Suddenly, the City of Brownsville District 3 commissioner spot has become the most popular nesting spot for candidates.
So far, as the 5 p.m. deadline approaches, there are four candidates lined up to try to wrest the position from jewelry store owner Deborah Portillo. Portillo was groomed by the United Brownsville bunch, first as the secretary of the phantom government bunch headed by Fred Rusteberg, Julireta Garcia and Irv Downing. Then, when the eight publicly-funded entities (aka members) deserted the group and stopped paying them their annual $25,000, the group disbanded and she was made a member of the UB Coordinating Board.
Then, sensing that the gig was up, Portillo resigned from that prestigious and lofty position to "pursue other priorities." Now, according to the city secretary website, she wants another four years to do the bidding of Tony Martinez, the wolf in the priest cassock who has lined the pockets of his favorites with the public dollar.
Everyone from the UT System, Abraham Galonsky, his own law firm, and the United Brownsville scam have profited from Martinez's tenure. Through it all, Little Debby has been Martinez's vote in his vest pocket. When Martinez wanted to raise Public Utility Board utility rates by an unconscionable 36 percent, she was there to vote his way. So, by the way, were la chuisquiada Rose Gowen and John Villarreal, who are also running for re-election.
When Martinez wanted to give away Lincoln Park, she, along with Gowen and Johnny Boy, were only too happy to go along with the rape of the Southmost barrio. Both Portillo and Villarreal are holding a so-called "town hall" meeting today at UTRGV. Ironically, the meeting will be held in District 1, the home turf of Ricardo Longoria, another one of Martinez's bootlicks who has been all too willing to stand by and witness the rape of his constituents. When the outcry of the barrios grew to a roaring crescendo over the park giveaway, Longoria lamely stated that the proposed site for a replacement park across the street from a sewer plant would do nicely once the right chemicals could be found to mitigate the stench of raw sewage.
Had he but researched the matter a little closer, he would have discovered that the PUB already applies the chemicals to lift stations. But, as is the par for the municipal utility, it uses the majority of the chemicals to treat lift stations north of Boca Chica Blvd. We wouldn't want the neighborhoods in those areas to be offended by the stink. But the barrios, well that's what they should expect for living in the low-income areas. You go Rick!
Debby is facing at least three challengers so far. We understand that there may be others jumping into the fray before 5 p.m. One of those is Fred Martinez, who we ran into recently collecting signatures for a place on the ballot. Joel Mungia is starting out badly already. Mungia, a veterans' service officer with the deposed U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz who replaced John Treviño, is said to have married into Matamoros money and has been seen in the company of Martinez and Car;los Marin, prominent figures in rogues alley. Side from being well-off as a result of marriage, he also runs an insurance company.
We don't know Raymond P. Everitt's background, but we do know William Garza. Just yesterday we ran into William at the Ben Neece bash in his campaign for the District 4 race against Villarreal. We also noticed that our homolgo Jerry McHale was reluctant to chummy up to Garza because his invoice for a $300 ad in his blog has gone unpaid since the last time Garza made his last quixotic bid for mayor. Erasmo Castro, who is running against Gowen, also pleaded penury and said he was counting on "love" to satisfy his advertising needs. Well, no use squeezing that turnip.
Neece had a full house and Garza said he had more at his announcement at Cobbleheads. We noted a touch of the green-eyed devil in that statement.
If the previous "town hall" meeting held by Portillo and Gowen, those in attendance were mostly city employees who didn't even fill out the seats there. City Secretary and Asst. City manager Michael Lopez did his best Charlie Cabler impression of a consigliere shifting people and issues to facilitate the commissioners' shtick.
The Dynamic Duo will hold the reelection town hall meeting at 6 p.m. today in the Plains Capital Salon at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Brownsville Campus.
“The purpose of the town hall is to foster a continuous and recurring dialogue between the elected officials and their constituents,” Portillo said. “We, as elected officials, work on projects and concerns residents call or email us about."
Yeah, right. Did Portillo and Villarreal think this through? Today is Friday, and the students over at UTRGV are notoriously uncivic minded to attend political events. Let's see if they address the weighy issues like the Tenaska debacle, the steep rate hikes they voted to implement to build it, and their going along with the purchase of the $2.3 million Casa Del Nylon from Galonsky. The Casa Del Nylon, by the way, is now being used as a warehouse for city construction projects and has become an ad-hoc homeless shelter.
Lucky for them there is no rain in the forecast, or else they would have to add flooding to their list of issues.
To find out the final lineup in the city elections, click on link below and go to "submitted forms":
http://www.cob.us/970/Upcoming-Elections