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| Brownsville Observer Editor |
From the editor: Reaching for a shirt this morning, I came across my old "FRONTON" shirt from the day representative democracy was declared dead, deceased, non-functioning in Brownsville, Texas.
Four uneducated, arrogant city commissioners, John Cowen, Rose Gowen, Jessica Tetreau and commissioner/insurance man Joel Munguia, after listening to pleas from citizens actually living on historic E. Fronton Street, who implored the commission to NOT change the name of their street to honor some rich Anglo businessman, chose to ignore "the will of the people."
I guess the foursome just "knew better"than the taxpayers they claim to represent. . .
Below is a reposting of our 2019 report:
DEMOCRACY FAILS MISERABLY FOR EAST FRONTON STREET RESIDENTS
During a spell of overt goofiness, the City Commission had changed the name of a downtown street from it's historic 1850 "East Fronton Street" to "McNair Family Drive."
Carlos Lastra from Engineering, who was given the task of discerning the mood of the residents of East Fronton about the proposed name change, failed miserably and the City Commission faced an angry group of East Frontoners who had no idea the name of their street was being changed.
Have no fear. 4th graders from sea to shining sea will be reminded in the morning that the United States of America is a democracy ruled "by the people."
The residents of East Fronton Street got that same lecture in two languages and have shown up at the last two City Commission meetings to see the American dream in action.
"You can correct this with a petition," they were told, among other things:
1. Play by the rules, conform to every requirement of a newly enacted city policy about changing the name of a street.
2. Go en masse to the commission meeting to voice your position to your duly elected representatives.
3. Sit back and observe democracy in action.
The resident taxpayers of East Fronton did everything asked of them before showing up at tonight's meeting to see if the concept of democracy actually worked.
They were sorely disappointed, seeing the uglier side of city politics, how a rich Anglo businessman could indeed manipulate four commissioners to get the agenda item shot down.
All four, much like Trump supporters in the U.S. Congress, questioned the methodology instead of responding to their constituents.
Commissioner Rose Gowen questioned the wording of the policy awarding a vote to each owner listed on the Cameron County property listings, while Jessica Tetreau mentioned conversations with other Texas cities whose policy differed from Brownsville's.
The vote almost got tabled again until Commissioner Ben Neece reminded the commission that "we've passed the policy and the City Attorney has ruled on it. Let's vote and do the right thing."
Commissioners Joel Mungia and John Cowen, neither of whom normally ever make so much as a peep in City Commission meetings, both attacked the policy at tonight's meeting.
None of these four had any criticism of the policy when it was enacted weeks ago. Had the McNair family gained their support somehow?
Four voted against residents having a say in their community, all using convoluted reasoning to support their position: Rose Gowen, Jessica Tetreau, John Cowen and Joel Munguia.
Nurith Galonsky, Ben Neece and Mayor Trey Mendez supported the citizenry.
"Let it be noted that the vote was 4-3," stated Mendez, making certain we knew where he stood, even though his vote is normally needed only in a tie.
Commissioner Nurith Galonsky apologied to the East Fronton citizens as they exited chambers.
Renaming East Fronton Street McNair Family Drive was one of the dumbest ideas the City Commission has ever come up with.
ReplyDeleteThe City always sides with those with money and power.
ReplyDelete