By Juan Montoya
Way back on September 11, 2013, Cameron County Drainage District #1 granted the City of Brownsville license to use its drainage easements abutting local properties so it could build its Trails to Rails hike and bike trials.
At that time, nothing had been constructed, and no one – in particular property owners who would be affected – knew that someday the city could swoop in and demand that the residents living along the DD #1 drainage easements remove any fencing, sheds, or any other structure that they considered to be encroaching on their hike-and-bike trail plans. Certainly, the residents on Glori Street had no idea they were in the cross hairs of these plans.
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There was no individual notice by the district to these property owners that they had reached a licensing agreement with the city that might result in the taking of property they considered to be part of their easements.
The plans, to the credit of Mayor Tony Martinez, commissioner Rose Gowen, planner Ramiro Gonzalez and others in the Charlie Cabler administration, were well set.
Just the year before, the city commissioners passed the Complete Streets Resolution #2012-056. Adopted on October 2, 2012, one of the provisions adopted by the commission was that 10 percent of any transportation-related Certificates of Obligation (COs) go to bike and hike trails like the one planned for the rear of the properties along the drainage easement on Gloria Street.
Martinez and the commission favors issuing COs because it does not require voter approval as would a bond issue.
The hike and bike trail advocates not only had the plans, they also had the cash, compliments of local residents like the low-income families on Gloria Street. That resolution has resulted in millions in taxpayer-funded monies to be placed in bicycle and pedestrian fund.
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Way back on September 11, 2013, Cameron County Drainage District #1 granted the City of Brownsville license to use its drainage easements abutting local properties so it could build its Trails to Rails hike and bike trials.
At that time, nothing had been constructed, and no one – in particular property owners who would be affected – knew that someday the city could swoop in and demand that the residents living along the DD #1 drainage easements remove any fencing, sheds, or any other structure that they considered to be encroaching on their hike-and-bike trail plans. Certainly, the residents on Glori Street had no idea they were in the cross hairs of these plans.
There was no individual notice by the district to these property owners that they had reached a licensing agreement with the city that might result in the taking of property they considered to be part of their easements.
The plans, to the credit of Mayor Tony Martinez, commissioner Rose Gowen, planner Ramiro Gonzalez and others in the Charlie Cabler administration, were well set.
Just the year before, the city commissioners passed the Complete Streets Resolution #2012-056. Adopted on October 2, 2012, one of the provisions adopted by the commission was that 10 percent of any transportation-related Certificates of Obligation (COs) go to bike and hike trails like the one planned for the rear of the properties along the drainage easement on Gloria Street.
Martinez and the commission favors issuing COs because it does not require voter approval as would a bond issue.
The hike and bike trail advocates not only had the plans, they also had the cash, compliments of local residents like the low-income families on Gloria Street. That resolution has resulted in millions in taxpayer-funded monies to be placed in bicycle and pedestrian fund.
By the end of 2017, $2,007,133 had gone to Gowen's pet projects. Then, in 2018, yet another CO issue netter her an additional $500,000 that increased the total take to $2,507,133. If the rate of issuance of debt based on ad valorem (property) taxes under the Martinez administration in the form of COs is any measure, we're sure there will be more money for Gowen's plans.
Well, the chickens have come to roost.
The 2013 license agreement includes a map of not only planned hike and bike trails, but also of "potential" drainage district easements that the city could use for its recreational plans.
The original map included with the agreement did not show that the city's planned contemplated the Gloria Street drainage easements as a use for hiking or cycling. (See map.)
Notice also, that the original legend on the map included in the licensing agreement did not show that a hike trail would be constructed there, instead, it shows it on ManzanoRoad (the two blue rectangles between the yellow ones).
When did the plans change? Or does the vague and over-broad agreement give the city the right to consider any easement on the drainage district's system within the city a "potential shared use path corridor"?
The licensing contract reads that the plans for the hike and bike trails (and the use of the expansion of the drainage easements by as much as 40 to 50 feet into the Gloria Street properties) must first be approved by the Drainage District #1 engineer. So it will not be up to an elected official, or a representative of the people, to approve the taking of the property. It will be left up to a bureaucrat to give it its blessing.
In fact, the Drainage District has never had an election since the first board was appointed way back when it was created on the initiative of the late Cameron County Pct. 1 commissioner Pete Benavides in 1998. At the time, two new Directors were appointed by County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa.
The district is basically run by directors appointed by a vote of the Cameron County commissioners court. Under chairman Ernesto Gamez, it has annexed hundreds, if not thousands, of properties that it has the power to tax for its operations. Alberto Barreda, who is one of the directors, is also wearing the hat of district manager. Mercedes Cantu is the treasurer.
Ever heard the term "taxation without representation is tyranny?"
Seventeen low-income homeowners received their notice of encroachment from the city this June 4 and – under threat of legal action – have been told that if they don't comply within 60 days, they will be cited by the 90th day. These residents, the majority elderly on fixed-incomes, must pay for the cost of removing fencing, sheds, or other structures and to give up any use of portions of their properties for the city to build its hike-and-bike trail.
Is this any way to run a representative government?