Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald 4/17/2005
This is the time of local politics at its best or worst depending on your perspective. In as much as the old saying goes “All politics is local politics” what happens here is just a portent of things to come at the state and national levels. I just prey that the voters will, quit thinking of themselves as the victims of the powerful, actually pay attention and vote their conscience. The votes are what make them powerful.
I personally tend to favor folks other than incumbents and those in the minority. Mostly, perhaps because of my Irish heritage and because a streak of idealism hides under my normally thick skin, I like to see folks that buck the system and stir things up.
In the Herald for, Sunday April 10, there was a great source for most passions.
On the front page the Herald apparently dubbed the “State of PUB” as a most important issue by its placement on the front page and its position next to a story about potential raises in rates.
The thing in the article that really raises my hackles is that it is reported that “The city commission annually receives half of PUB’s profits… PUB should not make a “profit” as it is a public entity, any excess revenues, other than what is necessary to accommodate future expenses, should be used to reduce rates. Otherwise, they become additional taxes. Depending on who is talking, the higher rates are assessing at least $8,000,000 in taxes that we have not voted for. Additionally these taxes are focused on the ones who can afford them the least.
This also takes on a stronger light if you accept the information contained in Cris Valadez’s political ad in Section C, comparing the utility rates of six Texas cities. It appears that Brownsville PUB rates for water are more than twice as high as McAllen and Harlingen rates and about 15% higher than Magic Valley electric rates. Our rates should be much lower because PUB is not supposed to make a profit! Further, if you read Mr. Raymond’s excellent piece describing the Auditors Findings, in amongst the many descriptions of poor record keeping, was accounts receivables of about $500,000. This really constitutes loans to parties for which no interest has been collected and the loss of opportunity to use the money for which PUB would have had to pay interest if the money was needed. At today’s mortgage rates of about 5% annually that amounts to $25,000 in missing cash. I must agree with Mr. Valadez – these things are indeed a reflection on both PUB management and the City administrators charged by the owners (you and me) with providing oversight.
With the above in mind, I would urge the reading of Dan Reyna’s extraordinary letter to the editor entitled “Cost of Having (and not having) world class education.
I take exceptions to inferences that some specific individuals somehow did not meet the grade because of their education, former Port Director Jim Kruse, is in my mind a poor illustration. As an accountant, he knew the language of business and was someone I had opportunity to observe first hand while an active participant in International Trade. The fact that he is now a National Ports & Harbor Specialist, with Texas A&M – Texas Transportation Institute certainly demonstrates Mr. Reyna’s error.
With reservations related to specific examples, the article points to what appears to be a recruiting policy based on something other than the person best prepared for the job. Such criteria as political largesse, propensity to be manipulated, popularity, repaying favors, or the multitude of other possibilities seem to be indicated. This could indeed lead to substantial inefficiency and have precipitated or aggravated many of the problems that currently exist. I cannot ascribe this to a lack of formal education alone but a combination of things such as lack of extensive experience in Maritime and logistics matters as well as formal education.
It is clear however from Mr. Reyna’s letter and the description of the issues at hand with PUB that the problems with the city and PUB and the problems with the Port and its administration are similar. However, they are clearly the responsibility of those who have been charged with representing the folks in watching over the facilities. The Commissioners and Trustees or what ever the title seems to be are the representative of “the folks” and supposed to act in our behalf. In these two cases they have let us down; perhaps because they were “out of their league” as Mr. Reyna suggests or for personal or political largesse as others suggest. Ultimately we – “the folks” pay the price at tax time, and have an opportunity to take some action at election time. It is now time to take action.