Home of Today’s Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald - November 26, 2006 

As many of you know, who follow my attempts at bringing a little “Common Sense” into a perspective of how our representatives manage our community and its resources; I am an “info junky” and read – listen – and watch, a lot of news from a variety of media.
I am particularly interested in what opinions are expressed in all the media especially the opinion columns of the local papers. Those opinions are extraordinarily representative of how the community perceives the public trust is being managed.
Just a few days ago, on November 16 in the Brownsville Herald  “Your Voices”, a very short letter to the editor, that ended with “Like President Reagan used to say, “There you go again” Caught my attention.
The item, only 43 words in length, really said it “loud and strong.” A Mr. Simon Soto described his perceptions, that the Port of Brownsville leaders were continuing with the “status quo”. He expects that they will do what is good for their personal well being and that of their supporters with little or no regard for the views of the public that went to the polls.

Not surprising was, next to Mr. Soto’s piece, the presence of Robert Sanchez’s longer essay describing his concerns for the fiscal health of the city, because of his views of the impact of retracting their decision to raise the PUB impact fees. 
In the case of the actions of our city fathers, I agree that the situation is grave and unless the concerns of “the folks”, as represented by most of the local clergy are “heard” the otherwise promising political futures of the Mayor and several commissioners, may well meet a result similar to our county judge.
“Back in the studio;” Mr. Cascos made a superb choice in his selection of Melissa Zamora a former “Star” in the editorial staff of the Herald. She is an exceptionally savy public person and is charismatic to boot! On the other hand Mr. Hinojosa seems to want to embed his key operatives, in the future county staff, so he can continue the rule of the machine; A move that may prove to lengthen his separation from a political future.
The ejection of the perceived county boss in favor of a change, even though that change resulted in the election of a Democrat gone to the Republican label made  a remarkable statement.  The voters of Cameron County rejecting the Democratic candidate for Governor, in favor of a real Republican and even giving more votes to the Libertarians than ever before, really stirred my idealism  as the flame of optimism got a little brighter.
Hope that the Port of Brownsville rulers might just get back on track also started to stir again.
I wanted to make an effort to respond to Mr. Simon Soto, who obviously and genuinely cares about what happens at the Port,  as demonstrated by the fact that he took the time to write. After carefully re-reading the two reports; The BND Final Report and Atty C. Willette’s Fact Finding Report, dealing with the Port boondoggle which coursed over a period of more than ten years, the recent actions started to smell of cover up and Business as usual. Thanks to the Internet Blog “Café Brownsville”, I was also able to review the last six months of BND Meetings on video. Lastly, the January 25, 2005 story written by Emma Perez-Trevino summarized the mess very well.
These resources are heartily recommended to any that believe that the new additions to the Port board are an improvement and unless changes are made the public wrath will sweep them out as well.
The thing most notable in the past was that a ruler decided what was going to happen and disposed of those who got in the way. The documentary and other internal financial controls relating to the financial transactions were intentionally not followed, long standing policies and methods were discarded and the Port Board members were pushed into quick decisions to spend more and more without sufficient examination or support, on the rationale that we are in this far we have to keep on; and that the state will give us matching funds if we do this - so we have to spend the tax money or we will lose the state money.
Little or no thought is given to whether we are getting what is paid for – just spend.
In one video when the Acting Port Director is asked whether a planned expenditure has been included in the budget, the response was –it was mentally budgeted for. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenditures were approved with only 1 minute’s consideration by the board at the insistence of the Board Chairman and the Acting Port Director. This was only this month!
Actions like this, however well meaning, create the real suspicion that there is the intent to circumvent proper procedure for a nefarious reason.
Taken with the knowledge, that the first Port Director, with world class Maritime experience and formal certification, since Jim Kruse, was summarily terminated without reason and a very unsavory attempt at reputation assassination promoted, things look very unstable at the Port of Brownsville. 
It appears that nothing short of the State assuming control of the port, completing a forensic audit and then instituting an ISO-9002 quality system of administration. Alternate to that suitable motivation for change might be secured, were the all seeing Emma Perez-Trevino be present at major activities and write commentary to the videos taken of the meetings. I would watch them all.