DID JESSICA TETREAU VOTE AGAINST THE TENASKA DEAL FOUR TIMES AS SHE CLAIMS?

 

Commissioner Jessica Tetreau

Candidates for public office frequently toss around words like honesty, transparency, integrity, although, in actual practice, they seldom measure up to their claims.

Repeatedly, Commissioner Jessica Tetreau, currently seeking the office of mayor, has stated in public  forums and on the campaign trail, that she was opposed to the Tenaska deal that resulted in Brownsville ratepayers receiving inflated power bills to cover the cost of a huge power plant that was never built.

We submit the work of Juan Montoya, investigator and journalist, quoting from his blog, El Rrun Rrun:

"Jessica Tetreau – blandly asserts that she voted against the Tenaska project four times. Readers of this blog have pointed out that Tetreau (in the interest of truth in advertising we'll give notice that she advertises here) may be stretching the truth a bit, if not outright lying in the ad below. A fact check has yielded evidence that contradicts her claims.

A cursory examination of the official record shows that Tetreau was sitting on the commission when Martinez rammed the project through in meetings held December 11 and December 17, 2012, browbeating the unbelieving commissioners to sign on to the project that was supposed to assure the availability of electricity for residents and attract manufacturers.

On December 11, 2012, when the first reading on the two ordinances – one to allow the city to operate a gas-powered plant and the other to raise utility rates to pay for it – Tetreau was present and was one of the commissioners who unanimously approved them during a vote. 

And she was absent for the second reading December 17 when the other commissioners voted unanimously – albeit without the District 2 commissioner – to make it final. At the time she never raised any objection. And her absence after she had cast the "yes" vote to adopt the ordinances in the December 11th meeting indicated she was for the Tenaska Project.

Those votes of December 11 and December 17, saddled the residents of Brownsville with the Tenaska Fiasco.

Being absent for the December 17th meeting could be construed to mean that either she was fine with the project, or that she was derelict in representing her constituents when she had the chance. In city politics, you can't have it both ways.

And on March 5, 2013, when planner Ramiro Gonzalez told the commission that in order to grant Tenaska a tax abatement they would have to enlarge the boundaries of the 550 Reinvestment Zone to cover their facility, she not only voted in favor, but seconded the motion to close the public hearing and then seconded the motion to approve the item. 

We're not picking on just the commissioner here, because she was but one of the members of the entire city commission who were bamboozled by master manipulator Martinez. 

But the record shows that much later, on November 17, 2015, Tetreau seconded commissioner Ricardo Longoria's motion and cast her vote to implement subsequent utility rate increases  according to the city's Memorandum of Understanding with Tenaska. 

Does the record show that the commish was against Tenaska as she claims in her television ads? 

Obviously not, but in an election it'll be up to the voters to decide whether to believe the ads or the official record."