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PRESAS-GARCIA HOLDS MEET-AND-GREET THIS MONDAY
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LIKE JUAN CORTINA, CHELO SILVA IS SCORNED BY HISTORY
Hombres necios que acusáis a la mujer sin razon...
Everyone lauded Jose Alfredo
When he sang, stumbling drunk
About a failed love
"Me canse de decirle..."
Y que no se diga Javier,
Who would ask for a bottle of tequila before his gigs
"Exigiendo su tequila, y exigiendo su cancion..."
Y Pedro se la jugaba
Como Jorge, como borrachos
Que graciocos
que chulos pelaos
We even give a wry grin when Kristofferson nurses his hangover
"And the beer I had for breakfast
wasn't bad so I had one more for dessert...
Pero a pobre Chelo
Pura critica
A la Reina del Bolero no le tenian compación
No era bohemia, o artista
Era una piche vieja cantinera
A Americo Paredes, su movida, y esposo
Lo trataban de academico y hombre de letras
Aunque los viejos recuerdan
Verlo pedo an la marqueta con su guitarra
Coleccionando sus corridos
Coleccionando sus corridos
Pero Chelo?
Pinche vieja congalera
Aunque llevo a Brownsville y sus canciones
A las mayores capitales del mundo
Aunque llevo a Brownsville y sus canciones
A las mayores capitales del mundo
Porque?
"Pero que mal te jusge,
si te gusta la basura
pero mira que locura
pero para ti esta bien...
"Y no canto de dolor
yo no busco quien me quiera
ni pretendo financiera
que me avalen lo que soy..."
si te gusta la basura
pero mira que locura
pero para ti esta bien...
"Y no canto de dolor
yo no busco quien me quiera
ni pretendo financiera
que me avalen lo que soy..."
"Hombres necios que acusáis a la mujer sin razón…"
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BETO O'ROURKE, CASTRO BROS IN BROWNTOWN TODAY
Acompaña a Beto O'Rourke para un evento con música y entretenimiento en Brownsville! Beto te quiere conocer para compartir detalles sobre su candidatura para el Senado. Habra entretenimiento y musica para la familia!
Con invitados especiales Julian y Joaquin Castro y música de Bidi Bidi Banda!
----------------Come enjoy music and entertainment with Congressman Beto O'Rourke in Brownsville! Beto wants to meet you and share details on how we can keep Texas moving forward. Please join us to talk about this historic race for the US Senate.
With special guests Julian and Joaquin Castro and music by Bidi Bidi Banda!
When: Sunday, September 23
6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Hosts: Beto for Texas
Location:
Brownsville Event Center-Palo Alto Grand Ballroom(Brownsville, TX)
1 Event Center Boulevard
Brownsville, TX 78526
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TRUMP: WHY DIDN'T KAVANAUGH ACCUSER ASK FOR BUCKS?
The Onion
Exclusive!
“If this thing actually happened, why didn’t she come forward 30 years ago with a demand for secret payments to keep quiet?” said Trump, adding that a decades-old allegation of sexual abuse that wasn’t instantly followed by her threatening to go public unless Kavanaugh and his family paid her off totally lacked credibility.
“If the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, surely she has a copy of the demands she sent to Brett Kavanaugh or bank documents showing the transfer of a six-figure sum into her account during the ’80s that she could show us. It’s baffling—if he really did something illegal, why didn’t she just demand money for her role in covering up the crime? That’s what any normal person would do.”
The president acknowledged that he could see how someone might have difficulty remembering the exact details of their involvement in a six-figure hush money payment made back in the 1980s.
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Meanwhile GOP officials called Thursday for calmer, more reasonable death threats to be made toward Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser.
Meanwhile GOP officials called Thursday for calmer, more reasonable death threats to be made toward Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser. “We understand there’s a lot of controversy around this, but she still deserves to have people threaten to kill her in a polite way,” said Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who added that cooler heads must prevail, especially when dealing with a situation as delicate as taunting the accuser by vowing to broadcast her family’s home address.
“It’s important for us to maintain a sense of decorum. Now, that doesn’t mean we have to stop sending graphic emails—it just means we should tone down the rhetoric about mutilating her corpse. You should always take the high road and leave her children out of this. Remember, there’s really no need to use misogynistic slurs such as ‘bitch’ when ‘lying whore’ will suffice.”
At press time, Grassley reiterated that a “true conservative” would terrorize her in a way that would “make our founding fathers proud.”
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THE TENNESSEE CONNECTION: JACK DANIEL'S, THE TEXAS "FORMULA" AND LEX, THE SNOWBIRD FROM TENNNESSEE
I met Lex (I can't recall his last name) a few years ago.
I had stumbled into the Frontier Lounge when it used to front Washington Street on one of those hot, late fall/early winter afternoons when temperatures in the 80s are not uncommon.
The walkway was dark and only lighted once you walked toward the back where a bar was lit up by one of those Budweiser beer wagon displays with the Chlysdale draft horses are pulling a beer wagon and the Dalmatian mother dog is leaning over the side keeping an eye on her litter of spotted black and white puppies running alongside the wagon.
Having acquired a taste for old country music from the years I spent in the military in North Carolina and as a child the Midwest, I noticed an old-time Victrola and sauntered over to see their selection. I plunked a couple of quarters in the slot and punched in some Johnny Horton, Hank Williams (Sr.) and Patsy Cline.
I even threw in a few by Johnny Cash and the Carter Family for leavening. At the time, the place was filled with Winter Snowbirds quaffing a few and they turned appreciatively when the music started to play.
One of those was Lex, a strapping, ruddy 6'5" open-faced farm boy who walked over to the corner table where I was sitting with his hand outstretched in greeting.
One of those was Lex, a strapping, ruddy 6'5" open-faced farm boy who walked over to the corner table where I was sitting with his hand outstretched in greeting.
"Now, that's music, buddy," he said as an introduction. "Where'd you hear the Sinking of the Bismark?"Turned out Lex was wintering in Brownsville with his mother and was staying at a trailer park on Boca Chica Blvd. just before you go to the airport.
They were from Tennessee and they had heard about the weather and the cost of living from friends. He and his brother back home raised Tennessee Walking Horses on a farm not far from Lynchburg, home of the Jack Daniels Brewery. Lex had come to Brownsville over the past few years once winter set in Tennessee.
"I guess you haven't heard of too many folks coming all the way down here from our neck of the woods?" he joked.
"I guess you haven't heard of too many folks coming all the way down here from our neck of the woods?" he joked.
I thought about that for a while and told him that historically, the state of Tennessee had provided many personages that figured prominently in the development of Texas.
"David Crockett, one of the heroes of the Alamo, was from Tennessee," I said. "In fact, Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas was also from there. Go figure."
Lex was intrigued when I told him that the reason he was sitting in a bar in Brownsville, Texas talking to someone in English was because of another Tennessean, James K. Polk, the nation's 11th president. Although he wasn't born in Tennessee, he moved there as a young man and quickly became a popular politician.
He was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1823 to 1825, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1825 to 839, was Speaker of the House from 1835 to 1839 and was later elected Governor of Tennessee and served from 1839 to 1841.
While he was the speaker, he was the floor leader of President Andrew Jackson's fight against the U.S. Bank. That relationship was to serve Polk well in his quest to the U.S. presidency.
"How does that make him important to people down here?" Lex ( I could tell he was the impatient type) asked.I explained that both men were ardent expansionists, with Jackson eyeing Texas as the next logical step for the nation to annex, while Polk wanted California as the next U.S. acquisition. Polk served as president from 1845 to 149, and the "Texas question" played a large role in getting Jackson's endorsement in his bid for office.
I told Lex that author Walter R. Borneman, in his book, "POLK: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America," makes clear that the traditional view of Polk as a warmonger whose embrace of Manifest Destiny prompted his invasion of a peaceful nation without any provocation is too simplistic.
This line of thinking has been the thrust of historians like John D. Eisenhower (So Far From God: The U.S. War with Mexico, 1846-1848), and earlier, of iconoclasts like Bernard De Voto (The Year of Decision: 1846). Both these works made Polk out to be the quintessential imperialist set to grab as much real estate as he could by force of arms, if need be.
But Borneman makes clear that there were many forces at work that prompted Polk to order Zachary Taylor and the U.S. Army from Fort Jasper, in Louisiana to the mouth of the Nueces and then to the Rio Grande.
To begin with, when the presidential aspirants to the Democratic nomination of 1844 were quizzed on their stand on the annexation of Texas, only Polk responded in the affirmative.
John Quincy Adams, who only 17 years before the declaration of the Republic of Texas in 1836, had negotiated the Adams-Onis Treaty recognizing the territory as part of Mexico, came out publicly against its annexation.
Martin Van Buren, who was vying for a second presidential term, also wrote against the inclusion of Texas as a state. And when even Henry Clay, a Whig (later the Republican Party), wrote his famous “Raleigh Letter” in opposition to annexation, the die was cast.
With no one else championing Texas, the Manifest Destiny mantle fell comfortably on Polk’s shoulders. Before then, the petition by the Texans (Sam Houston, of Tennessee, was president) for annexation by the U.S. was rejected twice by the previous administrations. Even after Texas declared her independence in 1836, the president and the Congress refused to act and risk the eruption of a civil war over the slavery question, which eventually did happen.
That's where the boys from Tennessee came in.
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Former president Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson, Sam Houston, Polk, and even Crockett, who had served in the U.S. Congress with Polk, got in the picture.
Houston, who left Tennessee after a failed marriage, would later go on to be president of the Republic of Texas and maintained a running correspondence with both Jackson and Polk.
Former president Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson, Sam Houston, Polk, and even Crockett, who had served in the U.S. Congress with Polk, got in the picture.Houston, who left Tennessee after a failed marriage, would later go on to be president of the Republic of Texas and maintained a running correspondence with both Jackson and Polk.
Houston was riled because twice he had proposed U.S. presidents and the U.S Congress to annex Texas as a state, and had been left at the altar twice. But with Jackson’s encouragement from The Hermitage and Polk’s platform for annexation, he was dissuaded from encouraging closer ties between the Texas Republic and Britain and assured that annexation would occur once Polk took over the presidency.
The answer? The so-called "Texas Formula" which called for the settlement of Texas by southerners, a declaration of independence against the Mexican government for the "tyrannical" treatment and the taking of their property (slaves), and the call for the U.S. to come to their aid.
In fact, Jackson Andrew Donelson - Jackson’s nephew and Polk confidant - was quickly named charge d’affaires to Texas after the death from yellow fever of Tilghman A. Howard. Donelson, another Tennessean, was to deliver Polk’s message to Gov. Houston that help was on the way.
"So you see," I told Lex, "you're not the first resident of the Volunteer State to look our way. We just wish you had brought your friend Jack Daniels instead of Zachary Taylor."
"Amen to that," Lex laughed.In the years after that initial encounter with Lex, I found out through friends he had reunited with his estranged wife, was still raising horses in Tennessee and had become a member of the Opossum Society of the United States (He claimed that the American possum was the most misunderstood marsupial in the world).
I'll probably never hear from again, but he, like his fellow Tennesseans before him, sure made things interesting.
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GBIC: HIRING MATAMOROS NOT UNITED BROWNSVILLE RETURN
By Juan Montoya
The hiring by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation of Laura Matamoros, Director of United Brownsville's Operations and Membership does not signal a regression to that shadow government, members of the board assert.
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Several members have disputed the interpretation that bringing Matamoros to the GBIC board under CEO Mario Lozoya as an industry retention specialist indicates a return to the United Brownsville scheme.
Under that plan that was funded through annual $25,000 "memberships" by at least eight public entities, a non-elected board composed of officials from various board of public districts, the city and the school board and academia.
These were the City of Brownsville, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), the Brownsville Independent School District, the Brownsville Navigation District, the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corp (BCIC) and the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.
It all started innocently enough.
Back in 2006, a Brownsville delegation including commissioner Ricardo Longoria went to Washington seeking federal funds for downtown revitalization. Eddie Trevino, the current Cameron County Judge, was mayor then.
![Image result for eddie treviño]()
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There, they were told by U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota and former U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz that there was money for Brownsville but that they needed to present a Master Plan to be considered for funding.
The contract – which quickly grew to more than $1 million – was awarded to Carlos Marin's Ambiotec. The plan was created, but unfortunately, the city's benefactors in Washington, Oberstar and Ortiz, did not get reelected. Many thought that was the end of that and placed the plan on a shelf since the purpose for its existence had disappeared.
Undeterred, some leading citizens of the community seized the opportunity and put their heads together to came up with something called the United Brownsville Coordinating Board.
The "mission statement " of the UBCB states that its purpose is to "lessen the burden" of government on elected officials and to "provide a forum" for community progress. The trio was self-appointed and their hand-picked nominees to the board served at their invitation. None of the three were elected officials.
Since 2009, and until just this past year (2017), United Brownsville drew the $200,000 in "memberships" from the eight entities, until members of the elected board such as the Port of Brownsville, Texas Southmost College, and now the City of Brownsville felt they were not getting anything in return for their annual $25,000 "memberships" so they could "sit at the table."
Over the seven odd years that United Brownsville milked the community, it easily collected more than $1.4 million in "membership" fees from the entities. They also pushed behind the scenes to fund even more "master plans."
One of those was something called the Brownsville Strategic Infrastructure and Land Management Plan for which the Port of Brownsville, the Brownsville Public Utility Board and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation paid a pretty penny, $$454,592.02 to be exact.
That little plum was handed out to none other than Robin McCaffrey of Needham-McCaffrey and Associates, Inc. – the same firm that helped former United Brownsville CEO Mike Gonzalez drive Kyle, Texas to financial debt.
The hiring by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation of Laura Matamoros, Director of United Brownsville's Operations and Membership does not signal a regression to that shadow government, members of the board assert.
Several members have disputed the interpretation that bringing Matamoros to the GBIC board under CEO Mario Lozoya as an industry retention specialist indicates a return to the United Brownsville scheme.Under that plan that was funded through annual $25,000 "memberships" by at least eight public entities, a non-elected board composed of officials from various board of public districts, the city and the school board and academia.
These were the City of Brownsville, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), the Brownsville Independent School District, the Brownsville Navigation District, the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corp (BCIC) and the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.
It all started innocently enough.
Back in 2006, a Brownsville delegation including commissioner Ricardo Longoria went to Washington seeking federal funds for downtown revitalization. Eddie Trevino, the current Cameron County Judge, was mayor then.
There, they were told by U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota and former U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz that there was money for Brownsville but that they needed to present a Master Plan to be considered for funding.The contract – which quickly grew to more than $1 million – was awarded to Carlos Marin's Ambiotec. The plan was created, but unfortunately, the city's benefactors in Washington, Oberstar and Ortiz, did not get reelected. Many thought that was the end of that and placed the plan on a shelf since the purpose for its existence had disappeared.
Undeterred, some leading citizens of the community seized the opportunity and put their heads together to came up with something called the United Brownsville Coordinating Board.
The "mission statement " of the UBCB states that its purpose is to "lessen the burden" of government on elected officials and to "provide a forum" for community progress. The trio was self-appointed and their hand-picked nominees to the board served at their invitation. None of the three were elected officials.
Over the seven odd years that United Brownsville milked the community, it easily collected more than $1.4 million in "membership" fees from the entities. They also pushed behind the scenes to fund even more "master plans."
One of those was something called the Brownsville Strategic Infrastructure and Land Management Plan for which the Port of Brownsville, the Brownsville Public Utility Board and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation paid a pretty penny, $$454,592.02 to be exact.
That little plum was handed out to none other than Robin McCaffrey of Needham-McCaffrey and Associates, Inc. – the same firm that helped former United Brownsville CEO Mike Gonzalez drive Kyle, Texas to financial debt.
The grandiose plan?
United Brownsville invented something high-sounding called the Bi-National Border Economic Development Trojan horse. Under this "plan," the usual suspects – Rusteberg, Marin, Mayor Tony Martinez, FINSA's Sergio Arguelles, and former UTB President Julieta Garcia – were in the process of hijacking the direction of this region's economic development to benefit a select cabal of their fellow travelers.
United Brownsville invented something high-sounding called the Bi-National Border Economic Development Trojan horse. Under this "plan," the usual suspects – Rusteberg, Marin, Mayor Tony Martinez, FINSA's Sergio Arguelles, and former UTB President Julieta Garcia – were in the process of hijacking the direction of this region's economic development to benefit a select cabal of their fellow travelers.
Once the public-funded entities saw diminishing returns from their $25,000 "memberships," they stopped funding and Gonzalez headed back for Kyle. The only remaining person on the United Brownsville "staff" was Matamoros, who was retained to finish out a grant.
GBIC board member David Betancourt said Matamoros has proved to be an able and professional employee who will work directly under Lozoya, and not under any influence from the United Brownsville directors.
"The public should not worry about her," he said. "We are in the midst of developing a workforce plan. We finally got separated from the Brownsville Economic Development Council and we're not about to go back to anything like United Brownsville. Only the GBIC will direct where we go."
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TENASKA PLANT STILL ONLINE? SURE, BUT NOW FOR 2020
By Juan Montoya
The on-again, off-again City of Brownsville/Tenaska power generating plant is on again, maybe.
Construction was originally was scheduled to begin in 2014 and be complete by summer 2016, but was put off by data provided by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) that provides information on market transactions, particularly electricity prices.
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The agreement between the Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Nebraska-based energy company Tenaska Inc. to develop the $500 million, 800-megawatt power plant in Brownsville has yet to bear fruit, even though the deal was announced in January 2013.
Tenaska, in a yet-to-be-seen-by-the-public Memorandum with the city and the Brownsville Public Utility Board, reserved the right to delay construction if it could not sell 600 MWs of the planned 800 MW it expects the plant to produce. The city – paying for $350 million of the estimated $500 million cost – would get 200 MWs in return.
Now, Tenaska, in its 2016 Tenaska Fact Sheet on the project dated Jul 27, 2018, projects that it will be online by 2020, four years later than its construction had been announced..
Meanwhile, the 35 percent increases in electricity, and lesser ones in water and wastewater rates that were passed in 2013 and remain in place, although not one shovel of dirt has been turned on the project.
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In fact, Brownsville terminated its 2013 tax abatement agreement with Tenaska at it March 20, 2018 meeting but the project is still listed in the Brownsville PUB 2017-18 annual budget as the justification for the funding for other projects. (See graphic at right. Click to enlarge.)
Now PUB ratepayers are asking: What happened to the plan to reimburse PUB customers charged for the project after it was declared dead?
Despite the original timeline, the project received a final greenhouse gas emissions permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) two years later. Construction has not started on the project, which would be located on 270 acres at FM 511 and Old Alice Road.
In its October report, the Fitch ratings service stated that the delay reflected a lack of interest in the market for the project’s extra generating capacity, probably due to falling electricity prices in the state’s unregulated electricity market.
“Competitive market energy prices within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market have undermined the economic incentives of adding capacity in recent years,” Fitch said.
News reports blame lower electricity prices partly due to cheaper natural gas, which makes electricity from gas-fired power plants less costly to produce and sell on the open market, making construction of new generating capacity less attractive.Fitch also noted that adding more capacity to the 578 megawatts already available locally would far exceed the area’s projected total requirement of 426 megawatts.
In January 2013, when the project was announced, BPUB General Manager and CEO John Bruciak said it was the best of available options for addressing the area’s power needs and ensuring future rate stability.
Now, in 2018, Bruciak and Tenaska are content to keep the rates artificially high and keep pushing forward the construction date. Will it ever get built, and if not, when will the PUB lower the rates as they promised?
The on-again, off-again City of Brownsville/Tenaska power generating plant is on again, maybe.
Construction was originally was scheduled to begin in 2014 and be complete by summer 2016, but was put off by data provided by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) that provides information on market transactions, particularly electricity prices.
The agreement between the Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Nebraska-based energy company Tenaska Inc. to develop the $500 million, 800-megawatt power plant in Brownsville has yet to bear fruit, even though the deal was announced in January 2013.
Tenaska, in a yet-to-be-seen-by-the-public Memorandum with the city and the Brownsville Public Utility Board, reserved the right to delay construction if it could not sell 600 MWs of the planned 800 MW it expects the plant to produce. The city – paying for $350 million of the estimated $500 million cost – would get 200 MWs in return.
Now, Tenaska, in its 2016 Tenaska Fact Sheet on the project dated Jul 27, 2018, projects that it will be online by 2020, four years later than its construction had been announced..
Meanwhile, the 35 percent increases in electricity, and lesser ones in water and wastewater rates that were passed in 2013 and remain in place, although not one shovel of dirt has been turned on the project.
In fact, Brownsville terminated its 2013 tax abatement agreement with Tenaska at it March 20, 2018 meeting but the project is still listed in the Brownsville PUB 2017-18 annual budget as the justification for the funding for other projects. (See graphic at right. Click to enlarge.)Now PUB ratepayers are asking: What happened to the plan to reimburse PUB customers charged for the project after it was declared dead?
Despite the original timeline, the project received a final greenhouse gas emissions permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) two years later. Construction has not started on the project, which would be located on 270 acres at FM 511 and Old Alice Road.
In its October report, the Fitch ratings service stated that the delay reflected a lack of interest in the market for the project’s extra generating capacity, probably due to falling electricity prices in the state’s unregulated electricity market.
“Competitive market energy prices within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market have undermined the economic incentives of adding capacity in recent years,” Fitch said.
News reports blame lower electricity prices partly due to cheaper natural gas, which makes electricity from gas-fired power plants less costly to produce and sell on the open market, making construction of new generating capacity less attractive.Fitch also noted that adding more capacity to the 578 megawatts already available locally would far exceed the area’s projected total requirement of 426 megawatts.
In January 2013, when the project was announced, BPUB General Manager and CEO John Bruciak said it was the best of available options for addressing the area’s power needs and ensuring future rate stability.
Now, in 2018, Bruciak and Tenaska are content to keep the rates artificially high and keep pushing forward the construction date. Will it ever get built, and if not, when will the PUB lower the rates as they promised?
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CASTRO MAKES INROADS, FB POSTS COME BACK TO HAUNT HIM
By Juan Montoya
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And while the above have been posted on the candidate's Facebook page and other social media, some past Facebook postings by Castro disparaging BISD students, parents and the people on Brownsville in general, have also been disseminated far and wide.
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The fliers have been passed around many of of the other candidates' events. At one gathering recently, groups of participants gathered in circles and gasped as they read the eight posts aloud that had been printed on the hoja suelta.
And: "Is it wrong for me to say that I think prego (pregnant) women look yucky even though I think it every time I see one?"
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Within the last week, Place 2 Brownsville Independent School District candidate Erasmo Castro has garnered the endorsement of Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz and the Texas Valley Educator's Association.
And while the above have been posted on the candidate's Facebook page and other social media, some past Facebook postings by Castro disparaging BISD students, parents and the people on Brownsville in general, have also been disseminated far and wide.In them, Castro – as far back as December 2013 and 2014 – when he unsuccessfully ran for the school district – likens little girls to "whores" and local youth as "hoodrats" and "ghetto wercos and wercas" and states that "prego" women are "yucky."
The fliers have been passed around many of of the other candidates' events. At one gathering recently, groups of participants gathered in circles and gasped as they read the eight posts aloud that had been printed on the hoja suelta."Parents please don't send your precious little princess out into public dressed like whores...it's aggravating to see /listen to viejos cochinos being pervs..."
Another on posted on Christmas Eve 2014 states: "Never in my lifetime have I seen in Brownsville so many ghetto wercos/wercas...if Brownsville is the poorest city in America now, God help us when these idiots become adults..."
And: "Is it wrong for me to say that I think prego (pregnant) women look yucky even though I think it every time I see one?"
And, referring to the rioting by blacks in Ferguson, Mo., after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson on August 9:
"I would be be sure more sympathetic toward the situation in Ferguson if looting and all Sharpton roaches weren't part of the equation..."
And, referring to local families on social services, : "If you get food stamps and live in housing and you get the iPhone 6 before me, I'm inboxing your social worker...."
"I wonder what percentage of students at the BISD are undocumented..."
Then, as if to double down on the provocative and controversial statements, later the same day, he writes: "Note: If people think that because I am running I am going to apologize to all the rascuachos, scum, hoodrat ghetto people that are a cancer in our community because they have been bached on this page, then they need to take a seat honey pies..cause it ain't coming..."
Castro is running against incumbent Carlos Elizondo and former trustee Herman Otis Powers. On of Power's supporters say that voters in the barrios were angered when she showed them Castro's Facebook comments.
"Can you imagine if Otis had posted that?," she asked. "He would be strung up from the nearest mesquite. I've always said that if you post on Facebook, it's going to come back and bite you in the ass. School kids have been passing them all around. I wonder how his supporters feel about this?"
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REMEMBERING ADOLPH CRIXELL ON HIS SAD PASSING
( We have just heard about the sad passing of our friend and pharmacist Adolph Ernest Crixell, who died at 77 on Monday, September 18, 2018. We were out of pocket and were not able to pass on our condolences to his family. Who was Adolph? Besides being a descendant of a pioneer Brownsville family, he was also involved on the progressive side of many public issues. Below is our memorium to Adolph. RIP buddy.)
By Juan Montoya
The photo of the article was displayed prominently by Adolph Crixell on the door of this bathroom and when he and his mate had a party or get together, visitors could read it.
The developer was none other than Renato Cardenas, whose family still develops subdivisions and now run successful car dealerships here and up the valley. Renato passed away last year.
At the time Cadenas was just starting his push to become one of the most important subdivision developers in town and had paved his way by having a son-in-law as a city commissioner (Harry McNair) and his many political acquaintances.
Crixell, a pharmacist whose family dates back in the area to the early 1900s, was a member of the P and Z board when Cardenas presented his proposal.
In those days (the mid-1970s), there was a push in Brownsville to do away with outside privies and septic tank use within the City of Brownsville. A citywide program was implemented to get rid of the potential contamination of the ground water with outhouses and overflowing septic tanks.
So when Cardenas presented the proposal to build his California Estates trailer park subdivision and asked the he be allowed to install septic tanks, red flags went up at the P and Z.
Would the city's plan to do away with septic tank use within the city limits and the ETJ (extra-territorial jurisdiction) be adhered to? Or would Cardenas' political influence override the ban?
Leading the charge against the granting of the septic tank permits was Crixell, who as a P and Z member came out against the proposal. Cardenas argued that the use of septic tanks would allow poor people to have a home since the Public Utility Board did not have sewer lines to service the development. California Estates is just south of the Brownsville airport on California Road. Running alongside the trailer park is a city resaca used by the irrigation district to supply water to area farms.
At the time Bill Salter was the city editor and he thought it might be an important public-issue story to have both sides give their arguments for and against the granting of the septic tank permits. He sent me to interview both Crixell and Cardenas.
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At first, Cardenas did not want to speak with a newspaper reporter since the paper had been running articles about city landlords renting substandard homes and he was among those named in a few of them. We called them slumlords and listed their names.
At the time Cadenas was just starting his push to become one of the most important subdivision developers in town and had paved his way by having a son-in-law as a city commissioner (Harry McNair) and his many political acquaintances.
Crixell, a pharmacist whose family dates back in the area to the early 1900s, was a member of the P and Z board when Cardenas presented his proposal.
In those days (the mid-1970s), there was a push in Brownsville to do away with outside privies and septic tank use within the City of Brownsville. A citywide program was implemented to get rid of the potential contamination of the ground water with outhouses and overflowing septic tanks.
So when Cardenas presented the proposal to build his California Estates trailer park subdivision and asked the he be allowed to install septic tanks, red flags went up at the P and Z.
Would the city's plan to do away with septic tank use within the city limits and the ETJ (extra-territorial jurisdiction) be adhered to? Or would Cardenas' political influence override the ban?
Leading the charge against the granting of the septic tank permits was Crixell, who as a P and Z member came out against the proposal. Cardenas argued that the use of septic tanks would allow poor people to have a home since the Public Utility Board did not have sewer lines to service the development. California Estates is just south of the Brownsville airport on California Road. Running alongside the trailer park is a city resaca used by the irrigation district to supply water to area farms.
At the time Bill Salter was the city editor and he thought it might be an important public-issue story to have both sides give their arguments for and against the granting of the septic tank permits. He sent me to interview both Crixell and Cardenas.
At first, Cardenas did not want to speak with a newspaper reporter since the paper had been running articles about city landlords renting substandard homes and he was among those named in a few of them. We called them slumlords and listed their names.He was understandably reluctant to sit with me, but it just so happened that his wife Mary Rose was in the office at the car dealership when I arrived. She urged him to grant the interview and reminded him that Reba, their daughter, was also attending college to get a journalism degree. Renato relented and he got to make his argument for the granting of the septic tank permits.
Crixell was more forthcoming. He had gone to the research on potential contaminants in human waste that could potentially spill over into the resaca and expose the people there, specially children, to all sorts of contagious disease.
Crixell's arguments carried the day and the P and Z denied Cardenas the permits to install septics at the trailer park. Planners at the city cheered the decision. In those days Flo Peña ruled the roost, but among the staff were Graciela Salinas, Richard Waldman, and Frank Bejarano, among others.
It must have been around 2:30 p.m. or so a few days following the publishing of the point-counterpoint article when Renato came storming into editorial at the Herald. He was livid because they had turned down his proposal and blamed me personally for losing money on the deal.
City planners, on the other hand, saw the denial of the permits as a victory and a turning point for the city's efforts to clean up its image and bring it into the 20th Century.
From that day forward, local developers knew that any new subdivision within the city or in its ETJ would not pass muster if it included septic tanks for its sewer services. And it took Adolph Crixell on the P and Z to lead the city on that road to progress.
Crixell was more forthcoming. He had gone to the research on potential contaminants in human waste that could potentially spill over into the resaca and expose the people there, specially children, to all sorts of contagious disease.
Crixell's arguments carried the day and the P and Z denied Cardenas the permits to install septics at the trailer park. Planners at the city cheered the decision. In those days Flo Peña ruled the roost, but among the staff were Graciela Salinas, Richard Waldman, and Frank Bejarano, among others.
It must have been around 2:30 p.m. or so a few days following the publishing of the point-counterpoint article when Renato came storming into editorial at the Herald. He was livid because they had turned down his proposal and blamed me personally for losing money on the deal.
City planners, on the other hand, saw the denial of the permits as a victory and a turning point for the city's efforts to clean up its image and bring it into the 20th Century.
From that day forward, local developers knew that any new subdivision within the city or in its ETJ would not pass muster if it included septic tanks for its sewer services. And it took Adolph Crixell on the P and Z to lead the city on that road to progress.
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DETAILS ON JERRY X'S THEFT CHARGES COME TO LIGHT
By Mark Reagan
The Brownsville Herald
A former Cameron County Precinct 4 constable arrested a week ago is accused of stealing $860 worth of merchandise while working as a security guard for Walmart. The Brownsville Police Department arrested Jerry Xagoraris on Sept. 17 and charged him with official oppression and theft.
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According to a police report, the asset protection manager for the Walmart at 3500 W. Alton Gloor Blvd. contacted the Brownsville
PD on Aug. 21 to file a complaint for continuing theft of property against Xagoraris.
The manager told police that Xagoraris worked for Walmart as an off-duty security guard at the location for about four years.
The allegations came to light when Xagoraris allegedly began acting suspicious before the conclusion of his 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. shift.
According to the manager, Xagoraris would begin shopping an hour before his shift ended and would select and bag merchandise and place it in a shopping cart that he stashed it in the front of the store, the police report states.
A former Cameron County Precinct 4 constable arrested a week ago is accused of stealing $860 worth of merchandise while working as a security guard for Walmart. The Brownsville Police Department arrested Jerry Xagoraris on Sept. 17 and charged him with official oppression and theft.
According to a police report, the asset protection manager for the Walmart at 3500 W. Alton Gloor Blvd. contacted the BrownsvillePD on Aug. 21 to file a complaint for continuing theft of property against Xagoraris.
The manager told police that Xagoraris worked for Walmart as an off-duty security guard at the location for about four years.
The allegations came to light when Xagoraris allegedly began acting suspicious before the conclusion of his 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. shift.
According to the manager, Xagoraris would begin shopping an hour before his shift ended and would select and bag merchandise and place it in a shopping cart that he stashed it in the front of the store, the police report states.
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THARPE: NO HOLDS BARRED. LOSING? CALL I.C.E. ON HIM
By Juan Montoya
The Internet is boiling over after a local attorney who was losing a child visitation and child support case called the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the opposing party, a Mexican national, and then saw him arrested and detained on immigration charges.
And the attorney who was representing the man pro bono, vows to continue to defend his parental rights and to gain legal immigration status.
Attorney Liz Valdez Garza posted that opposing counsel – Bruce Tharpe, a former professional wrestler and practitioner of lucha libre in Matamoros – "tipped" off ICE after he was losing the case in family court. Even though Tharpe was not identified in Valdez-Garza's post, responded in a Facebook post that his actions were protected by client-lawyer privilege.
"It is what it is. He is illegal," Valdez-Garza wrote that Tharpe had said at the time.
The overwhelming majority of comments on her Facebook page were against the tactic employed by Tharpe. In her post, Valdez-Garza said that the ICE agents had come into the courthouse after the "tip" and waited for hours until her client was exiting the building and then detained him.
"Breaks my heart that opposing counsel (Tharpe) was aware and indifferent," Valdez-Garza wrote.
Now that opposing counsel know what Tharpe is capable of doing if he is losing in court, will they trust him to keep his word in any negotiations they may enter with the former professional wrestler?
What about potential clients whose immigration status may be suspect? Will they trust him to represent them now?
And what of his friends in the Matamoros pro wrestling circuit who accepted him into their ranks? Will they see him with the same trust they had before?
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THIS NOVEMBER WILL BE THE LAST YEAR FOR "LA PALANCA"
By Juan Montoya
After this general election in November, Democrats will no longer count on the notorious "palanca" vote that allowed them to keep most of South Texas in the Democratic party fold.
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This summer, after the legislative session, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law that will eliminate the straight-ticket voting option starting in 2020.
Straight-ticket voting, the option for voters to check one box to cast a ballot for every candidate from a single political party, is not available in most states, but it accounted for nearly 64 percent of total votes cast in Texas' 10 largest counties in the 2016 general election.
House Bill 25 removed the straight-ticket option from Texas ballots after September 2020.
Cameron County elections Administrator Remi Garza said that the November 2020 general election will no longer have ballots with straight ticket ovals. That means that voters will have to vote on each position and for each candidate instead of casting their vote for all the candidates of a certain party.
"It is my understanding that after 2019 that will be eliminated," Garza said. "Since we don't have a presidential election, maybe constitutional amendments where that doesn't matter, it will go onto effect in the 2020 presidential election."
La palanca refers to the levers of now-antique voting contraptions which were used as late as 1990s in Cameron County. A voter could simply switch the lever of the party he or she wanted – in South Texas, mostly Democrats – and do without voting for specific candidates.
Many Democratic candidates benefited from "La Palanca" votes and the party advocated that a voter "Jale la palanca" when voting. In fact, a longtime county resident who worked in the Cameron County warehouse where the machines were stored remembered that the late Ray Ramon even bought some machines to train his supporters how to vote.
"Ray had them in his house and brought over his ward heelers to show then so they could show their voters how to pull the palanca," said the former employee, now retired. "And many of the party's political signs advocated pulling the palanca instead of pushing for specific candidates."
Cameron County was one of the few South Texas counties where voters shunned the practice by electing Tony Garza, the first county judge since Reconstruction, as county judge in 1988. Garza was reelected despite efforts by local Democrats to push for the straight-party vote.
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That independent streak has been evident since, with voters putting Republican (and former Democrat) Carlos Cascos in office three times.
Realizing that the "palanca" vote is now in its dying throes, many local Democrats are urging the voters to use it while they can, including Cameron County Clerk Sylvia Garza Perez.
Gilberto Hinojosa, the former chairman of Cameron County Democratic Party and now chairman of the state party, defended the practice way back in 2002 when he told a reporter:
"And the reason that we are pushing the straight ticket vote this year more than any is that every single candidate on the Democratic Party ticket is much more qualified than any on the Republican ticket," Hinojosa said.
Republicans, on the other hand, are urging voters to cast their vote for the candidate they consider to be the best qualified and liken the "palanca"voters to trained monkeys. (See video at right.)
After this general election in November, Democrats will no longer count on the notorious "palanca" vote that allowed them to keep most of South Texas in the Democratic party fold.
This summer, after the legislative session, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law that will eliminate the straight-ticket voting option starting in 2020.Straight-ticket voting, the option for voters to check one box to cast a ballot for every candidate from a single political party, is not available in most states, but it accounted for nearly 64 percent of total votes cast in Texas' 10 largest counties in the 2016 general election.
House Bill 25 removed the straight-ticket option from Texas ballots after September 2020.
Cameron County elections Administrator Remi Garza said that the November 2020 general election will no longer have ballots with straight ticket ovals. That means that voters will have to vote on each position and for each candidate instead of casting their vote for all the candidates of a certain party.
"It is my understanding that after 2019 that will be eliminated," Garza said. "Since we don't have a presidential election, maybe constitutional amendments where that doesn't matter, it will go onto effect in the 2020 presidential election."
La palanca refers to the levers of now-antique voting contraptions which were used as late as 1990s in Cameron County. A voter could simply switch the lever of the party he or she wanted – in South Texas, mostly Democrats – and do without voting for specific candidates.
Many Democratic candidates benefited from "La Palanca" votes and the party advocated that a voter "Jale la palanca" when voting. In fact, a longtime county resident who worked in the Cameron County warehouse where the machines were stored remembered that the late Ray Ramon even bought some machines to train his supporters how to vote.
"Ray had them in his house and brought over his ward heelers to show then so they could show their voters how to pull the palanca," said the former employee, now retired. "And many of the party's political signs advocated pulling the palanca instead of pushing for specific candidates."
Cameron County was one of the few South Texas counties where voters shunned the practice by electing Tony Garza, the first county judge since Reconstruction, as county judge in 1988. Garza was reelected despite efforts by local Democrats to push for the straight-party vote.
That independent streak has been evident since, with voters putting Republican (and former Democrat) Carlos Cascos in office three times.Realizing that the "palanca" vote is now in its dying throes, many local Democrats are urging the voters to use it while they can, including Cameron County Clerk Sylvia Garza Perez.
Gilberto Hinojosa, the former chairman of Cameron County Democratic Party and now chairman of the state party, defended the practice way back in 2002 when he told a reporter:
"And the reason that we are pushing the straight ticket vote this year more than any is that every single candidate on the Democratic Party ticket is much more qualified than any on the Republican ticket," Hinojosa said.
Republicans, on the other hand, are urging voters to cast their vote for the candidate they consider to be the best qualified and liken the "palanca"voters to trained monkeys. (See video at right.)
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DESPITE MARTINEZ'S OPPOSITION, DE COSS LOOKS LIKE DA MAN
By Juan Montoya
The only thing that kept City of Brownsville Municipal Judge Rene De Coss from being named city attorney was a last-ditch effort by Mayor Tony Martinez who complained he had not had the time to interview all four finalists.
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Those finalists were Lysia H. Bowling, Rene E. De Coss, Gerry Linan and Aaron Leal. Since
then, Leal, the Denton City Attorney, told the Brownsville Herald that he withdrew his name from consideration.
That leaves De Coss, Linan and Bowling in the running. Although Linan is a local attorney, it does not appear that he has the votes to get the nod. And Bowling, a city attorney from Pensacola, Florida, would have to quick-learn and get up to snuff on Texas municipal law.
That makes De Coss the obvious choice. He is not only versed in Texas municipal law, but has also served as a district judge in Cameron County and currently serves as a city municipal judge in Brownsville.
Not only does he know the law, he knows the town, he knows the people and the culture, and enjoys the respect of lawyers and judges of the Cameron County Bar.
Martinez, who has enjoyed a free hand in most matters while the city has drifted without a rudder under the guidance of interim city managers, police chiefs, and city attorneys, complained that the commission should not take a vote at the last city meeting.
"I don't see how we can proceed with a selection before we interview all the candidates. It's simply not fair," he said repeatedly.
His omnipotence was demonstrated when he took issue with the contract city counsel when she said that the commission could table to take a vote as they saw fit. He, also an attorney, obviously disagreed despite counsel's advice.
The only thing that kept City of Brownsville Municipal Judge Rene De Coss from being named city attorney was a last-ditch effort by Mayor Tony Martinez who complained he had not had the time to interview all four finalists.
Those finalists were Lysia H. Bowling, Rene E. De Coss, Gerry Linan and Aaron Leal. Sincethen, Leal, the Denton City Attorney, told the Brownsville Herald that he withdrew his name from consideration.
That leaves De Coss, Linan and Bowling in the running. Although Linan is a local attorney, it does not appear that he has the votes to get the nod. And Bowling, a city attorney from Pensacola, Florida, would have to quick-learn and get up to snuff on Texas municipal law.
That makes De Coss the obvious choice. He is not only versed in Texas municipal law, but has also served as a district judge in Cameron County and currently serves as a city municipal judge in Brownsville.
Not only does he know the law, he knows the town, he knows the people and the culture, and enjoys the respect of lawyers and judges of the Cameron County Bar.
Martinez, who has enjoyed a free hand in most matters while the city has drifted without a rudder under the guidance of interim city managers, police chiefs, and city attorneys, complained that the commission should not take a vote at the last city meeting.
"I don't see how we can proceed with a selection before we interview all the candidates. It's simply not fair," he said repeatedly.
His omnipotence was demonstrated when he took issue with the contract city counsel when she said that the commission could table to take a vote as they saw fit. He, also an attorney, obviously disagreed despite counsel's advice.
He moved that the item be tabled and the motion failed. Commissioner Ben Neece reintroduced a Motion to Table, but that also failed.
Commissioner Jessica Tetreau told blogger Jim Barton that the majority wanted to select a city attorney and put the issue behind them.
"Martinez and Ben are dragging their feet intentionally because they want someone else, not on the current list of candidates, to be city attorney. They are hoping for a new commission in May that will go along with their plan."
Commissioner Jessica Tetreau told blogger Jim Barton that the majority wanted to select a city attorney and put the issue behind them.
"Martinez and Ben are dragging their feet intentionally because they want someone else, not on the current list of candidates, to be city attorney. They are hoping for a new commission in May that will go along with their plan."
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JP SALAZAR TRYING TO FOIST HER BROOD ON THE PUBLIC
By Juan Montoya
If you listen to Mark Anthony Cortez, the son of JP 2-1 Linda Salazar and brother of State Board Of Education member Ruben Cortez, everyone deserves a second chance.
He doesn't say it of course, but he alludes to his youth of mayhem. irresponsibility, and debauchery that he wants everyone to forget. Most of all, it is his Mommy Dearest Linda Salazar who wants everyone to forget and to vote for him in the Brownsville Independent School District election for Position 1.
Salazar and Baby Markie hope you will overlook many things about his past, and her's as well and darken the oval to get him elected over four other candidates after incumbent Cesar Lopez withdrew. They candidates are (in order of the ballot): 1. Caty Presas-Garcia, 2. Jose Valdez, 3. Drue Ellen Brown, 4. Mark Cortez, and 5. Tim Ramirez.
Although Cortez hints at his wild past, he is not very specific about his activities which have landed him in the sights of local police or the courts. we went looking through the municipal court records and fund that his transgressions were more than youthful indiscretions and more like a pattern of illegal behavior that hadn't stopped at the time he filed for a place on the BISD ballot.
Here is a chronological list of some of those:
1. There were at least eight traffic and one alcohol-related charges we will not list because he was still a minor (under 18).
2. On February 19, 2007 (when he was 23), he was cited for no driver's license and no insurance
3. On On August 21, 2010 (when he was 26), he was cited for running a red light
4. On August 26, 2010, he was cited for speeding 57 in a 45 mile zone
5. On May 2, 2012, he was cited for no seat belt and no insurance
6. Less than a month later, on May 29, 2012, he was cited three times for speeding 71 in a 60 MPH zone, no vehicle inspection, and again, for no insurance
7. On March 11, 2014 (when he was 29), he was cited for no seat belt
8. On May 21, 2014 (still 29), he was cited for speeding 51 in a 35 MPH zone and no insurance
9. On October 13, 2014 (now 30), he was cited for speeding 40 in a 30 MPH zone and expired registration
10. The funniest notation on the records is a transfer of a case from a third DWI or More (Citation 08-B-0987) to a DWI "B" (a misdemeanor) for an offense listed on March 7, 2007, and changed in status on February 6, 2015, nearly eight years later. What happened to the other two DWI offenses?
We filed an information request with the Brownsville Police Department about this and two other arrests where police reports are customarily filed and were told those reports were not in their system or files. What happened? They could not tell us. Things have a way of disappearing with Mark Anthony. We went to the Cameron County Clerk and the Cameron County District Clerk files and inquired about Cortez there. Again, no records existed under his name and DOB.
We should have known by now that Cortez is blessed by the "Dismissal" god. Take for example the four cases that somehow landed on his mother's court (JP 2-1 Salazar).In Case 2011-FTR-008037, Mark Anthony was charged with having an unrestrained child in his car and on a companion case 2011-FTR-00838, was charged himself for not wearing a safety belt.
Both, as the docket sheet notes, were dismissed on a motion by the state. Salazar also signed off on them. We seriously doubt that the state attorneys realized the defendant was Salazar's son.
In yet another case, 2017-FTR-00468, he was charged with displaying the expired license sticker and got off with the $20 fine for court costs. And there is yet another case pending in Salazar's court involving Mark Anthony (2018-FDC-00525), this one involving an unpaid $2,335.61 since February 7, 2017 on a Walmart credit card. That account was sold to Midland Funding who then sued for collection. That lawsuit ended at Linda's court since April 2018 and remains pending.
Her refusal to recuse herself from her son's cases has resulted in a complaint against Linda with the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct which has initiated an investigation into this apparent violation of the judicial canons. The TCJC is notorious for taking its time to render a ruling or sanctions.
But until then, the voters of the BISD can issue their verdict in the form a vote in the upcoming BISD Position 1 race.
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AFTER YEARS OF CYBER BULLYING, CHEEZ CRIES WOLF, AGAIN
By Juan Montoya
In what has become a predictable dirge from Erasmo Castro, one of the Position 2 candidates for the board of the Brownsville Independent School District, he is charging that one of his opponents, former trustee Herman Otis Powers, threatened him with bodily harm during a recent forum.
Powers, of course, denies it, saying that after Castro made numerous insinuations of him influence-peddling and back-dating contracts of BISD employees he had had enough and told Castro that "if he wanted to take the gloves off, we could."This is not the first time that Castro has yelled "wolf" at other politicians.
Not that long ago, after he made public comments accusing the City of Brownsville Budget and Oversight Committee members of openly violating the Texas Open Meetings Act, he filed a complaint with the Brownsville Police Dept. saying that commissioner Ben Neece had confronted him in the hallway and that "I fear for my life and well being.
I fear for official retaliation by Commissioner Ben Neece using the powers of his elected position and the resources of the City of Brownsville.
I ask for protection from local law enforcement."
That petered out into nothing, but elicited the predictable sympathy from his small cadre of Cheezme worshipers.
Now, as he seeks to disavow comments he posted in his Facebook page comparing BISD school girls and boys to "whores," hood rats" and "ghetto wercos and wercas," he is again diverting attention by an alleged threat from one of his political opponents. (Click on graphic to enlarge.)
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"He just threatened me! He just threatened me on live videotape!" Castro yelled into the microphone during the forum held by B.E.S.T., an acronym for Brownsville Educators Stand Together, a teacher's union group.
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Believe it or not, Alberto Alegria's Texas Valley Educator's Association endorsed him over Powers and Carlos Elizondo.
Go figure.
This is despite Castro's disdain for the union's endorsement of Caty Presas-Garcia over him the last time he ran for the BISD board. At that time he posted (again on his Facebook page) that the union's endorsement wasn't worth much. (See graphic. Click to enlarge)
Those who have seen the YouTube version of the forum cannot detect the alleged murderous threat.
Hopefully, with just a little over a month before the Nov. 6 election, Castro will survive these life-threatening confrontations in one piece to stay alive until after the voting.
Believe it or not, Alberto Alegria's Texas Valley Educator's Association endorsed him over Powers and Carlos Elizondo.
Go figure.
This is despite Castro's disdain for the union's endorsement of Caty Presas-Garcia over him the last time he ran for the BISD board. At that time he posted (again on his Facebook page) that the union's endorsement wasn't worth much. (See graphic. Click to enlarge)
Those who have seen the YouTube version of the forum cannot detect the alleged murderous threat.
Hopefully, with just a little over a month before the Nov. 6 election, Castro will survive these life-threatening confrontations in one piece to stay alive until after the voting.
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I.C.E.: "THARPE CALLED US ON FAMILY COURT FATHER"
It has now been confirmed that it was local attorney Bruce Tharpe who called the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to report the husband of one of his female clients after he was faring badly in family court.
The couple were before the court to determine the amount of child support and visitation rights. By all accounts, the father had been making every effort to live up to his responsibilities and the court was sympathetic in allowing him visitation to his offspring.
And, in the evidence that was presented to the court and the conditions the little girl was living in with her mother and the obvious affection between father and daughter, the court was leaning toward siding with the father.
Attorney Liz Valdez Garza was representing the father and Tharpe was representing the woman.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Tharpe called I.C.E. to report the man. According to various sources, the ICE agents arrived at the courthouse and asked security for the suspect and waited for about two hours until the hearing was over and he emerged from the courthouse.
Now Valdez-Garza, who first thought it was Tharpe's client who had called ICE to report her former husband, says that the ICE agent has told her that his supervisor had specifically ordered him to seek out Tharpe when he got to the courthouse.
"Everybody is upset," she wrote. Apparently, the suspect was not wanted for any crime and it was only a civil hearing on a family matter.
As news of Tharpe's vindictive move becomes known, will other fathers who may be in a similar situation become wary of appearing in family (or in any other courts) if they think the opposing attorneys will sic immigration authorities on them if they show up? People blame the federal government for separating immigrant families, but is what Tharpe did any different?
What if they happen to be witnesses in criminal cases and the lawyers for the criminal know they are undocumented? Will the crime victims have to forgo justice if the undocumented witnesses are arrested and detained?
We have mentioned in a past post that Tharpe was a professional wrestler in the past, even getting to be the president of a fledgling wrestling association. Does that mean that he believes in the no-hold-barred approach to the law as well?
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IN WAKE OF CORNEJO-LOPEZ'S SUIT WIN, QUESTIONS REMAIN
Even though a jury awarded Elia Cornejo-Lopez $22,350 in damages in her defamation lawsuit against Jeffrey Michael Lorence, a final judgment has not been rendered by visiting judge Robert Garza and defendant has announced he will appeal the verdict.
Court records indicate that jury verdict and damages were announced August 30 but Garza has yet to enter his final judgment. The jury found that Lorence had defamed Cornejo-Lopez when he painted a sign on the bed a trailer parked in his property that she had committed tax fraud and conspired to defraud the City of Brownsville, Cameron County and the Brownsville Independent School District out of property taxes.
They awarded her $450 for injury to character and $800 for mental anguish on the allegation of having committed tax fraud and another $450 and $650 on the charge she conspired to defraud the taxing entities. They award her another $20,000 in exemplary damages.
Cornejo-Lopez filed her lawsuit against Lorence on June 15, 2016. Lorence had filed a counter petition which was thrown out August 20, 2018. Both Cornejo-Lopez and the defendant represented themselves in the lawsuit.
On Sept. 28, 2018, Lorence notified the court he was appealing the jury verdict and award.
And as the case wends its way through the lengthy appeals process, some local real-estate professionals and court observers say that although Lorence was mistaken in alleging that Cornejo-Lopez committed fraud and conspired to defraud the taxing entities, they point out that the historical exemptions she was granted by the various taxing entities on the structures of her home at 235 Sunset Drive in Brownsville posed were, to say the least, highly questionable.
Additionally, CCAD records indicate that not all the structures on the property date back to 1947, like the main house facing Sunset Drive. In fact, only five of the structures listed date back to that year while nine others were built after 2010. (See graphic below.)
As can be seen, the buildings added after 2010 include a swimming pool, a two-story apartment structure, a storage area, an attached addition, etc. Those post-2010 additions can clearly be seen in the Google photo at the top of the page.
The Texas property Tax Code allows for tax exemptions for a historical or archaeological site if it has been designated a historic building and the taxing unit votes to grant an exemption. The site must be designated as a Recorded Historical Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission. But the taxing unit decides the amount of the exemption.
Locally, the representative of the Texas Historical Commission in Brownsville is Gene Fernandez, but the exemption and the amount of that exemption is left up to the taxing entities such as the City of Brownsville, Cameron County, the Brownsville Independent School District Texas, Southmost College, the Brownsville Navigation District, etc. The chief appraiser may accept the application as it is submitted, or modify it.However, the Property Tax Code also allows for a challenge by a taxing unit at Section 41.03 before the appraisal review board a grant in whole or in part of a partial exemption. Remember, the taxes not paid by an exempted property must be made up by others not so designated.Will any of the taxing entities challenge what appears to be a wholesale historical exemption on a property whose components are obviously not historic in nature? If so, will they – unlike the hapless Lorence that a jury found had defamed Cornejo-Lopez with his sign – be successful in reducing the exemption?
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BEGUM, HOMETOWN BOY A GIANT IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION
S.A. Scene Magazine, Various Sources
It's not often that Brownsville, Texas is often mentioned in the same breath as a place that produces anything of gigantic stature.
But if you ask the leading journals of the legal profession they will tell you that this much-maligned border town has produced one of the leading purveyors of legal prowess today.
His name is Alex Begum, and if it has been your fortune never to have had needed the services of a lawyer, you probably would never have heard of him. But you have probably seen his "Law Giant" billboards across South Texas and have seen his television ads.
It is not braggadocio. It is, according to the leading law journals, a proven fact.
Consider, for example, that Begum - the son of a Russian Jew who fled Nazi oppression and a Mexican immigrant mother living on the U.S-Mexico border - has earned these recognition from his peers:
* Since graduating law school, he has tried over 50 trials to verdict. He has handled thousands of personal injury cases and has tried or settled over $150 million in cases.
* He has been named as one of the best personal injury lawyers in San Antonio for years 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 by SA Scene magazine in a poll voted on only by lawyers.
* He was also named as a Top Ten personal injury lawyer under 40 in the nation by the National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
* Begum was also voted Top 10 personal injury attorneys in South Texas by the National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
* And the National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys having been named one of the Top 10 Personal Injury Lawyers in the nation in 2017 and one of the Top 10 Personal Injury Lawyers under 40 from 2013-2017.
You've got to admit that for being from the small border town of Brownsville, he has built a powerful law firm with over $175 million in verdicts and settlements. What’s more, he has done it by incorporating a healthy component of pro-bono contributions to help local families in poverty-stricken S. Texas .
And he did that before he reached 40.
“I get to meet people during their worst times as they’ve lost family members or suffered horrible injuries that will forever change their lives. It’s a great responsibility and I’m honored to be chosen to fight for them.” he said recently.
Begum is the son of an immigrant holocaust survivor.
His late father Michael Begum was 17 years old in Minsk Russia when the Nazis invaded his small village in 1942. His entire family was killed during the invasion and others perished in the concentration camps. Michael escaped into the woods eating whatever food he could salvage in the harsh Russian winters for 6 months.
When he was found and despite barely weighing 100 pounds, he joined the Russian Partisans, a group of organized civilian fighters who eventually numbered nearly 100,000 and battled Nazi forces in enemy territory.
Michael Begum’s story is documented by the Shoah Foundation, an institute founded by Steven Spielberg in 1994 to preserve interviews with survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust.
Not understanding how people could allow such tyranny to come to power in Germany, Alex began studying political science, obtained a law degree and an MBA. When deciding between offers from corporate law firms, he instead decided to start his own firm focusing on individuals against very powerful entities.
“My father’s family all died due to people not willing to stand up for those in need at a critical moment in history, so I needed a career that let me try to even the scales of justice for those folks facing overwhelming odds," he said
Along the way, his law firm's performance has uprooted and rattled what many established players would describe as a good old boys' socioeconomic network and established a firm foothold.His civic engagement might be something he also inherited from his mother Yolanda, an unsuccessful candidate for public office in Brownsville who used that defeat to fund the efforts to eradicate the politiquera system from the political scene that is blamed for playing a deciding role in her loss.
(Brownsville being Brownsville, a local blogger egged on a woman named Josefina Auten after she was sued for defamation by Yolanda and a visiting judge ruled in her favor. That mistake was corrected by a court of appeals ruling reversing and remanding the case.) https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/thirteenth-court-of-appeals/2015/13-13-00210-cv.html
And he hasn't forgotten those in need. He practices it so routinely that it has become an integral part of his professional and personal life and gives freely of his time and expertise to offer pro bono legal services to those that need them.
As the Huffington Post reported in May 2017, he played a central role in saving a community that was in imminent danger of losing its homes through no fault of their own. He also serves as a board member for several charitable organizations. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-every-business-should-take-ethics-seriously_us_5909cba7e4b05279d4edc144
But just because his firm is one of the most successful minority-owned law firms in South Texas, Begum has not forgotten that lawyers are often the only defenders of victims who would have no one else to take up their cause.
“Despite a terrible tragedy, each courtroom victory gives a victim or the surviving family a chance at a brighter future. That drives me to continue my work to even the scales of justice for those who have no one to stand up for them.”
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DE COSS APPARENT FRONT RUNNER; NOW THE RACE CARD
Hear the latest?
Observers with their ear close to the ground on the City of Brownsville Commission say that except for the insistence of Mayor Tony Martinez on personally interviewing the remaining four candidates for city attorney, Municipal City Judge Rene De Coss was all but a shoo-in.
The vote was delayed for two weeks to give Da Mayor – also the de facto city manager and attorney and dog catcher in the abeyance of a permanent office holder in these positions – time to cull through the three remaining applicants.
There were four then, but since then Arron Leal announced his withdrawal.
The others are Gary Linan and Lysia H. Bowling, the city attorney for Pensacola. Fla. and De Coss.
Martinez has let it be known in city commission circles that he does not want De Coss and has the support of Ben Neece, who for some unknown reason, has not expressed his support for his former colleague on the municipal court bench.
The apparent majority – Jessica Tetreau, Joel Munguia, Ricardo Longoria and Cesar De Leon – apparently felt comfortable with De Coss and seemed ready to take the vote until Martinez forced the two-week delay. After all, besides being a municipal judge now, he has also served as a district judge and has the respect of prosecutors and defense attorneys alike.
Now, working in the background, his opponents have launched a silent – and nefarious – campaign to submarine De Coss' candidacy and push for Bowling, who also served as the city attorney in San Angelo. The selection is on the city agenda for this Tuesday.
There are other considerations, as those who have served in public service know. There are things like duration on the job, knowledge of local issues, knowing the actors, etc.,
But this is where the rubber meets the road.
We have heard supporters of other candidates for the city attorney selection have targeted De Leon's vote, who was the chair of the attorney search, and now lenguas sueltas are saying that he won't support Bowling because – you ready for this? – she happens to be African American.
Now, as far as we know, applicants don't include their race or heritage when they send in their applications or resumes. We know, for example, that neither De Coss, Leal, nor Linan, indicated that they were of Hispanic descent. Bowling sounds just plain American to us. Maybe they expect commissioners to deduce that through the candidates' affiliations with cultural affiliations. Then again, what if Bowling is a MALDEF member?
Has it really come down to this?
The city was subjected to national scrutiny and disdain after De Leon was surreptitiously recorded using the "N" word to refer to two vindictive Cameron County Asst. DA's who were coming down hard on local defendants and were denying plea-bargain deals (the meat and potatoes of the local law profession) to the clients of local lawyers.
When De Leon, in the presence of three other people in a private setting, used the word derisively to refer to these two specific prosecutors, the person recording him used to divert the attention to his own problems and misdeeds. That person eventually was fired as fire chief and an audit conducted on him was later used as evidence to indict him. De Leon was one of the moving forces behind that audit.
We need not go into that sordid mess since the former fire chief remains under indictment and faces an additional nine charges, aside from theft.
De Leon has since apologized and moved on. Now whoever is whispering these poisonous words in the ear of Herald reporters and other social media, is throwing this out saying that is the reason why De Leon supports De Coss and not Bowling, the African American.
Does this mean that De Leon will be suspect if he celebrates Martin Luther King's Birthday?
Whoever is doing this is merely resurrecting the specter of racism and tarnishing the image of the city again just because they don't think they have the votes to select their candidate for city attorney. This smacks very much like the lawsuit against the selection of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation CEO Mario Lozoya. In that case, the GBIC board members and their supporters who didn't have the vote for their selection sued the board, including De Leon.
They failed, and we predict this will fail as well.
If Da Mayor and the others don't have the votes to get their selection, will they sue De Leon for racial discrimination? Or will they – damn the image of the city – merely smear De Leon to cut their nose to spite their faces and show their parliamentary impotence?
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LID COMES OFF I.E.S. SCANDAL: $22 MILLION MISSING
By Mark Reagan
![Image result for i.e.s. logo]()
The ORR, ACF, tells IES in the letter that it failed to comply with conduct standards after the OIG audit revealed that family members received compensation under IES awards.
The names of those family members are redacted, though tax filings show that the two top executives at IES are related, Ruben Gallegos and Ruben Gallegos Jr., father and son. However, because of the redactions, the letter doesn’t reveal whether the ORR, ACF, is referring to Ruben Gallegos and Ruben Gallegos Jr. or other family members employed by IES.
According to the letter, “recipients are required to establish safeguards to prevent employees, consultants, members of governing bodies and others who may be involved in grant supported activities from using their positions for purposes that are, or give the appearance of being, motivated by desire for private financial gain for themselves or others, such as those with whom they have family, business, or other ties.”
The letter states that someone doing business as Ideal Realty maintained more than a dozen less than-arms-length leases with IES of either land or buildings.
Another person whose name is redacted also maintained a number of less than arms-length leases either by doing business as ILT Enterprizes or through a limited Partnership of GaCris, LP.
IES tax filings from 2015 show that GaCris received a $42,200 deposit from the nonprofit. (GaCris is owned by Gallegos Jr. and Luigi Cristiano, a former Port of Brownsville commissioner. A list of other "contactors" on the IRS report is below. Click on graphic to enlarge.)
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(Hector Peña is a former Cameron County Commissioner and gained notoriety in 2005 for his involvement in a scam to cheat TSTC of between $100,000 and $200,000 for faking Homeland Security, anti-terrorism and advanced criminal investigations training courses. He and a co-defendant claimed that 10 Brownsville school district police officers took the classes between Jan. 1, 2002 and Nov. 2, 2005, which they never did. Then-Judge Abel Limas sentenced the two men to five years deferred adjudication and fined them $1,000.)
Texas Comptroller records indicate that Ruben Gallegos Jr. is the director of ILT Enterprizes.
However, an independent audit conducted for Fiscal Year 2016, the same year the OIG initiated its audit, provides insight into some of those leases.
That audit states that Ruben Gallegos owns an ILT Enterprise, which owns the Los Fresnos Corporate Office, two portable buildings in Driscoll, the Arroyo City Recreational Area and the Los Fresnos Shelter. IES paid ILT Enterprise thousands of dollars during the Fiscal Year 2016 to lease those properties, including $259,800 annually for the Los Fresnos Shelter.
The Texas Comptroller’s Office does not list an ILT Enterprise, though it does list ILT Enterprize.
That same audit states that IES leased a portable building for the Los Fresnos Shelter from Gonzalez, the finance director, for $26,400 a year. The 2016 audit also notes that IES leased another portable building from a “related party” at the Los Fresnos Shelter for a total of $26,400.
Finally, that audit states that IES held a total of 12 leases for buildings, land, parking lots, recreational areas and portable buildings from its president, Ruben Gallegos, for a total of $855,660.
This audit states that all related-party lease agreements were approved by IES’ board of directors and by the ORR, ACF.
The OIG audit, however, states that more than a dozen leases with IES violated federal standards that establish safeguards to prohibit employees from using their positions for a purpose that constitutes or presents the appearance of personal or organizational conflict, interest or personal gain.
“In addition, IES appears to have entered into more than a dozen leases with Ideal Realty, which the leases show was a corporation controlled by [redacted] (the leases are actually between IES and [redacted] “dba Ideal Realty.”)
Brownsville Herald
Various Sources
International Educational Services closed its doors six months ago after an audit determined that employees profited when IES leased properties they owned and that executives paid themselves salaries that were hundreds of thousands of dollars more than what was allowed, according to documents obtained by The Brownsville Herald.
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Those are just two of multiple reasons listed in a letter sent from the Administration for Children & Families to International Educational Services informing the nonprofit that its grant funding was coming to an end.
The nonprofit, which was formed in 1985, aimed to provide physical and educational care for unaccompanied migrant children entrusted to its care by immigration officials who detained the children.
IES closed on March 31 and terminated the jobs of hundreds of employees. No one with IES or the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency in charge of ACF, has said why the nonprofit closed.
Shortly after IES shuttered, The Brownsville Herald filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the ORR, ACF asking for any correspondence informing the nonprofit that the federal agency would not renew its grant funding.
Various Sources
International Educational Services closed its doors six months ago after an audit determined that employees profited when IES leased properties they owned and that executives paid themselves salaries that were hundreds of thousands of dollars more than what was allowed, according to documents obtained by The Brownsville Herald.
Those are just two of multiple reasons listed in a letter sent from the Administration for Children & Families to International Educational Services informing the nonprofit that its grant funding was coming to an end.The nonprofit, which was formed in 1985, aimed to provide physical and educational care for unaccompanied migrant children entrusted to its care by immigration officials who detained the children.
IES closed on March 31 and terminated the jobs of hundreds of employees. No one with IES or the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency in charge of ACF, has said why the nonprofit closed.
Shortly after IES shuttered, The Brownsville Herald filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the ORR, ACF asking for any correspondence informing the nonprofit that the federal agency would not renew its grant funding.
After nearly six months, the ORR, ACF, provided the newspaper with a seven-page letter sent on Feb. 21 to the nonprofit from E. Scott Lloyd, director of the ORR, ACF, informing IES that it would no longer receive nine grants to provide services for unaccompanied immigrant children.
That letter reveals a series of failures at IES identified during an audit conducted by the Office of Inspector General that began in June 2016.
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“In September 2017, the OIG identified to ACF findings that included less than arms-length agreements related to property leases, violation of executive compensation levels, non-compliance with conflict of interest requirements and procurement procedures, and numerous examples of substantial failures of IES failing to comply with regulations governing allowable costs under (Health and Human Services) awards,” the letter states.
Starting on Nov. 2, 2017, the federal government placed IES on costs reimbursement restrictions due to concerns about the organization’s lack of effective control over, and accountability for federal funds, property and other federal assets , according to the letter.
The OIG audited IES for the Fiscal Year 2015, which began Oct. 1, 2014, and ended Sept. 30, 2015.
However, all the names in the letter, including who the document is addressed to, are redacted because the federal agency determined that significant privacy interest in those identities could lead to an unwarranted invasion of privacy because the identities of those individuals are contained in a law enforcement file.
“Information has been redacted pursuant to Exemption 6 and pertains to the identities of individuals who have been named in a law enforcement file. Disclosure of this information would cause a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” a letter to the newspaper states.
According to the ORR, ACF, the mention of an individual’s name in a law enforcement file will engender comment and speculation and carries a stigmatizing connotation.
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
The letter reveals that five employees at IES earned more than the $183,300 salary limit set by the grant, with the two highest paid individuals earning $300,000 more than that amount.
Based on an OIG review of W-2s, the five individuals were paid $506,003.22, $492,001.62, $377,060.96, $208,190.49 and $185,000.06.
While those five names are redacted, tax documents filed by IES for 2015 reveal the salaries of IES’ highest paid employees.
The nonprofit’s 2015 tax filings show that IES President Ruben Gallegos earned $519,200; Chief Operating Officer Ruben Gallegos Jr., the president’s son, made $505,202; Chief Financial Officer Juan J. Gonzalez earned $390,273; Vice President of Business Affairs Norberto Perez made $201,601; and grant writer Nelly Weaver earned $194,414. All of those figures include benefits.
(The newer returns for I.E.S. show that the salaries increased tremendously – by more than $100,000 for Gallegos Sr. and Jr. – the following year. See graphic. Click to enlarge.)
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(Eduardo Andres Lucio is Texas State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, and is listed as receiving $125,000 a year as I.E.S. legal counsel. Since the story was published, they have erased all the pictures together on theirt Facebook page, especially when Ruben calls Eddie his business partner. Shouldn't the state rep have known better?)
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The 2015 tax filing only lists five employees earning more than the $183,300 salary limit, but those salaries listed in the tax filings do not match the salaries the OIG took from W-2s, even when benefits are not included.
“IES did not comply with the award terms and conditions regarding the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA), executive reporting requirements which requires large grantees to report the compensation of its top five paid employees,” the letter states.
The tax filings indicate that Ruben Gallegos set salaries.
According to the ORR, ACF, the Notice of Award for IES clearly stated that this condition applied to the IES grants.
Ruben Gallegos Jr. told The Brownsville Herald he wished he could give an interview about IES’ closure, but due to negotiations with the federal government regarding the nonprofit that he was unable to comment.
“Right now, we are in the middle of negotiating with the federal government. There is nothing that I can say on the record right now,” Ruben Gallegos Jr. said.
A phone number provided for Ruben Gallegos by Texas Southmost College, where he served as a trustee was disconnected.
That letter reveals a series of failures at IES identified during an audit conducted by the Office of Inspector General that began in June 2016.
“In September 2017, the OIG identified to ACF findings that included less than arms-length agreements related to property leases, violation of executive compensation levels, non-compliance with conflict of interest requirements and procurement procedures, and numerous examples of substantial failures of IES failing to comply with regulations governing allowable costs under (Health and Human Services) awards,” the letter states.Starting on Nov. 2, 2017, the federal government placed IES on costs reimbursement restrictions due to concerns about the organization’s lack of effective control over, and accountability for federal funds, property and other federal assets , according to the letter.
The OIG audited IES for the Fiscal Year 2015, which began Oct. 1, 2014, and ended Sept. 30, 2015.
However, all the names in the letter, including who the document is addressed to, are redacted because the federal agency determined that significant privacy interest in those identities could lead to an unwarranted invasion of privacy because the identities of those individuals are contained in a law enforcement file.
“Information has been redacted pursuant to Exemption 6 and pertains to the identities of individuals who have been named in a law enforcement file. Disclosure of this information would cause a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” a letter to the newspaper states.
According to the ORR, ACF, the mention of an individual’s name in a law enforcement file will engender comment and speculation and carries a stigmatizing connotation.
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
The letter reveals that five employees at IES earned more than the $183,300 salary limit set by the grant, with the two highest paid individuals earning $300,000 more than that amount.
Based on an OIG review of W-2s, the five individuals were paid $506,003.22, $492,001.62, $377,060.96, $208,190.49 and $185,000.06.
While those five names are redacted, tax documents filed by IES for 2015 reveal the salaries of IES’ highest paid employees.
The nonprofit’s 2015 tax filings show that IES President Ruben Gallegos earned $519,200; Chief Operating Officer Ruben Gallegos Jr., the president’s son, made $505,202; Chief Financial Officer Juan J. Gonzalez earned $390,273; Vice President of Business Affairs Norberto Perez made $201,601; and grant writer Nelly Weaver earned $194,414. All of those figures include benefits.
(The newer returns for I.E.S. show that the salaries increased tremendously – by more than $100,000 for Gallegos Sr. and Jr. – the following year. See graphic. Click to enlarge.)
“IES did not comply with the award terms and conditions regarding the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA), executive reporting requirements which requires large grantees to report the compensation of its top five paid employees,” the letter states.
The tax filings indicate that Ruben Gallegos set salaries.
According to the ORR, ACF, the Notice of Award for IES clearly stated that this condition applied to the IES grants.
Ruben Gallegos Jr. told The Brownsville Herald he wished he could give an interview about IES’ closure, but due to negotiations with the federal government regarding the nonprofit that he was unable to comment.
“Right now, we are in the middle of negotiating with the federal government. There is nothing that I can say on the record right now,” Ruben Gallegos Jr. said.
A phone number provided for Ruben Gallegos by Texas Southmost College, where he served as a trustee was disconnected.
IES LEASES
The ORR, ACF, tells IES in the letter that it failed to comply with conduct standards after the OIG audit revealed that family members received compensation under IES awards.
The names of those family members are redacted, though tax filings show that the two top executives at IES are related, Ruben Gallegos and Ruben Gallegos Jr., father and son. However, because of the redactions, the letter doesn’t reveal whether the ORR, ACF, is referring to Ruben Gallegos and Ruben Gallegos Jr. or other family members employed by IES.
According to the letter, “recipients are required to establish safeguards to prevent employees, consultants, members of governing bodies and others who may be involved in grant supported activities from using their positions for purposes that are, or give the appearance of being, motivated by desire for private financial gain for themselves or others, such as those with whom they have family, business, or other ties.”
The letter states that someone doing business as Ideal Realty maintained more than a dozen less than-arms-length leases with IES of either land or buildings.
Another person whose name is redacted also maintained a number of less than arms-length leases either by doing business as ILT Enterprizes or through a limited Partnership of GaCris, LP.
IES tax filings from 2015 show that GaCris received a $42,200 deposit from the nonprofit. (GaCris is owned by Gallegos Jr. and Luigi Cristiano, a former Port of Brownsville commissioner. A list of other "contactors" on the IRS report is below. Click on graphic to enlarge.)
Texas Comptroller records indicate that Ruben Gallegos Jr. is the director of ILT Enterprizes.
However, an independent audit conducted for Fiscal Year 2016, the same year the OIG initiated its audit, provides insight into some of those leases.
That audit states that Ruben Gallegos owns an ILT Enterprise, which owns the Los Fresnos Corporate Office, two portable buildings in Driscoll, the Arroyo City Recreational Area and the Los Fresnos Shelter. IES paid ILT Enterprise thousands of dollars during the Fiscal Year 2016 to lease those properties, including $259,800 annually for the Los Fresnos Shelter.
The Texas Comptroller’s Office does not list an ILT Enterprise, though it does list ILT Enterprize.
That same audit states that IES leased a portable building for the Los Fresnos Shelter from Gonzalez, the finance director, for $26,400 a year. The 2016 audit also notes that IES leased another portable building from a “related party” at the Los Fresnos Shelter for a total of $26,400.
Finally, that audit states that IES held a total of 12 leases for buildings, land, parking lots, recreational areas and portable buildings from its president, Ruben Gallegos, for a total of $855,660.
This audit states that all related-party lease agreements were approved by IES’ board of directors and by the ORR, ACF.
The OIG audit, however, states that more than a dozen leases with IES violated federal standards that establish safeguards to prohibit employees from using their positions for a purpose that constitutes or presents the appearance of personal or organizational conflict, interest or personal gain.
“In addition, IES appears to have entered into more than a dozen leases with Ideal Realty, which the leases show was a corporation controlled by [redacted] (the leases are actually between IES and [redacted] “dba Ideal Realty.”)
IES also charged full rental for these leases, rather than following the regulations that would govern less than-arms-length transactions,” the letter to IES states. “Yet another lease shows that IES knowingly entered into lease agreements with [redacted] and, apparently, [redacted] relative [redacted] for portable structures. [Redacted] is the [redacted] of IES.”
Throughout tax filings between 2013 and 2015, IES admitted that an officer, director or key employee had family or business relationships with another officer, director, trustee or key employee.
However, in each of those years, on those same tax filings, IES states that it was not a party to a business transaction with a current or former officer, director, trustee or key employee; any family member of the same list; and any entity which a current or former officer, director or key employee, or family member thereof, was an officer, director, trustee or direct or indirect owner.
Throughout tax filings between 2013 and 2015, IES admitted that an officer, director or key employee had family or business relationships with another officer, director, trustee or key employee.
However, in each of those years, on those same tax filings, IES states that it was not a party to a business transaction with a current or former officer, director, trustee or key employee; any family member of the same list; and any entity which a current or former officer, director or key employee, or family member thereof, was an officer, director, trustee or direct or indirect owner.
To read rest of story, click on link: https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/ies-migrant-shelter-under-scrutiny-of-government/article_3fbaacfe-c442-11e8-905f-73378a9fc251.html
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