Erasmo Castro
Hometown: Brownsville
Other political office held: Brownsville Independent School District board of trustees member
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Christian Studies from Austin Graduate School of Theology
Occupation: Marriage officiant
Family: Single
What qualifies you for the position? “I’m in tune with my community. I know what their yearns, their concerns are. And I say that because I have constant dialogue and communication with all members of my community.”
Goals if elected: “The first goal is to wipe clean every single board and committee that exists here in the city of Brownsville. And I make mention of that because of what we learned through, in regards to the audit that came out from [the Public Utilities Board]. It is the individuals that sit on these boards that are pocketing the resources that should go to Brownsville as a whole and diverting them to the compadre system. The individuals out there that make up the 1% in the City of Brownsville and to themselves. And this includes PUB, [Greater Brownsville Incentives Corp.] and the [Brownsville Community Improvement Corp.].”
Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska: “I have been screaming for the past 10 years, 10 years, in regards to Tenaska being a fraud, being a tool that the corrupt political machine used in order to take the money from Brownsville residents and divert this money into pet projects, into things that were not going to benefit Brownsville as a whole. For the past 10 years, I’ve been making my community aware in regards to how these individuals were lying to us in regards to the need for such a company and also the increase of 36% on one of the poorest communities in the country. My issue with people, PUB and Tenaska, has been, and I’ve been consistent on it, they took from the weakest amongst us because they not only took from my grandparents, my tíos, my tías, my abuelitos, that are all on fixed income, they took from individuals that exists here, that live in Brownsville without legal documentation that cannot and do not have the employment that pays them enough in order to pay these bills. And they did not care. They knew. They knew that it wasn’t going to come into existence. They knew that the audit says that and they still screwed our community over. They didn’t care because they don’t care, and this includes the two opponents that I’m running against. And that’s what hurts because at least do what our mayor did, decide to bow out gracefully. No, they’ve inflicted pain on us for the past 12 years, for the past four years. And they will continue to inflict pain on this community for the next four years if they get elected. $179 million is what they took. They need to return every single penny, $179 million, to the people of Brownsville.”
SpaceX: “Brownsville needs SpaceX. No doubt. We need SpaceX here. The problem is we cannot give Elon Musk free rein on our community. It’s not all about Elon Musk. I think one of the things that we need to do is have an equal seating at the table. … Elon Musk gave $10 million to downtown Brownsville, supposedly, and out of the kindness of his heart. But the fact of the matter is that the politicos had Ramiro Gonzalez, who worked for the City of Brownsville, go out there and be the liaison between SpaceX and Brownsville, and I’ll get somewhere with this. And they had him as liaison to divert the funds into downtown, where the mayor has his businesses. City Commissioners John Cowen [Jr.], Jessica Tetreau, Rose Gowen have their businesses. So all this money being diverted downtown raises their property value. Their buildings, if they bought them for $200,000 are now worth $1 million because of all of the improvements that are going downtown. And then they want to say, ‘Well, we’re not making money. We’re just investing.’ Well, we want all of Brownsville to make money. We want those $10 million to go to every single small business in the city of Brownsville and not only to the individuals that are out there. I had a discussion with the mayor, Trey Mendez. I had [a] discussion with Mayor Trey Mendez when he was saying that I was lying about him making money off of BCIC, Brownsville Community Incentives Corp. and the Elon Musk money. And I said, ‘Mayor, you’ve got a building now that is worth $1 million downtown from $200,000 that you bought it, and your property value goes up. The difference between you and me, mayor, is that when my property goes up, I have to pay more taxes.’ They don’t. They pay no taxes on those buildings that they have downtown because they themselves have labeled it, which in part it is, they labeled it the historic district. So, the historic district pays no taxes. So, I’d like to have a building that is increased in value 10% of 10 times the value that it is. I’d like to have a building where I pay no taxes. And, unfortunately for me, I have to pay thousands of dollars [in] taxes every time they decide to appraise [the] value of my property. We’ve got to divert the funds that are coming to the City of Brownsville, like Elon Musk money, like grants to things that benefit Brownsville as a whole and not that 1%, that John Cowen, Jessica Tetreau, Trey Mendez, Ramiro Gonzalez, that all of these people are a part of.”
Downtown renovations: “I’m all for downtown renovation, but there’s parts of downtown that need to be completely wiped up and destroyed that are unfixable at this point and one of them is El Jardin Hotel. They’re planning to renovate El Jardin Hotel, which is going to cost us a fortune. They’ve let it go to waste. And I say that because if they would have fixed El Jardin Hotel when it was starting to deteriorate, it would have cost us a lot less. At this point, it’s going to cost us [a] million dollars and all they’re going to do with it is make it into a part of housing, which I’m not against. But again, you’re putting individuals in housing in an area where you’re trying to up the price of everything. It just doesn’t make sense. We lost the H-E-B we had downtown, and they will continue to lose more and more of the businesses that make Brownsville, Brownsville. By thinking that renovating that which benefits the mayor, city commissioners, Ramiro Gonzalez, the Michael Limas of Brownsville–what benefits them does not necessarily benefit everyone in the city of Brownsville.”
Road capital improvements: “Very simple. We have had absolutely no progress in regards to anything that has to do with our roads, anything that has to do with our infrastructure. My biggest concern continues to be the disassociation. They have no clue or concept as to what truly ails and hurts the citizens of Brownsville because they are so disconnected. One quick example … I’ve been screaming about our bus stops, screaming about our bus stops for four years now, that individuals have to wait in the hot sun without benches and without shade because our city government has failed us. In order to quiet me down, because they are very reactive instead of proactive, in order to quiet me down, they started putting up bus stops here on International Boulevard, and that’s great, except for the fact … that they destroyed one of the most used bus stops by our students on International and Southmost. And, again, they’re saying, ‘Well, you asked for bus stops. We’re putting up bus stops.’ Yeah, but you should not decimate, destroy a bus stop in the middle of a school year. And it is one of the most used bus stops because our students that live in Mexico, they use that bus stop when they’re coming from the bridge all the way over here to go to Porter [Early College High School] or to catch another bus going down to Rivera … or to Lopez High School. … I know because I speak to my people. I talk to my people and my people tell me, ‘Erasmo this just doesn’t make sense.’ We need to fix the drainage issues in the city of Brownsville. We need to fix our roads, especially the roads that are going to produce for us revenue that can go back to the city where we can fix up more roads.”
Jessica Tetreau
Hometown: Brownsville
Political office held: District 2 city commissioner for 12 years
Education: Studied psychology at the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College
Occupation: Entrepreneur and public servant
Family: Married, with three children
What qualifies you for the position? “My 12 years of experience on the city commission and learning all of the ins and outs, truly understanding what our strengths and our flaws are and how easy they are to fix it, knowing the opportunity that we have in our hands. But most of all, and this is not something that developed during my time on the City Commission, but it’s something that I’ve always had since I was, as far as I can remember, 2 and 3 years old is my immense and very deep love of the city of Brownsville.”
Goals if elected: “My main goal is making sure that we have a beautiful, clean and safe city to live in. But, personally, something that is very close to my heart and is just who I am as a person, I believe in long-term vision and I believe that we need to prepare this city to be a place for future generations to succeed in.I feel like there’s a lot of opportunities that are slipping through hands right now, that are hurting us long term, right? We need to prepare the city for the next generations and make sure that they have the most successful and great life possible.”
Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska: “So, I’ve been on the commission for a long time, so I saw a lot of it unravel. I was always in the minority that did not support the advancement of Tenaska. Once they were not able to sell any electricity or have any clients, once it started to not go the way that they had planned, myself and only two other commissioners were very upset that we were still being billed and the project was not coming through. So, I am very proud to be one of the very few commissioners that has ever spoken up against it. From that time on, I’m on the record requesting that there be an audit and accounting of where that money has gone, and I have always. I’m on the record for many, many, many years now asking that that money be refunded to the ratepayers that overpaid on their bills. So, I’m proud of my resistance to that. I’m glad that we finally had the majority of the city commission that was finally able to get an audit done. But I, I feel very strongly that the city commission should have more power over [Public Utilities Board] to be able to stop things like that from happening, which is why you’re going to see a lot of the propositions on the ballot. That is something that I personally fought for the commission as a whole. I remember having a conversation. … They wanted to hold the proposition ballot in November, but I felt that it was critical to have that on immediately and have the charter amendments to give the commission that power. And I’m glad that I pushed so hard to see it on this election because it gives the new commission that comes in the power to hold [the] PUB board accountable.”
SpaceX: “Originally, it was not a project that was guaranteed to come to Brownsville. There were several other locations that they were looking at, including Florida in Kennedy Space Center, Puerto Rico and, eventually, Georgia came into the mix. And so I was part of the original team that helped. There was a lot of obstacles that they had to clear in order to come here, which meant making sure that the beach was able to be closed for a very small window while testing happened and things like that. Closing roads that were originally planned but actually never came into fruition. But they were still there on the plots. So, I was part of the original team that was involved in that. And back then it was only because it was going to create 500 local jobs. Eventually, the plans changed from Falcon to Starship, and now we’re seeing 1,700 local jobs that Starship has created. And that’s something that I’m very, very proud of. I know that we need to be very mindful of the environment out there and the wildlife, but it brings me a lot of pride. Not only that they have created that many jobs, but also the sense of hope and opportunity that it has created for children at [the Brownsville Independent School District] and all of our schools, including UTRGV. Right? Like, this is not just any other job. … They are actually working to eventually preserve mankind should there be a catastrophic event on Earth. So, I take a lot of pride in knowing that Brownsville has been selected to have a piece of that legacy in preserving mankind.”
Downtown renovations: “When I came into office in 2011, a lot of buildings out there were shuttered and no activity whatsoever, really in bad condition. Almost even dangerous conditions. I remember finding out about some building where the tiles from the roof were falling off, the El Jardin being one of them. So, it’s been a very long process to find the funds to help renovate and restore those buildings. It’s a very complex issue, where you want the people that own them to fix them on their own dime. But it also is of tremendous significant value to the city because it’s our history, right? It’s our historical district. So, it’s been a really good balance trying to find how much the city can input and divert to help those shop owners and building owners be able to to make them usable and find a viable business to put in there. So, I’m very proud to see that [the Brownsville Community Improvement Corp.], through the big grants, has been able to create some really nice businesses downtown. It’s great to see how lively it is. And I remember being part of a team that was trying to move the UTRGV campus into the downtown area. There’s something I’ve always supported that UTRGV has not only a beautiful campus, but a beautiful, I want to say the word I’m looking for is, like, metropolitan, but that’s the wrong word, that you all have fun things to walk to within walking distance, restaurants and shops and a really good downtown district at your disposal. As mayor, that’s going to be one of my goals, to make sure that the university has these fun things within walking distance. We want to make sure that our downtown not only caters to UTRGV but also brings in shoppers that are from Mexico as well. We’ve lost a lot of that, but I intend to bring that back up.”
Road capital improvements: “Road capital is very important. That’s one of my priorities, prioritizing our infrastructure and roads. I think there’s a lot of good things planned, but it all starts with our economic development. We’re not doing a great job of bringing in industrial and commercial industry because, in other cities, that is what carries the tax base, which is why ours is so small. We are raising residential property taxes to invest and [fund] our streets, which is wrong. We need to have the right people leading our economic development, bringing quality, high-paying jobs, but also making sure that we have the tax base that supports these projects. We have to stop giving these 10-year tax abatements because in 10 years, we’re still going to be counting on residential to pay for our service and our roads. And that’s a very serious issue. So, me, personally, I’m very into long-term vision. We need to prepare our city for the long road and the long haul and make sure that it’s a great place, not only today, but tomorrow as well.”
Jennifer Stanton
Hometown: Born in Corpus Christi and has lived in Brownsville for 16 years
Other political office held: None
Education: Frenship High School, studied cosmetology at International Business College
Occupation: Owner of Karma’s Pride Cleaning Service
Family: Single
What qualifies you for the position? “I have tons of business experience, running numbers, reports. I started off working for Harley-Davidson, when I first moved here, for five years. I opened up my own business after five years, and I ran that for six years. I’m on my second business that I’ve opened up. My first one I closed due to COVID. The second one I opened up and I’ve been running. So, yeah, two different businesses, over nine years that I’ve run my own business. So, I have a lot of time, but numbers and reports and inventory and stuff like that.”
Goals if elected: “My main goals are to synchronize the lights, get shade and seeing the bus stops. Homeless shelters, we need to expand on those. No-kill shelters, stray dogs, enforcement of, like, all the ordinances that aren’t being enforced right now. I want to do a hiring event for the [Police Department], [Emergency Medical Services], street cleanup, dilapidated houses, junk cars. I want to look at placing our utilities, eventually, I know that’s going to take more than four years, but I want to look at placing our utilities underground in case of a hurricane or freeze. I think that would help mitigate the power issues, you know, in our city, because northern places have that already. You know, they already have that done. And we experience a lot of, you know, power outages and stuff like that that we don’t have to. I mean, if the money was not going to special interest like it is right now, it could be going towards helping the people of Brownsville.”
Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska: “I know one of the commissioners is currently saying that he was behind the audits, but that’s not true. It was a different commissioner that was in office, is no longer in office anymore. If you look back on those, which Susan [Ruvalcaba], she got those and you can watch back now on her. You can see who actually fought for those audits and who actually reinstated the Audit and Ethics Commission. It was not anybody in [the] current commission right now. They might take credit for something that they did not do. One of the current commissioners was the one that disbanded the Audit and Ethics Commission because that person was being investigated at the time. So, there’s tons of corruption that needs to be, it needs to be looked into. It needs to be handled with care and people need to be accountable for what they’ve done in the past. You know, as far as Tenaska and [the Public Utilities Board], I don’t see us as citizens getting back much money, if anything at all. They have already spent that and I really don’t see a lot happening unless, you know, we get people. … We need to hold them accountable and we need to have some arrests made and we need to have things happen on a higher level than our city can do, in my opinion.”
SpaceX: “I think SpaceX is OK. I think that they have breached their contract, which is 100% true. They should not be closing the highway off the way they have been. That was in the contract. The money that they’ve given to Brownsville, I’m not sure exactly what’s happened to all the money, because I personally have, I’ve been looking at the budget for several, several weeks now and it just doesn’t make sense to me. It’s not right. The word ‘miscellaneous’ should not be in a budget. I don’t get that. SpaceX is fine. They just need to make sure that they honor their contract with Brownsville. It needs to be reconsidered and it needs to be talked over because they have not honored their contract with Brownsville. Therefore, it needs to be renegotiated at this point.”
Downtown renovations: “A lot of downtown renovations have already been done. I think we should take away the parking meters. Those washed out about evenly. The cost of them versus the gain from them is about an even wash. I think those need to be eliminated and parking needs to be looked at there. Maybe a parking structure, a parking garage. As far as Brownsville, downtown Brownsville has been growing, you know, and I think that, you know, with … the new housing authority, get going in El Jardin. That’s going to help, you know, increase the nightlife. … Everything closes, all the shops close early during the day. I think that might help keep them open later on in nightlife if people actually live downtown more. Parking is a huge issue downtown. But what I’ve seen in the past years is downtown has been the main focus when the rest of our city is ignored, and I don’t like that at all. I think every part of the city, including downtown, should be looked at and should be considered.”
Road capital improvements: “We know that’s expensive. … That’s something that has not been done. It has not been maintained. If you drive down Coffee Port, I can name about 10 different roads right now. … The main things in our city that have been ignored are basic things. I’m the first candidate that said that, and I’m still saying [that] right now. We need to start with the basics. That’s going to take more than four years, of course, but we need to have a plan of action. You know, a 15-year plan of action going forward to try to fix every little thing that is already here. I said in one of my interviews already, it’s like I feel like this is a machine that’s been able to rust and nobody is oiling it and nobody is actually maintaining the city. Nobody cares about it. They care about special-interest projects that are going nowhere, costing our citizens. It’s like they’re taking from the poor and giving to the rich. At this point, I’m tired of it and I’m ready to voice out my concerns. I’m ready to run for mayor because I think I can change that. And I think I have the heart and I have the character and I know I have the business experience to help, and I don’t think anybody else really cares. They want to be egotistical or they want to be the face of Brownsville or they want to wave like they’re in a prom. I’m not, I’m not about that. I’m about fixing our city. And I think it’s a lot of teamwork. … We’re going to have to endure a lot of hours. And this is not a paid position. You know, this is somebody volunteering to do the right thing. And if you actually look at the candidates, who’s actually volunteering to do the right thing? Who’s actually wanting this for egotistical gain? You know, if you look into it, you can just see. … It’s not right to me and I’m tired of it. I mean, as a citizen of Brownsville, I’m stepping up, ready to run, ready to be a part of Brownsville and change it because a lot of people don’t feel like they have voices anymore.”
John Cowen Jr.
Hometown: Brownsville
Political office held: city commissioner at-large “A”
Education: Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Notre Dame
Occupation: president of Cowen Group Ltd., customs broker and warehouseman at Roser and J Cowen Logistical Services
Family: Married, with three children
What qualifies you for the position? “I think I’m the only candidate with the education, business experience and commitment to community service. And I believe that I can use my skills and my teamwork approach to get things done. Because as mayor, you can’t do it all on your own. You need to have the commitment from your fellow commissioners and other organizations in town to move things forward.”
Goals if elected: “I think it’s to continue increasing our tax base, increasing investment in our community, being a more business-friendly city. Currently, we are mostly residential when it comes to our tax base. We’re about 72% residential, which means our households are paying for the majority of the costs of our infrastructure and our parks and our quality-of-life programs. Whereas in developed cities that have good infrastructure and good programs, it’s about 50-50, right? … We need to bring in more investment in order to really maximize, you know, our programs and making sure that our streets are well-maintained, our parks are well-maintained, that we have, you know, a better quality of life. Because I think that’s, you know, everyone complains about all sorts of things, I think. But every problem that we have is a result of not having enough money to really take care of the issue. And that goes all the way to our, you know, especially our police and fire departments, which they do a great job for our city with what they have. We allocate about 60% of our budget to police and fire, and it’s a priority but they need more. … They need more officers. They need better equipment. They need better benefits. And in order to provide for that, we need to increase our revenue. Right? And since we are a poor community, really the only way to do that is to increase investment, increase wages, have people have more equity in their houses. … That creates generational wealth when people have homeownership here, right? And that’s, you know, as incomes rise, home values will rise and that will increase our tax revenue as well, and it’s a win-win for everyone. And, so, I think, that’s been an issue for Brownsville for a long time, [that] we haven’t been able to increase wages here. And, you know, part of that is also education attainment. … We have seen that over the last four years, the level of education attainment rise substantially, you know. Our high school completion has gone up, I think three percentage points. College as well, a couple percentage points. Those are huge gains in the last four years. And incomes have also increased substantially. So, this is, we’re going in the right direction. There’s a lag when it comes to all this so that, you know, as we’re going through a high-growth period. There are pain points. But I think the resounding message is we need to continue being smart and being professional and making sure that our tax money is spent wisely.”
Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska: “So, I was, you know, obviously elected in 2019. And before that, one of the big issues I ran on was making sure we investigated that project and really understand what happened, why it happened, who was involved and what could be done to prevent that. So, when I got elected, the previous commission had disbanded the Audit and Oversight Committee. They did away with it. So, when I got elected, we brought it back and we made it a charter amendment and the people voted to include it in our charter, which means it can never be taken away unless the voters don’t want it, right? And I was appointed to the committee and I’ve been the chairman the last four years, and I believe I’ve been instrumental in making sure that audit was done properly. And, obviously, I think everyone realizes how impactful the audit was. I mean, it is a black eye on our community because it shows that there was abuse, but at the same time it shows that we were willing to address these issues in a real way and making sure our institutions are stronger at the end of the day and that we can … hopefully, you know, for sure we’re going to return the money that we can. I think we have about $29 million in reserve that will be returned to the ratepayers. And the idea is to return that, plus interest. So, I think about $31 million will be returned on a credit basis. I think that’s the most ideal plan at this stage. But the other money that was spent on it, that’s in the hands of the federal and state investigators, right? Whether there was criminal intent, fraud, that’s not something that the city is able to determine, but the audit report says that they recommend that that report be forwarded to the authorities and that’s what was done.”
SpaceX: “I think SpaceX has been a landmark investment in our community. I think it represents a brighter future for us all here. There is obviously a trade-off, right? I completely realize the concerns that people have with the restrictions of Boca Chica Beach and, obviously, the launch that happened last week where, you know, that created some debris and issues surrounding that. But I think, overall, SpaceX is 100% committed to making sure that those issues are rectified and taken care of. But I think, you know, SpaceX allows us to recruit more companies here that will pay higher wages that will help break the cycle of poverty for our community and provide opportunities for our young people to stay here, you know, that graduate from college, that want to go in engineering, or they want to do something technical or [information technology] related. There are going to be way more opportunities here, and that creates more stability for our families. We have an enormous brain drain in our community where our best and brightest leave and don’t come back to help move our community forward. And, at the end, we’re going to have better leadership here because of [SpaceX]. We’re going to have a more educated population. We’re going to have a higher quality of life because of SpaceX, but I think, on the flip side, it’s really important that they, that SpaceX, continue to be good partners and making sure that the community is heard, their voice is heard, their concerns are heard, and that they’re working hard to make sure that their impact on the environment is minimal.”
Downtown renovations: “I think downtown is one of our biggest assets as a community. We are the second most historic city in the state when it comes to historical buildings. A lot of these buildings downtown have had a high level of neglect over the last couple of decades. We have, you know, the last couple of commissions have been wanting to help push downtown forward. It, obviously, takes a lot of money to do that and a lot of partnerships. I think there needs to be a balanced approach. We can’t do everything downtown because, obviously, the whole city matters, but I think with the Musk Foundation contributing the money to helping restore historical buildings, the facades, activating the second floors, I think those are great partnerships that don’t use taxpayer money but they help incentivize building owners and our nonprofits to partner better so that there’s more progress. And, as more progress happens, there’s a higher quality of life downtown and it’s a safer place. We already have a grid downtown. The infrastructure is there. The city’s already paid for that. We should get a return on that and I think there are a lot of people, especially a lot of younger people, that like having a space where you can live, work and play downtown. I’ve lived in big cities and it’s amazing. You can get up and go and walk outside and there’s a coffee shop, or a store or a restaurant you can go to and you’re walking. You don’t even have to get into a car. Those are good things, but I know every part of the city is important. We really need to be respectful and not over-allocate to downtown, but I think there’s a ton of potential and it makes us different. No other city in the [Rio Grande] Valley has what we have and I think that’s a really big selling point.”
Road capital improvements: “I think, as a commission, before I got elected, there was no plan for capital improvements. Everything was done on a shotgun approach, you know, where I think the loudest person got their road taken care of. But now, we have a five-year capital improvement plan where we really allocate resources where the priorities are. We were the first commission to properly evaluate all our roads. We did a road study where we hired a company to analyze every road in Brownsville and determine where it needs to be completely redone or just resurfaced or just sealed or just, like, you know, so you can go through and say, ‘Hey, which ones are really important?’ from a third-party perspective. It’s not a commissioner saying it. It’s not a resident saying it. It’s a third party. … If this is their objective, it’s an objective report, which I think is important. And I think, you know, we all deserve a better road system. But I think, ultimately, it comes down to economic development and making sure we increase the amount of revenue that comes in, in order to take care of our roads in a much better way. I think we’ve made a big improvement the last four years but there are many other roads [that] need repair or replacement.”
–Compiled by The Rider Editor-in-Chief Verilu Infante
