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TSC BOARD OF TRUSTEE ISSUES STATEMENT ON TERCERO

August 2, 2016, 9:58 am
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"On Monday, August 1, 2016, the TSC Board of Trustees voted 5-1 to give President Lily F. Tercero formal notice of termination, and placed her on administrative leave pending a dismissal hearing.

 Mr. Mike Shannon, TSC Vice President of Student Services, will serve as the interim President of TSC. 

"We have full confidence in his leadership abilities," said Vice Chair Trey Mendez. "Mr. Shannon possesses many great qualities. Among them is his ability to motivate his peers and work tirelessly on behalf of the students in the TSC district. He is the best person to lead TSC during this transition."
"At this time, we cannot discuss details of the investigation performed by independent counsel," Mendez said. "However, it was clear that the institution needed a change in leadership." 

 Tercero has served as President of TSC since October, 2011. 

 She helped guide TSC through its separation from a partnership with the University of Texas System, and most recently helped the college obtain accreditation from the The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges ("SACSCOC"), the regional body for the accreditation of degree granting higher institutions in the southern states. 

"Dr. Tercero has given many years of service to the district." said Adela Garza, Chair of the Board of Trustees. 

 "However, it is time to move forward, and we ask that the community continue to support the college. Every board member wants what is best for TSC, and we will continue to work to grow the college and fulfill our mission to provide affordable high quality education to all students."
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AS TSC DROPS PRESIDENT, BISD EXTENDS SUPER'S CONTRACT

August 2, 2016, 10:44 am
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By Juan Montoya
Even as Texas Southmost College looks for a way to drop President Lily Tercero for a number of alleged shortcomings, the board of directors of the Brownsville Independent School District will consider awarding Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas a three-year extension on top of the two years left on her existing contract.

The meeting is today at 3 p.m. at the BISD main building at 1900 Price Road.

The item titled " 89. Discussion, consideration and possible action regarding extension and amendment to Superintendent's Contract (Board Member Request)." Interestingly, it is among the items on the "consent agenda" which means there is already a majority that won't object to taking an up and down vote on the item.

The agenda doesn't say which of the board member requested that it be put on the agenda for consideration. But sources say it was trustee Joe Rodriguez who moved to give Zendejas a three-year cushion in case the upcoming trustee election doesn't go their way.


Coming a scant three months before the November elections where a majority of the board (four members) are up for reelection, this means that their vote will saddle the new majority with a superintendent for the next five years.

That is exactly what happened when a majority at TSC – Kiko Rendon, Ed Rivera, Art Rendon, Dr. Rey Garcia and Trey Mendez – voted to giver her a two-year extension and keep her salary at $228,000.

Kiko Rendon and Rivera did not run for reelection and knew that they had the votes to saddle the new majority with her administration or be forced to buy out her contract. Art Rendon and Garcia remained on the board and were not up for reelection.

The only members that didn't vote to extend the contract were now-chairperson Adela Garza and Ray Hinojosa.

Now, as a myriad of problems popped out at the college which forced the new majority to cut their losses and order a hearing for her dismissal for cause, it is more than certain that the taxpayers of the college will have to foot at least some of the bill to pay for that extension.

That is what is going to be considered at BISD tonight. Trustees Jose Chirinos, Otis Powers, Catalina Presas-Garcia and Minerva Peña, all up for reelection, will have a vote on the item. If they vote and then lose in November, they would have voted to encumber the incoming board members with Zendejas for the next five years.

But it gets better.

If you notice, the agenda item also calls for an unspecified "amendment" to the her contract, but doesn't specify what they want to amend.

And they call this transparency?

What if there is a clause included that states that the board agrees not to terminate her contract before the five-year period is up? Or what if it calls for graduated salary increases each year?

What exactly is in the existing contract is something that the district is supposed to post on its Internet site, but it does not. Tonight, when the vote comes up for the extension, the public won't know what its representatives on the board are agreeing to.

When Rodriguez and his majority brought Zendejas on board, they gave her carte blanche to rearrange the deck chairs on the HMS BISD. She, apparently, has pleased her masters.

Just a few meeting ago, the majority also voted to extend BISD general counsel Baltazar Salazar's contract to a hefty $245,000 a year. Although the contract has a termination period clause in it, it effectively ties the hands of future boards in deciding about his continued employment. It was an open secret in the district that Zendejas wanted a piece of that action and protection, too.

This lack of transparency is about par with Zendejas' tenure at the BISD. When she was named interim superintendent, there were lengthy discussions about having a nationwide search for the new superintendent, to hire a consultant to assist the board and a citizens committee to be formed to choose the new one.


None of that happened. The trustees – especially Rodriguez, who talked a big game about consultants and committee sizes – just kind of ignored their past promises and made her assignment permanent

And now, even as the results of such irresponsible official acts is all too apparent at TSC, the current majority – Joe Rodriguez, Cesar Lopez, Chirinos, Peña, Carlos Elizondo, and sometimes Peña – are getting ready to repeat the same mistake their big brothers over at TSC did.

After all, if it doesn't work out, the next board will have to buy out her contract or face a breach-of-contract lawsuit.  
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OTIS, CATY, MINERVA AND CHIRINOS HAVE CHALLENGERS

August 2, 2016, 5:32 pm
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Applications for a Place on the General Ballot
Position 3 (currently held by Herman O. Powers, Jr.)
Philip T. Cowen
Herman Otis Powers

Position 5 (currently held by Caty Presas-Garcia)
Laura Perez Reyes

Position 6 (currently held by Minerva Peña)
Kent Wittenmore

Position 7 (currently held by Jose H. Chirinos) 
Dr. Sylvia Perez Atkinson

Appointment of a Campaign Treasurer by a Candidate
Dr. Sylvia Perez Atkinson
(Dr. Sylvia Perez Atkinson)
Rigoberto Bocanegra
(Yolanda Begum)
Philip Thomas Cowen
(Dr. Irene Gulley)
Elia Cornejo Lopez
(Leo Lopez)
Laura Perez-Reyes
(Rick Canales)
Kent Wittenmore
(Kent Aubrey Wittenmore)

Candidate/Officeholder Campaign Finance Reports
Herman Otis Powers Jr.
(Himself)

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A GOOD IMPRESSION OF A DUCK: TSC TRUSTEE ART RENDON

August 3, 2016, 6:52 am
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By Juan Montoya
Faced with the most important decision they have made while they served as trustees on the board of the Texas Southmost College, six members cast a 5-1 vote to put president Lily Tercero on administrative leave and schedule a dismissal hearing to terminate her employment at the community college.
But why 5-1? Aren't there seven trustees? Was there a trustee absent or abstaining?
Image result for art rendonNo, it was trustee Art Rendon making his finest impression of a duck as he made hasty exit to avoid voting on the matter. Since Rendon works for the Brownsville Independent School District as an administrator in the Food and Nutrition Service Department, it couldn't have been an excuse having to do with his work. The votes took place after 11 p.m.
And in talking to his friends, we know of no family emergency that required his immediate attention.
And, having been at the Gorgas building earlier that day, we know the air conditioning system was working just fine. So why couldn't Rendon stand the heat of public service?
Perhaps he felt that if there was any fallout as a result of Tercero's termination he could always point to the record and say he never voted to get rid of hapless Tercero.
Image result for RRUNRRUNIt was left to Grampa Dr. Rey Garcia who has adopted Tercero as his grandkid to try to defend her against a compilation of missteps that have cost the college money for awarding a $1 million contract for windstorm insurance without going to the board for approval as she had been instructed to less than a year ago.
She became the third public administrator in recent memory who fell into the insurance trap and signed off on the $1 million dotted line without going to their board for approval.
Mark Yates, the current County Cameron Program Management and Development director was led out in handcuffs when he did the same thing there years ago when he was the auditor.
And former BISD Chief Financial Officer Lucio Mendoza was transferred to another position after he claimed he had signed off on the same type of insurance because the policy was also about to lapse and he flt it was his "fiduciary" duty to prevent that at all costs.
Garcia and granddaughter Tercero should be grateful the police weren't called to charge her as they were called to arrest Yates.
 Or perhaps it was because the nursing program, the jewel of college before the the ill-advised UTB-TSC  "partnership" decimated the vocational-technical mission of the community college, was put in in its death throes because of her dismal managerial skills.
That's the institutional loss.
On a more personal note, numerous students who had charted a career in nursing and took the first step at TSC were suddenly left out in the cold with no place to go after the mismanaged program was put on notice that unless the remaining students scored higher than 80 percent on the state certification test, there would be no more program. Tercero allowed that to happen
Art Rendon dismissed the educational aspirations of these young people saying: "What's 50 students compared to the needs of the other 5,000?"
It is, after all, as a BISD administrator survivor knows, a numbers game. People's dreams and efforts at getting an education in medical science don't really count for much, do they?
And TSC was conspicuously absent from the list of six community colleges who received federal grants to assist low-income students forge a road to a college education announced by Congressman Fil Vela Jr. Where was Lily?
Even former trustee Kiko Rendon chimed in in support of Tercero. He said the board while he was chairman would give her a TSC bucket list of "objectives" at the beginning of the year and she would have them finished at the end. So what happened to nursing, or the insurance, or the grants? Was that the board and its chairman's fault, then?
Kiko Rendon and his United Brownsville pal Ed Rivera locked $25,000 of the community college's budget funds to pay for the annual "membership" to that organization with negligible returns on the investment. However, this did allow these to fine gents to "get a seat at the table" with the Big Boys and ingratiate themselves with the movers and the shakers the likes of Carlos Marin, Fred Rusteberg, and Julieta Garcia.
Now we understand that Kiko – who was in hock with IBC's Rusteberg over $100,000s in unpaid loans – has taken his game to Mike Hernandez's OP 10.33 as a paid "consultant" to assist his messianic quest to eradicate poverty by October 2033.
Grampa Garcia, who may have whiffed a bit much of his patients' Novocaine over his long career as a dentist, even went as far as to call Tercero's forced separation a "personal vendetta."
If he wants talk to someone who wouldn't mind getting even with Tercero, he should interview those students whose dreams of working in the medical profession in the nursing field were shunted aside by Tercero's woeful performance as president of TSC.
As for Art Rendon, "if it quacks like a duck, and waddles like a duck," then his not voting in Tercero's firing constitutes a ducking of his responsibility to those who voted for him and the students who looked to him to protect their educational aspirations.
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WHEN WILL THE TSC $180,000 DE LA GARZA SHOE DROP?

August 3, 2016, 10:34 am
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By Juan Montoya
When Lily Tercero was hired as president of Texas Southmost College back in October 2011, her application carried a glowing recommendation from a Dr. Leonardo de la Garza, her former mentor and boss at the Tarrant County College District.
De la Garza said Tercero "is one of the best," noting she was actively involved in board decisions as well as her church and community.
"She worked with me at Sante (sic) Fe Community College and at Tarrant County (College District)," the recommendation read. "Lily is one of the brightest and most hard working individuals I know. She is a star, she just shines, and she will be an outstanding president at Texas Southmost College."
In what would amount to a quid pro quo, a month later, in November 17, 2011, Tercero asked the board chaired by Kiko Rendon that de la Garza be brought on board as a consultant and part of her "transition team."
The board agreed and fixed a generous $180,00 price tag for his assistance in "consulting" for Tercero as she sought to gain independent accreditation for the now-independent community college. Now, nearly five years later, this "temporary consultant" still continues to rake in the TSC dough.
At the time of his hiring on as a consultant to TSC de la Garza was chancellor emeritus of the Tarrant County College District. He had left in 2009 with two years left on his contract – but managed to work out a  deal where he would still receive $700,000 two years later, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
But de La Garza was also – and still was when he came on board with TSC – a vendor and associate of Dynamic Campus, an IT firm which specializes in selling Ebooks (Pearson) and Information Technology (IT) to school districts and entities of higher education like community colleges and universities.
By all measures, De la Garza moved fast.
By May 2012 – some six months later – De la Garza had steered a $1 million IT contract to his "Dynamic Campus," the computer firm for whom he had worked for more than three years before.
Then, on September 2012, four months after the $1 million pact, the company locked three segments of IT services to Dynamic Campus with TSC for an additional $10 million extending into 2015 with an option for another three years.
Who would have thought that from November 2011 to September 2012, De la Garza would have landed more than $10 million in contracts to his former employer?
Among the "consultant" fees included in the total was a $2,000 monthly retainer and a $1,500 fee for expenses every time he visits Brownsville and the TSC campus.
And to think that just a year before Tercero brought him to TSC – on October 2010 – de la Garza was part of the "Dynamic Campus" team hawking computer and Internet solutions at the Texas Association of Community Colleges' annual board of directors meeting held in Austin, Texas.
At the time he was listed as an employee with Dynamic Campus Solutions Inc., in effect an employee and salesman of the company.
As part of his duties at TSC, he was one of the consultants to the TSC board when the members evaluated the TSC president (his former employee who brought him here).
Once on board, de la Garza took part in advising Tercero and the board on the necessary policy moves and expenditures to make TSC a free-standing institution once it gained operational independence in the fall of 2013. On of those was the colleges' information technology (IT) section. As a close personal adviser of the new president, he would have had a direct hand in advising the TSC administrative staff on formulating the Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for the new IT setup.
As the local daily reported in September 2011, IT services were some of the many assets that became intertwined as the "partnership" between TSC and UT-Brownsville developed.
On May 21, 2012, the TSC board of trustees engaged the services of de la Garza's Dynamic Campus Solutions Inc. to implement the college's information technology (IT) solutions.
Tercero said the college was aiming for state-of-the-art technology. At the time, the contract required a budget amendment, said Chet Lewis, TSC former vice president for finance and administration.
The board approved the contract with a cap at $800,000 not to exceed $1 million and Lewis told then the price was for phase one of creating a new TSC system.
The local daily reported that the price "includes the creation of a new TSC website, the provision of network services such as email and phone, a help desk and a cloud, or protected Internet connection, for the school’s data. The phase will take place May 30 to Dec. 30 (2012)."
What Dynamic Campus senior vice president Richard Middaugh didn't tell the TSC trustees during his presentation on May 21 was that his company was incorporated in California and could not legally do business in Texas until it had filed its application for registration of a foreign for-profits corporation here.
Records with the Texas Secretary of State indicate that Dynamic Campus filed its application on September 6, 2012 and listed the date "on which the foreign entity first transacted business in Texas" as June 6, 2012, more than a week after TSC had granted it the IT contract.
Right before the May 21, 2012 $1 million award to Dynamic Campus Solutions, de la Garza was the featured "special guest" of Dynamic Campus Solutions in Orlando, Fla., during the 2012 American Association of Community Colleges' 92nd Annual Convention April 21-24 where the company invited participants to "stop by and see us and our special guest, Dr. Leonardo de la Garza at booth 822..."
One of the Tercero-de la Garza's "innovations" was the implementation of Ebooks, that is, course text books that students pay for up front with their tuition and are accessible to them online. The service was part of a multimillion deal between TSC and Dynamic Solutions.
Under this "cutting-edge" scheme, students paid an average of $95 for access to each course Ebook per class. This seemed like a good idea until parents and students realized that there was no hard copy of the book available and that there were some severe restrictions.to add insult to injury, if you go to the Pearson website, the same tome in a hard copy is available for some $10 less.
Dynamic Solutions website wrote this about Tercero: "President Lily Tercero’s bold vision to open with full IT functionality was realized, thanks to the resourceful Dynamic Campus team. She was able to put her focus on building academic programs and recruiting faculty and students. “Outsourcing with Dynamic Campus made good business sense,” she concluded.
That assessment may have been premature, according to industry analysts. They say that Pearson has been severely impacted by a dwindling demand for its eBooks and that students now favor hard copies that they don;t have to access through the Internet accounts.
This hasn't hurt de la Garza's business.
He continued to be paid by TSC as a consultant to Tercero on a myriad of matters, but Dynamic Solutions was never been left out.
Just as Lewis warned that the initial $1 million outlay to the company for IT work was just the beginning, the TSC administration staff came back on September 20, 2012, telling the board that they "had worked with Dynamic Campus to develop an amendment to the contract to proceed with the remaining phase of the proposed services."
They recommended – and the board approved without the need for further RFPs:
1. $2,042,856 for FY 2013 (Jan. 1-Aug. 31, 2013)
2. $3,568,944 for FY 2014 and
3. $3,824,616 for FY 2015 with an option to extend the contract an additional three-year term (until 2018).
Did de la Garza, while working as a consultant to TSC president Tercero and still associated with Dynamic Campus Solutions, receive a commission for the $10 million sale without disclosing his personal interest in the sales?
The new board majority at TSC is now going through its budget workshops.
Sources tell us that among the items being reviewed is the de la Garza contract, the college and Dynamic Solutions' relationship, and even the annual $25,000 "membership" to Kiko Rendon-Ed Rivera United Brownsville cronies. 
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COUNTY: WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING SAFETY HARNESSES

August 3, 2016, 10:58 am
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(Ed.'s Note: Folks visiting downtown Brownsville are getting used to seeing Cameron County Maintenance Dept. employees working to get the old Wells Fargo Bank Building at 835 E. Levee ready to house several county departments, including, we hear, the three existing Justices of the Peace offices now housed on Harrison St. At any one time, county employees are inside sprucing up the place, or on the roofs weatherizing them and plugging leaks. Today a crew of workers labored at the very top of the building, some 80 feet above ground. And a pedestrian with a camera who was passing by sent us this photo of a half-dozen workers laboring under the hot sun and wind without the benefit of safety harnesses. OSHA requires that workers above six feet must wear safety belt (harnesses). The height of the six-story bank building is listed at 72 feet, but once you add in the platform for the communication towers above and the fact that there is no safety rail or ledges, safety harnesses are definitely required. Below is a starter quiz for our county administrators and supervisors from the OSHA manual. At $180,000 a year paid to Administrator David Garcia, we would think it would be something he would know from top to bottom.


1. Workers in the construction industry, who are working on surfaces with unprotected sides or edges which are ______ or more above the lower level, must be protected from falls by their employer.
a. 3 feet 
b. 6 feet 
c. 9 feet 
ANSWER: Six feet is the general rule for the Construction Industry, i.e. it’s the threshold when no specific rule applies. (No fall protection is required until 10 feet when working on scaffolds.) NOTE: Fall protection must be provided regardless of height if you’re working above sharp objects (like exposed ends of rebars for concrete) or working above dangerous equipment (that you wouldn’t want to fall into).   
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MCALLEN'S SALES-TAX WOES A WARNING TO BROWNSVILLE

August 6, 2016, 8:45 am
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By Juan Montoya
Declining sales-tax receipts approaching fiver percent less this year than last has McAllen leaders scrambling and restricting new positions in city government there.
This city – which has historically positioned itself as the shopping Mecca for northern Mexico including reaching south to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, and  as far west as Laredo – has seen its sales tax receipts decline by $1,627,485 from the same period for 2015. (See numerical graphic at bottom.)
This has forced the city to lay aside plans to hire workers in several positions.
McAllen's sales-tax revenues lead all other cities in Hidalgo County. In Brownsville, its 2015 sales tax revenue ($27,410,120) was actually higher then the ad valorem property taxes in the 2016 city budget ($26,671,428).
McAllen city officials said that the devaluating peso and the violence in northern Mexico has contributed to the decline in sales there.  
And, unlike Brownsville, where city commissioners force a "transfer" from the Public Utility Board to offset shortages during budget time and sometimes in between, McAllen does not have that luxury and must curtail municipal expenditures.
"What we have in effect in Brownsville is the commission counting on the annual transfer of some $7 million in PUB funds received from the ratepayers who already pay property taxes," said a former PUB board member. "It is, in effect, a kind of double taxation on the people."
McAllen also has Development company firmed under the state's 4a, 4b programs to fuel economic growth and fund quality of life projects. Brownsville chose to split the half-cent into two quarters and fund the Greater Brownsville Incentive Corporation and the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation.
And while McAllen focuses  all its incentives into one corporation, Brownsville has seen its commissioners funnel the funds these corporations to fund the projects fund the pet projects of the commissioners happen to be in office at the time.
That's one reason the BCIC has, under Rose Gowen, steered the bulk of its estimated $4.2 million share of the sales taxes toward bike and hike trail and other "healthy" initiatives such as bike barn, the farmers' market and Cyclobia.
Before that, under the force of commissioner Charlie Atkinson, millions of these dollars and bonds issued with the tax receipts as collateral were funneled toward the Brownsville Sports Park.
Over that the GBIC, Ambiotec (and United Brownsville architect) Carlos Marin has collected thousands monthly toward his VIDA initiative, claiming it is lifting adults out of poverty and to good paying jobs. Every attempt by local bloggers to verify the vaunted results has resulted in stonewalling by tis directors.
And the GBIC has been seen as the personal ATM of local "planners" and visionaries who have used its funds for formulating plan after plan for projects they promised would generate "sustainable" economic growth. So far, the only jobs generated by these "plans" have been the jobs of the planners and engineering companies who are often the sole company vying for the bucks before the GBIC board.
And so plan after plan gets shelved and is collecting dust in someone's office. Even the pliant board members of the GBIC shied away from throwing good money after bad on projects pushed by Marin, Oscar Garcia, Jr., and other "dreamers" on the public nickel.
Some of these fine folks would have the city, university, college district and school district place all their eggs on gleaning a few economic development crumbs pegged to the maquiladora industry in Matamoros (or as they say Bi-National Economic Development). This – given the flight characteristics of this industry – is another blind alley to nowhere.
Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are making noises about eliminating the tax-free import of goods produced in these plants with cheap labor into the U.S. market. If and when this comes true, expect them to seek greener pastures and leave the local economy on both sides of the border high and dry.
McAllen's sales-tax woes should be a warning to Brownsville leaders against placing all our economic development eggs (and funds) in on basket.


 Net Payment                     payment    Change      2016 YTD           2015 YTD      Change
 this Period                          last year

Brownsville   $2,806,115.00 $2,797,420.03  0.31%   $21,788,707.46   $21,303,478.01   2.27%

Harlingen    1,729,021.26  1,704,916.52    1.41%   13,276,387.44      12,943,980.47   2.56%

McAllen         4.515,754.15  4,656,457.85   -3.02%  35,994,601.39  37,622,086.48      -4.32%


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"FIND ME, FIND ME, FIND ME, FIND ME...SOMEONE TO SUE"

August 6, 2016, 9:52 am
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"Find me somebody, somebody (find me somebody to sue) somebody, somebody to sue
Find me, find me, find me, find me, find me
Ooh, somebody to sue (Find me somebody to sue)
Ooh (find me somebody to sue)..."
Queen,"Someone to Sue (Love)"


By Juan Montoya
No sooner had the law firm representing Mike Hernandez III issued a stern demand letter to blogger Jerry McHale alleging defamation, than another blogger – Robert Wightman – reprinted what McHale had posted and dared the OP 10.33 leader to sue him, too.
Now, Hernandez III came into town with the prior fame of being a millionaire who made his bucks in a used-car and leasing company in Dallas/Ft. Worth. To Wightman, who has been known to file demand letters at the drop of a limp wrist, probably sees the potential for a nice little nuisance lawsuit that might leave a few bucks in his pocket.
So – after months of cajoling and defending "Mike,"– Wightman has now turned on him and says he would welcome a lawsuit by the rich guy, reprinted the objectionable quotes, and threatened to expose his dirty laundry to the world.
According to a city wag, there is an 11th Commandment in Brownsville to deal with the scurrilous Wightman. It states: "Do no engage Wightman in any conversation or dialogue or  allow him a glimpse inside your private space. He will – predictably – threaten you with destruction using the same information he was made privy to by your own hand."
But you see, Wightman – being a disbarred lawyer who got his license taken away for, well, defaming judges, lawyers, etc. – up in Dallas, Hernandez's turf, can't really step into court unless he files pro se or gets someone to sue him.
It's like the legal side of the group Queen. While Freddy Mercury and his pals were looking for someone to love, Wightman is dying to have some sue him so he can step back into a courtroom and dazzle the rubes of Brownsville with his legal acumen.
Over years' time, and after spending thousands of dollars on lawyers to defend themselves from the malingering lawyer, his victims (or their insurance companies) soon realize that continuing litigation will result in countless filings, motions, amended motions, legal gibberish without any precedent or foundation they must answer, and cut their losses.
They pay the guy off, he pockets a nice stash of cash, and it's off for the next ride.
Take it from someone who has been on that roller coaster ride: It's easier to fight a Tar Baby than it is to keep yourself clean after tangling with Wightman.
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EVEN IF IT'S A DAY LATE, WORKER SAFETY IS IMPORTANT

August 6, 2016, 4:37 pm
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(Ed.'s Note:After we posted a photo that one of our six readers sent us Thursday [one is on vacation] showing workers on the county building that used to house the Wells Fargo Bank on Levee Street without protective equipment like hard hats, safety harnesses or florescent vests, we got another one Friday showing them wearing the required garb. We won't say it was our posting the photo that did it, but anything that protects the workers at those heights is alright with us. The top photo is a little blurry, but it does show that the workers were wearing the OSHA-required equipment on Friday. We thank our eyes and ears out on the street for the photos. And to the county: Congrats on protecting your workers.)
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GARCIA: MYTHS AND FACTS ABOUT S. TEXAS SPANGLISH

August 7, 2016, 7:45 am
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By Dr. Lino Garcia, Jr.
Guest Columnist, 
McAllen Monitor


Throughout my life I have noticed frequent misinterpretations and misunderstandings of what I term “South Texas Spanish” or the use of Spanish by Rio Grande Valley residents.

Demeaning terms include: Tex-Mex, pocho, Border Spanish, and Spanglish, none of which truly explains this linguistic phenomena.

No language lacks intrusion by other languages, all suffer from the same mixture caused by invasions, and the mingling of cultures.

Remove the Greek, Latin, French, German words out of English and what we have left is an Anglo-Saxon trail. Since time has cemented the use of these words loaned to the English language, no one bothers to call it anything else but English.

Spanish was first developed in Spain from ordinary Latin as opposed to the Classical Latin, which was spoken by the learned. This emerging Spanish occurred during the 10th century A.D., but was invaded by the Greek, Visigothic, Celtic, Hebrew, Basque, and Arabic languages as these groups arrived in Spain. So now what we have is a mixture of various languages with Latin being the predominant root. This is the Spanish language that was brought to South Texas in the 16th century.

So let’s set the record straight:

Myth 1: Residents of South Texas speak a language that is not close to the real Spanish, especially one called Castilian Spanish. They are not truly bilingual because many do not know the grammar or how to write the Spanish language.

Fact: The definition of bilingual: is the ability to speak two languages. Nothing is said about writing the language, nor knowledge of grammar. There is no such activity known as Castilian Spanish. It is an invention by individuals who are prone to consider it more elegant than the Spanish spoken in the Americas. Obviously, and due to locations far from the mother language and influence by other languages, regions have developed regional words that are used only in certain areas or parts of the world. This phenomena is true of all languages, and can also be applied to the English spoken in England, in the South, in New York City and in South Texas. All have a regional usage, a sort of variety peculiar to the area.

Also noteworthy is that over time, many Spanish words have creeped into the present day usage of English. This includes: rodeo/rodeo; lasso/lasso; dale vuelta/dolly welter; pugnar/pugnacious; rancho/ranch; vigilante/vigilant; en pos de/posse; la riata/lariat; educación/education; teatro/theater; drama/drama; diligente/diligent and arribar/arrive.

Does that make English any different from other parts, and should we call it English-Mex? Absolutely not!

Myth 2: All Hispanics in the Southwest speak Tex-Mex or Spanglish.

Fact: In South Texas there are various levels of Spanish abilities, similar to any other language spoken in the world. The Spanish spoken in South Texas is mostly speaking/comprehension ability, since there are few occasions to write anything in Spanish; and the speaking/comprehension component is done at various levels of performance, reflecting the person’s level of education, awareness and immersion. To say that all Hispanics speak at a low-level or high-level reflects lack of knowledge of this topic.

To read the rest of the post, click on link below:
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HOW HOT IS IT? HOT ENOUGH TO MELT THE TAR OFF POLES

August 8, 2016, 8:44 am
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(Ed.'s Note: Hot enough for you? With the end of Dog Days ( between July 3rd and August 11th each year) on the horizon, local residents are breathing a sigh of relief that there is an official end to the heat. But this is South Texas and summer tends to last just a little longer than in other parts of the country. This photo was sent to us by one of our readers showing streams of tar pitch melting off light poles downtown. Some forms of this soft tar have melting points of between 80 to 110 degrees F., and recently the temperature index has reached up to 110, making the phenomenon in the photo above a common occurrence. If you look closely at the light poles, you can see that the tops are bleached dry wood while the bottom parts that still have tar are darker. Anyway, avoid scenes like this if you want to avoid a heat stroke. Just about all the light poles downtown have their own little pool of tar oozing onto the sidewalk nowadays.)
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TEXAS MONTHLY STORY: "TACOing ABOUT SOUTHMOST"

August 8, 2016, 8:51 am
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By Michael Hoinsky
Texas Monthly
August 4, 2016
Chances are you got that taco you’re eating by getting in your car and driving to an establishment like Torchy’s or Taco Deli, where you’re devouring it in a clean, air-conditioned environment. How convenient—and inauthentic.
Tacos are street food. They’re intended to be enjoyed on the go. The reason the countless places like the two mentioned above even exist in Texas, California, and elsewhere is mostly because of an area of Brownsville called Southmost, located just north of the border wall and defined by a three-mile radius of Southmost Boulevard, known as “Taco Boulevard.”
“Southmost is considered the Texas motherland of taquerias,” said Chuy Benitez, the Houston photographer whose images are featured in the Texas Folklife exhibit “Taquerias of Southmost,” opening on Wednesday. “It was where the taco spot became Americanized. Because what they serve would be considered street tacos in Mexico. The Southmost area is the first place where you actually had brick-and-mortar taqueria spots versus little taco shacks and mobile vending trucks for tacos.”
Around five years ago, Benitez traveled to Southmost with Cristina Ballí, the former executive director of Texas Folklife, an Austin nonprofit that champions the folk arts and varied cultures of the state. Ballí, in tandem with fellow Texas Folklife staffer Michelle Mejia, both Brownsville natives, had been conducting interviews and gathering research material to accompany Benitez’s photos, using funds designated for a statewide survey of food traditions from the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibit debuted in 2012 at the museum of the Brownsville Historical Association, another collaborator on the project.
The latest showing, at Texas Folklife, includes an opening reception with talks by Benitez, an El Paso native who, as an undergraduate photography major at the University of Notre Dame, came to realize that his hometown had been reduced to desert landscapes in the photography world and was largely missing depictions of the millions of people on both sides of the border. “That’s what lit the fire to make my own body of work that was about cultural representation.” Benitez will be joined on Wednesday by Mando Rayo, a blogger for Taco Journalismand co-author, with fellow Austinite Jarod Neece, of The Tacos of Texas, out September 20.
It can be said that Southmost, home to more than twenty locally owned taquerias, helped inspire the nationwide gourmet-ification of tacos over the past decade. But the tacos one will find in Southmost are nothing fancy. They’re fairly small, and a plate of five can go for five bucks. They also adhere to strict recipes.
“They’re garnished with cilantro and fresh chopped onion,” said Charlie Lockwood, the current director of Texas Folklife, citing a blog post written by Ballí. “Only certain types of tacos—bistec, fajitas, and tripas—will include avocado and white crumbled or shredded Mexican cheese. Bottles of green and red salsas are ready at each table. The tacos can also be accompanied by grilled onions and frijoles a la charra, or charro beans, but never rice. It just doesn’t go.”
Southmost has breakfast tacos too, but they’re more like the American version of the burrito. Flour is used instead of the traditional corn as with other tacos. That brings us to the tortilla, perhaps the most important part of the equation for all tacos served in Southmost. Most of the taquerias entrust Alaniz Tortilla Factory. Benitez visited the factory and discovered all the taquerias’ labels on the tortillas. “Each place had its own recipe,” he said. “None of them had generic tortillas. Everyone had a secret formula, and this tortilleria was like the gatekeeper to all that information.”

For complete story, click on link below:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/travel/taco-ing-southmost/
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FORMER P.I.CITY MANAGER FILES IN FEDERAL COURT

August 8, 2016, 9:25 am
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By Daniel Goldberg
Attorney
August 5, 2016
Port Isabel’s former City Manager, Edward Meza, filed suit against the City of Port Isabel and two of its City Commissioners, Juan Jose Zamora and Martin Cantu Sr. this past month in the Southern Federal District Court of Texas.
The suit details Zamora and Cantu’s flagrant corruption and abuse of power – a situation all too common in the Valley over the past few years.
When exposed by Meza, the Commissioners immediately voted to terminate Meza, stripped him of his severance package, and then engaged in a campaign of public disparagement.
Among other acts of self-dealing, Cantu and Zamora are accused of instructing various city departments to service city vehicles at auto-repair shops respectively owned by the two Commissioners.
The long serving City Manager, Meza, who was at that position since 2008, repeatedly warned the two errant Commissioners, as well as others within the City’s administration, of the illegality and impropriety of their conduct. The suit then discusses the stunning reversal of Meza’s fortunes as the two named Defendant Commissioners – Cantu and Zamora – orchestrated a political coup against Meza and his allies within the City, including former City Attorney, Robert Collins, Mayor Joe E. Vega, former Commissioner Guillermo Torres, and sitting Commissioner Maria de Jesus Garza.
After ignoring votes against them, the Defendants immediately terminated Meza and then Collins, thus silencing any attempt to stop the two Commissioners’ various alleged corrupt and banned practices.
As further punishment for his role in exposing their conduct, the defendants voted to strip Meza of his long promised severance package, which the City approved five years before. As a final assurance, the Defendants are accused of coordinating a campaign to disparage Meza individually and his term as City Manager publically, to include through advertising, news stories, and at City Hall meetings.
Meza alleges in his suit that the Defendant’s conduct amounted to an improper and banned attempt to deprive him of his first amendment rights, such as that to free speech and to petition the government.
Further, Meza alleges that the City breached the terms of the severance package agreement, which mandated a specified amount of compensation and benefits regardless of the reasons for termination.
The case is styled Edward Meza v. City of Port Isabel, Jose Zamora and Martin Cantu and is listed under Cause No. 1:16:CV-137 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

(Daniel Goldberg is representing Edward Meza in federal court. He can be reached at (713) 942-0600.)
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AFTER TWO YEARS, WHERE ARE THE OMNITRAX RESULTS?

August 8, 2016, 9:36 am
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(Ed.'s Note: We first published the generous franchise granted by the Brownsville Navigation District to the Brode Group's OmniTrax III to take over the operations (and everything else except the tracks) of the Brownsville-Rio Grande International Railroad for promises of good jobs and the establishment of an Industrial Park. After a year, a Master Plan was to be produced and the goodies start flowing to the port and its taxpayers and workers. It's been more than two years and we have not heard anything about the progress being made, if any. Although the local daily is filled with glowing reports on the port's progress, blessed little is said about the OmniTrax franchise results. This is what we bought into. Was it worth it?)

By Juan Montoya
Now that we have acquired a copy of the proposed franchise that the Brownsville Navigation District wants to grant Colorado-based OmniTrax III, we have a good idea of what the port will get and what the company will get in return.

The Company will get:
– A 30-year franchise agreement on leasing 1,200 acres of land for which it will pay $3,693 a month
– Exclusive use of the Brownsville Rio Grande International Railroad's 45 miles of track throughout the Brownsville Navigation District and 5 miles into the city of Brownsville itself. The BRG has six yards and more than 1,000 cars on hand. It boasts of being "armed with an array of services to offer shippers anywhere in the United States. Steel, scrap metal, agricultural and food products and other bulk materials have always been major commodities for the BRG, but chemical shipments have skyrocketed in recent years."
– It will pay only $2.5 million for the port's eight large locomotives, five smaller yard engines, railroad machinery, track hand tools, all the tools and machinery in the railroad's mechanical department, and all the rolling stock that includes 29 vehicles ranging from 21 pickup trucks, an electric hydraulic tire crane vehicle, and at least four heavy duty trailers. However, only $500,000 will be paid within 30 days of the commencement date and $2 million will be paid in seven equal yearly installments of $285,714 each starting one year from the agreement.
– A non-competitive franchise to all the Port's customers (its tenants)
– A promise by the district that it agrees to cooperate with OmniTrax to minimize or eliminate property, ad valorem, value added taxes, and similar taxes potentially or actually assessable to OmniTrax. Any taxes that are assessed, however, shall be the company's responsibility.
– The right to use without separate compensation or payment, the trade names Brownsville and Rio Grande International Railroad and BRG, car marks, trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property associated with the railroad.
– The right to use all market information, market analyses, marketing plans, customer information, operating or management policies, procedures and forms within the custody, control, or possession of the BGR Railroad used or developed for use in the operation of the BGR Railroad.
– Customer lists, supplier lists, distributor lists, purchase and sales records, blueprints, specifications, personnel and labor relations records, environmental control records, accounting and financial records, maintenance records, operations and management manuals, computer systems and software documentation, blank forms and plans and designs of products and equipment.
– The district will pay up to $1 million in out-of-pocket marketing expenses for the Industrial Park development area."
– The district shall grant the company "credit against the franchise consideration (of $8.5 million) " for:
– direct investment in the common elements as shown in the Master Plan which will be formulated within one year of the agreement date
– District will also share costs for tenant/user investment in the common elements as shown on the Master Plan
– District will also share costs in the amounts paid for engineering and related professional consulting services for the common elements as shown on the Master Plan
– District will also share in the costs for development of infrastructure for the Incubator Site (227 ares) not specifically dedicated to an individual tenant or user (e.g., trackage, scale, and other common elements)
– If OmniTrax fails to satisfactorily perform with respect to the Franchise consideration ($8.5 million) the Port may terminate OminTrax's exclusive rights to the percentage of undeveloped and unimproved acreage in the Industrial Park. This shortfall in the consideration below $8.5 million based on a formula. For example, if if by the end of the five years the total paid has been $6.8 million, OmniTrax shall either post a bond to the district in the amount of $1.7 million, district can terminate OmniTrax exclusive rights to 20 percent of the undeveloped land.
– District will apply for state and federal grant funding for common elements of the Industrial Park
– And if the port decides that want to sell the railroad, or part of it, OmniTrax wants the rights of first refusal to buy it from the port.
– As far as the Master Plan, OmniTrax requires sole discretion in planning and implementing it but agrees to submit the proposals to the board of commissioners for approval. It will charge a Common Area Maintenance charge to all its tenants. However, if there are insufficient funds for the cost of maintenance, the excess costs shall be divided between OmniTrax and the district.

What the Port will get:
– OmniTrax agrees to "contribute and attract" not less than $8.5 million of direct capital investment in the common elements of the Industrial Park during the period of five years following the acceptance of a Master Plan to be produced by OmniTrax
– OmniTrax promises to produce the Master Plan one year after the acceptance date of the franchise agreement
– $3,693 a month rent on 1,200 acres of land
– OmniTrax will pay the district $10,714 per month rent on the railroad's buildings and locomotive pit for seven years. Upon payment of 7 years rent ($900,000), OmniTrax will own free and clear, all rights and title to real estate listed, not including the land itself. This includes two steel warehouses, the administration building, back office additions, engineers' lunch rooms, an open warehouse for heavy equipment and diesel track, main office vehicle maintenance warehouse, and a diesel track warehouse built in 2011.
– 1. A fee for each loaded railcar (including an empty car delivered to a district lessee for the purpose of dismantling) originated or terminated on the BRG yard.
– $20 for each loaded railcar for the first $35,000 cars per year
– $25 for each loaded railcar above$35 cars per year, and
– Beginning on the sixth anniversary of the Commencement Date, OmniTrax shall pay 5 percent of the gross revenues from railroad operations above $10,500,000 per year.
– In no event shall the annual loaded railcar revenue paid by OmniTrax to district under #1 be less than $550,000.
– OminTrax shall not increase the rates in public tariffs issued by the franchisee which are charged to existing BRG customers, or their successors or assigns to an existing facility at the port...without the consent of the Board of Commissioners. Nothing in this section shall restrict the ability of OmniTrax to charge a special rate for additional services provided to a BRG customer, or to enter into future Transportation Service Agreements with existing or new customers."
– The agreement also calls for all BRG employees to be transferred to it and become its employees "subject to the results of drug testing, criminal background checks, and post-employment physical abilities testing."
Upon becoming OmniTrax employees, they will maintain their same level of seniority, level of service, and similar compensation and benefits."
– OmniTrax also is beholden to assume the Junior Lien Bonds Series 2003 issued by BRG for rail improvements. It assumes all payments on those bonds as they become due as of the effective date of the agreement not to exceed $2.228 million excluding late fees.
– The so-called incubator parcel consisting of 227 acres will be exclusively developed, used and operated by OmniTrax and it will develop, construct, market, and operate it at its sole expense. Upon receiving rental income from the first user, it will pay the district $500 per acre per year based on the actual acreage.
– OmniTrax will begin construction of the Incubator Site within 365 days of the commencement date of the agreement. Any portion of the incubator site not developed within five years after the agreement is signed shall be added to the Industrial Park.

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MIER Y TERAN: TRAGIC CASSANDRA OF PRE-TEXAS MEXICO

August 9, 2016, 10:23 am
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"Cassandra warned the Trojans about the Greeks hiding inside the Trojan Horse and they did not believe her..."


By Juan Montoya
It is difficult to imagine a more tragic figure than Manuel de Mier y Teran in northern Mexico and Texas history.
Born in Mexico City in 1789, he excelled in mathematics and engineering, and graduated from the College of Mines in Mexico City in 1811.
In that year, one year after Fr. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla issues his Grito de Dolores and was later executed for treason against the Spanish crown, he joined the independence movement under Hidalgo's successor José María Morelos.
In 1821 he joined Agustin de Iturbide under the Plan of Iguala whose aim was to expel the Spaniards from the Mexican colony. At the time he joined Iturbide, Mier y Teran never thought that he would declare himself an emperor. Iturbide was exiled after the constitutional forces defeated his army of followers.
He then served in the first constituent congress in 1822 as a member of the committee on colonization of unoccupied lands.
According to his biographers, he attained the rank of brigadier general in 1824 and served nine months as minister of war.
In 1827, the first president of Mexico named him to lead a scientific and boundary expedition into Texas to observe the natural resources and the Indians, to discover the number and attitudes of the Americans living there, and to determine the United States-Mexico boundary between the Sabine and the Red rivers.
Mier y Teran was a member of the Comisión de Límites (Boundary Commission) when it left Mexico City on November 10, 1827, and reached San Antonio on March 1, 1828, San Felipe on April 27, and Nacogdoches on June 3. By that time he had been named Commander of the Army of the North, which encompassed Coahuila and Texas.
He traveled with commission members Rafael Chovell, a mineralogist and later military commander at Lavaca; Jean Louis Berlandier, a botanist, zoologist, and artist; and José María Sánchez y Tapía, cartographer and artist.
All kept diaries that have been published in part.
Illness and muddy roads delayed the commission's return, and they remained in East Texas until January 16, 1829, when they started for Mexico City.
 In his report on the commission, Mier y Terán recommended that strong measures be taken to stop the United States from acquiring Texas. He suggested additional garrisons surrounding the settlements, closer trade ties with Mexico, and the encouragement of more Mexican and European settlers. His suggestions were incorporated into the Law of April 6, 1830, which also called for the prohibition of slavery and closed the borders of Texas to Americans.
Mier y Terán was ordered to Tampico to help repulse a Spanish invasion in August 1829. He was made second in command under Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, and they became heroes of the nation by their successful expulsion of the Spanish force on August 20.
In November, 1829 – seven years before Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1836 – he warned the Mexican government of the plan by Texas settlers to break away from Mexico using the tactics they had used against France and Spain to dispossess them of vast territories in their American colonies.
"The Texas Department is in contact with a nation which has shown itself to be rapacious for land," he wrote. "While the world has taken little notice, the norteamericanos have grabbed all land that has been within their reach and in less than half a century have become owners of extensive colonies that belonged to Spain and France and of vast distant regions belonging to an infinity of native tribes which have since disappeared from the face of the earth."
And like Andrew Jackson, who openly proclaimed that the United States would utilize the "Texas formula" to acquire more western lands, Mier y Teran said there was no other more powerful nation like the norteamericanos which would travel silently through dark roads and make conquests of major importance throughout the world.
"They start by claiming feigned rights as in Texas which are impossible to sustain in a serious discussion, and base their ridiculous pretenses on historical acts that no one can prove...until they assert rights that are veiled under phrases of equality and freedom that result in a concession of territory by the targeted nation...."
"The sale of this department (Texas) reduces the territorial property and worth of the lands of all the rest of Mexico to half of what they are worth now. He who consents and does not oppose to the loss of Texas is a heinous traitor who should be punished with every kind of death."
In 1830, Mier y Terán was made commandant general of the Eastern Interior Provinces, a position in which he supervised both political and military affairs in Texas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas.
His headquarters were near the new port of Matamoros, which had just opened.
Mier y Terán supported constituted authority, whether of a Federalist or Centralist regime, and continued to be concerned over the inability of incoming American settlers to assimilate into the Mexican culture.
When Santa Anna rebelled in January 1832, Mier y Terán tried to defend the Eastern Internal Provinces from Santa Ana and the Federalist rebels.
In poor health and subject to depression, he grew despondent over the problems of colonization in Texas and the continuing political problems on both the state and national levels.
On July 3, 1832, with the federalist forces gaining a significant victory near Matamoros and the increasing influx of Anglo-American settlers after abrogation of the Law of 1830, the general committed suicide by falling on his sword behind the church of San Antonio in Padilla, Tamaulipas. It was the same place where Emperor Iturbide, his former general, had been shot after his return from exile.
Since inundated as a result of a dam being built there, the town and church now lie under water.
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WE KNOW IT'S PALM BLVD., MAYOR, BUT HOW ABOUT A TRIM?

August 9, 2016, 11:40 am
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(Ed.'s Note: Palm Blvd. is looking a little shaggy, according to a growing number of local residents who say that the city's showcase residential boulevard might be in need of a little trim right about now. They sent us these photos to make their point and say that when the Washingtonian palms are allowed to shag out, they become attractive habitats for bats, spiders, cockroaches and other vermin who like the protection afforded them by the overgrowth of old fronds.
"It's not like Da Mayor can't see them," said an irate resident. "I drive by there every day and have noticed that it's been months since they trimmed them. They look awful." As an example, the sender of these photos said that the two single shaggy palms in the middle photo are in the median directly within sight of the mayor's house at the corner of Ebony and Palm. On the other hand, Da Mayor has often favored the shaggy look himself, so perhaps he thinks the city should be in his image.)
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MCHALE: BISD DONNYBROOK AND VERITABLE COIN TOSS

August 10, 2016, 6:12 am
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By Dr. Gerald F. McHale-Scully
Special to El Rrun-Rrun
With less than two weeks left until the filing deadline, the BISD board races promise to be entertaining. Four incumbents face reelection and all may have multiple opponents.

"This is going to be a donnybrook," says a longtime educator. "In the port and junior college contests we had approximately 6,000 come to the polls, including Port Isabel and Los Fresnos. With the presidential elections, there may be as many as 20,000 voting and three quarters of these citizens have no idea who the BISD candidates are.

"Then we have the role that Mike 'El Moco' Hernandez's OP 10.33 intends to play. After arguably going zero for six in the port and junior college elections, Hernandez intends to vet and endorse. He and his right-hand, Carlos 'El Mago' Marin, salivate thinking they could control a $550 million budget and 8,000 jobs if they can manipulate a majority of four.

"El Rrun Rrun's Juan Montoya has already reported that the greedy Marin has cut a $500,000 deal with the district and is seen wining and dining various trustees. Will Hernandez influence the results to the degree that he will allow the cancer that is Marin to metastasize? There have been boards in the past that have put the special interests of generous individuals ahead of the general interests of the employees and students.

"Another major challenge facing the BISD concerns the charter schools that are bleeding the district of students and state funding as a result. Superintendent Dr. Esperanza Zendejas has made impassioned pleas to her employees that they need to keep their own children in the BISD or they risk costing themselves or their colleagues their jobs. As of yet, the board has not devised an effective strategy to counter the pupil drain."

Joe Rodriguez, Cesar Lopez and Carlos Elizondo's terms don't expire until next cycle. They are a voting block and support the superintendent wholeheartedly. They led the charge to give Zendejas a questionable extension and raise. Unlike past boards, the entire seven have kept differences among themselves and off the front pages of the Brownsville Herald.
The McHale Report is not going to render a play-by-play account of the potential rivals until the dust settles. The filing deadline is August 22 at 5 p.m. and the aspirants will pick for positions at 6 p.m. Candidates can change positions until the last minute and the pundits expect a flurry of activity as the candidates measure the opposition and jockey in order to improve their prospects.

Businessman Otis Powers is the incumbent in Position III. Former board member and lawyer Philip Cowen has announced his intentions to go mano-a-mano with Powers. This will be a battle and both of them may find themselves struggling for survival if the mercurial Caty Presas-Garcia decides to jump from her present Position V and vies against this pair. As a Hispanic woman against two Anglos, an ignorant electorate may feel a natural sympathy for her.

With the possibility that Presas-Garcia may move, Laura Perez-Reyes, a county court-at-law administrator (with lawyer Rick Canales as her treasurer) , is making her inaugural foray into politics. Erasmo Castro, a blogger and cancer research specialist who has run in both the city and county, has indicated that he is intrigued by this slot and has promised that he will extirpate the malignant tumor that is Marin from the district.

Minerva Pena, a desk-job relegated law enforcement veteran (who mutters a God Bless You at every second phrase) , is the incumbent in Position VI. Retired BISD administrator Kent Whittemore has announced his opposition. This is the latter's initial entry into the political arena (but his fingerprints were all over the Tony Juarez vs. BISD case). Again the question rises: When an ignorant electorate has no knowledge of the players, will a Hispanic woman have a natural advantage over an Anglo male?

Hector Chirinos, a retired BISD administrator, is the incumbent in Position VII. There are some doubts about his intentions, but should he throw his hat into the ring, he will meet a formidable foe in Dr. Sylvia Atkinson, an ex-BISD administrator who is currently Rio Hondo's ISD's assistant superintendent. Gadfly Orlando Trevino will play a cameo role in this scenario.

"Predicting the future in these races is akin to peering into the fog and trying to discern a figure in the distance," said Scott Steinbeck, The McHale Report's managing editor. "Will Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez compete? She has filed and nobody wants her as an adversary. The critics are wrong when they say that she marches to her own drum. She marches to her own band!

"'Slick' Rick Zayas believes he has Rodriguez's blessing to run, but nobody has forgotten his dismal spell on the board when he and Ruben Cortez fired a superintendent because he wouldn't approve the health insurance contract for Johnny 'Caliche' Cavazos worth millions. God has since punished Cavazos for his excesses by removing his from this orb. Presas-Garcia won't forget Zayas either as she accused him of making improper advances on her.

"And nobody has assisted more politicians than fireman Rigo Bocanegra. The political activist is running, but he is having a difficult time deducing which post offers him the best chance of prevailing. There are several other names mentioned as possible participants, but we're not going to comment further until we know for sure which horses are in which stalls.

"Nevertheless, with campaigns officially beginning on the filing deadlines, we will have two-and-a-half months of intense competition. With crowded fields and only a plurality required to win complicated by thousands of citizens merely guessing when they are marking their ballots, the final figures may offer more than a few surprises."
For more selections by this author, click on link below:
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MEALY-MOUTHED HERALD DEFENDS DISCREDITED TSC PRES

August 10, 2016, 10:00 am
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"Editorial critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.”— Attributed to Ernest Hemingway

By Juan Montoya
This morning's pathetic and spineless defense of discredited Texas Southmost College President Lily Tercero by the editorial writers at the Brownsville Herald is a classic example of the kind of critics Papa Hemingway was talking about in the quote above.
The Herald, after all, is the only game in town and its coverage of higher education here has been characterized by its championing of the disastrous 20-year "partnership" between the University of Texas System and TSC under the direction of their darling Julieta Garcia, who was ready to hand the assets of the 90-year old institution to her masters in Austin.
It wasn't until the TSC trustees refused to approve her plan and went through with the separation – and suffered the umbrage of pro "partnership" adherents and the Herald's editorial writers – that they found out how out of touch they were with its readers and the local residents as well.
Then, after Garcia and her UT masters were sent packing, they turned a blind eye to Tercero's shortcomings and say her dismissal has "raised some questions."
Why, they ask, was she ungraciously dismissed after five years of "praise and positive reviews?"
Well, those praises and positive reviews were made by Kiko Rendon, the former chairman of the TSC board who has now hooked up with Mike Hernandez III's OP 10.33 as a "consultant" and who was so deep in hock to IBC's Fred Rusteberg that he could not say "no" to giving $25,000 a year for TSC's "membership" to United Brownsville.
In fact, a record search of local courts revealed that IBC wasn't the only one that Rendon had stiffed, it was just the biggest one, defaulting on a loan well past $100,000. IBC, United Brownsville and Rusteberg literally owned him.
A toast to Kiko! At least he didn't discriminate and was an equal opportunity offender.
The Herald hypocritically calls for "transparency" in the process involving Tercero and hints at the "dark political history of South Texas" and warns that any secrecy will only raise questions.
The Herald never asked for transparency from TSC's Garcia when she ignored the voters of the district and spent the $120 million she wanted to construct buildings even after her initial call for a bond issue that large was voted down. She then accepted a $68 million bond issue approved by the voters, and went about picking the TSC bones clean to come up with the rest, voters be damned.
TSC district taxpayers are still paying for her excesses.
Where was the Herald then demanding "transparency?"
Or how about when Garcia "transferred" herself a $34,000 raise to her already bloated $215,000 salary from the TSC English Dept. while calling for cutbacks to the UTB-TSC budget and personnel salaries?
This kind of selective morality and "transparency" by this has-been newspaper has been all-too evident in their coverage of the Brownsville Independent School District as well. After the trustees placed a retreaded Esperanza Zendejas as interim superintendent, there was a great hullabaloo made over the selection process and trustees talked of a national selection process, of community selection committees, of consultants to guide the selection process, etc.
Then they accepted Zendeja's watered-down resume and shelved their promises to the public. Where was the Herald then putting their feet to the fire and demanding transparency?
Or how about the BISD's coverage of the expenditures of millions gained from the Tax Ratification Election on such high-priority items like installing artificial turf not only in high schools, but also on middle school fields and even an indoors practice field for Rivera High School?
One main vendor championed by "Coach" Joe Rodriguez (Paragon) pocketed millions of taxpayer and state money. Where are the Herald's demands for explanations on the BISD's priorities and transparency?
But we digress. We were talking about TSC.
Here's a few.
Why did it take three tries for TSC to gain independent accreditation? This dragged out the process for three years because Lily and her $180,000 a year "consultant" (her former boss in Dallas) couldn't quite get it right.
And why did a consultant whose shelf life is usually six months stretch out into four years with a $180,000 annual price tag? And why was this consultant (Leonardo de la Garza) allowed to sell TSC his company's IT and Ebooks services that amounted to almost $11 million without other companies being considered even after he was being paid by TSC for his "consulting" services?
And while we're at it, why did it take the newspaper months to finally report that under Tercero's watch the school's nursing department is on shock probation and the program issued a death ultimatum if its students don't score above 80 in the state certification exam this September? What happens to all those students and their families who sacrificed to put them through school only to find that TSC and Tercero's administration had failed them?
And how about Tercero's failure to apply for the $1.7 million in  U.S. Department of Education Talent Search Program grants announced by U.S. Representative Filemon Vela? Schools in South Texas like the  University of Texas Rio Grande Valley UTRGV, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Coastal Bend College and Texas State Technical College (TSTC) all got a piece of that pie.
The grant funds will support academic, career and financial counseling for students from low-income families to encourage them to graduate from high school and pursue post-secondary education. But TSC did not bother to apply. Why? Don't we have low-income students who need encouragement to attend college? Doesn't the Herald want its readers to know?
We understand that trustee Rey Garcia DDS, has decided to be Tercero's paladin and try to pin the blame for the president's failures on pressure from board members, particularly on chairwoman Adela Garza. Garcia was the lone vote (5-1) against dismissing Tercero. The other vote, in the person of trustee Art Rendon, high-tailed it out of the meeting before he had to vote on the issue and left Grampa Garcia to defend Lily alone.
We have learned that Garcia went whining to the Herald and that he is requesting for all emails between Tercero and chair Garza to be made available to him so he can then pass them on to the "transparent"Herald.
A Chinese saying, almost as ancient as Grampa Garcia, says that one should be careful what one wishes for. If those emails show that Tercero was reluctant to be "transparent" with her board chair and withheld information from board members to the detriment of them performing their fiduciary responsibilities, Garcia (and the Herald) could well wish he had never requested them.
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HEEE'S BAAAACK! CHARLIE CLARK PLAQUE, OR MAYBE NOT

August 10, 2016, 10:15 am
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(Ed.'s Note: After bowing to public criticism from local veterans that the plaque of a private business should not be included in the memorial sculpture to female vets at the Veterans Memorial Park on Central Blvd., local car dealer Charlie Clark and the Veteran Female United group are back. This morning these two workers were busy returning the Charlie Clark Nissan plaque to the granite pedestal which had been removed in response to the flak created by its inclusion in the dedication ceremonies. After all, Clark did pay for the sculpture, supporters say. Or maybe not. As one of our readers pointed out after this post, the plaque is gone again. What this does point out (and any trained city manager would have known) is that the City of Brownsville is lacking a policy on the erection of privately-funded monuments on public spaces. Until then, antics like the one pictured above will continue taking place on the sly. What the heck, we're on the border and anything goes. Maybe it will be back in and a.m. Right Charlie(s)? Orale!)
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ANOTHER MATA MAYOR BITES THE DUST: ERIK SILVA'S TURN

August 10, 2016, 10:20 am
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By Idelfonso Ortiz
From Breitbart.com

MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — The former mayor of this border city has gone on another of his delusional rants claiming that the seizure of assets by the U.S. government is nothing more than a media attack. The former mayor called it “abhorrent” that officials from another country were auditing the government of Mexico.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane issued a judgement against former Matamoros Mayor Erick Agustin Silva Santos. In the ruling, Crane granted the complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the seizure of all the funds belonging to Silva Santos at NT Butterfield & Son Bank in Bermuda. Crane also allowed for the forfeiture of a house in Brownsville, Texas, that had been purchased with illicit funds.

In late 2014, Erick Silva was criminally indicted on money laundering and bribery charges and is currently considered a fugitive by the U.S. Department of Justice. The allegations in the criminal indictment accuse Silva of having taken cash bribes from contractors looking to do business with his city as well as ransacking its coffers. Some of that money was deposited in the Bermuda account and other U.S. bank accounts which was used to purchase real estate in Texas.

This reporter traveled to Matamoros for a news conference where Silva called the charges against him nothing more than a dirty media war aimed at keeping him from running for other political positions.

Following Crane’s recent ruling against him, Silva took to Facebook to denounce the charges as nothing more than foreign efforts to slander his character.

“It is lamentable that now governments, politicians and public officials of out autonomous and sovereign country (Mexico), from this moment on are going to be judged and audited by North American authorities, it is abhorrent and inconceivable,” Silva said in his Facebook message.

For the rest of the story, click on link below:

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