Brownsville Public Utility Board CEO John Bruciak knows.
Anna Oquin, chairperson of the PUB board knows.PUB's contract lawyers and board counsel know.
And the auditor who presented the finished report on the $1.3 million heist also knows.
About the only ones who don't know are the PUB board members and the ratepayers who paid the $2.6 million bill for the PUB fuck up.
After all, following the mistaken deposit of $1.3 million in salary draws to a Bank of America account instead of to Texas Noble's Builders Lone Star National Bank account based on an apparently bogus telephone call and a letter allegedly from Noble confirming the change of accounts and banks, Bruciak ordered the internal audit.
Now the audit is in, the administration has been sitting on it and keeping the report close to its vest.
And since Bruciak has not shared the findings with the board and the board in turn has not accepted or acknowledged the audit report, it not subject to an open record request as a work in progress or incomplete.
Threatened with litigation by Noble if PUB did not make good on its $1.3 million payment, Bruciak gave in and approved the issuance of another $1.3 million to the company to cover the loss. We assume that the original $1.3 million was issued through board approval. But was the other $1.3 million payment approved by the board? If not, by what authority did PUB issue the second check?
So does that mean that the PUB ratepayer will have to eat the additional $1.3 million?
Oquin has been very active trying to stamp out the brush fire and chiding city commission members for raising the issue in the form of a letter of inquiry sent by the city manager's office demanding to know what happened, how it happened, what the outcome was, and who was responsible.
Meanwhile, PUB board members, city commissioners, and the public is being kept in the dark by the PUB administration.
The response they got to their inquiries was an item on Monday's meeting teleconference agenda approving Bruciak's request to the Texas Attorney General's Office asking that PUB be exempt from any requests for information under the Public Information Act.
(Click on graphic to enlarge.)
If the AG agrees that PUB has been impacted from a catastrophe in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, PUB can request extension of that exemption until the disaster declaration has passed, that is, a delay to comply for what can be months from now. Under the disaster declaration, any requests for information made before and after PUB's request for the exemption will be put off until the disaster declaration is lifted.
Will anyone step up to the plate and demand that the truth come out and that the guilty (or inept) be held accountable?