact for Las Ruinas L.L.C.

Trey Mendez uses the Trumpian phrase "fake news" to describe these reports. We'll let the reader decide what's fake and what's real.

"Let the reader use discernment." St. Matthew 24:15

Trey chafes at the phrase "insider deal," but, when you are drawing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a board you staff, fund and set guidelines for, please explain why that should not concern our city's hardworking taxpayers whose tax monies are being used in that way.