The Commissioner At-Large “A” seat is up for election in the May 4 Brownsville General Municipal Elections.
The seat is currently empty, since former commissioner Cesar De Leon resigned from the position on Feb. 22. Candidates are Jessica Puente Bradshaw, Carlos Guerrero, John Cowen and Ismael Hinojosa.
Early voting starts on April 22 and regular voting is on May 4.
Candidates were asked the following questions: Why are you seeking this position? What qualifications do you have that would help you fulfill the duties of this position? What challenges does the city face and how will you address them? If elected, what will you do to better the city?
Jessica Puente Bradshaw
Puente Bradshaw, a Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico native, is a former English teacher and real estate agent. Puente Bradshaw attended UTB-TSC and graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
“My husband and I, we manage a portfolio,” she said. “We are active managers, so basically, what that means is that we look at money and where money is spent and we find the best, find the best use for it.”
She said Brownsville has not “elevated its game” like other cities in the Rio Grande Valley, such as McAllen, and that is one of the reasons she is seeking the position.
“We are still behind and lots of people feel that we are declining,” Puente Bradshaw said. “McAllen is growing and, you know, we’re losing a lot of students from UTRGV Brownsville to Edinburg and so, I’m running because I’m gonna try to do my part to clean things up in the city, make sure our money is well allocated.”
Puente Bradshaw said her expertise in asset allocation is a qualification she believes will help in fulfilling the duties of the position.
“We look at money and where money is spent and we … find the best use for it,” she said. “The City of Brownsville has many departments. It has a budget, you know, hundred- and twenty-some-million-dollar budget, on top of grants and everything, and in some cases, we’re just not using our money very wisely. So, my expertise in asset allocation is what I think I bring to the table.”
She also said that lack of jobs and economic development are challenges the city faces, and the city puts a lot of roadblocks for small businesses.
“Small business is the backbone of the community and the city has not done enough to help support, support the growth of the small business infrastructure,” Puente Bradshaw said. “The City of McAllen, for example, offers zero percent interest loans to small businesses. … The City of Brownsville turns that down. That was a way of stifling small business, and we need to change that. Small businesses are the ones that hire. … They’re the major employers of a community, that is not dependent on taxpayer funds, so we have to support them.”
Asked how she would improve the city if elected, Puente Bradshaw replied she will make sure the city spends more money wisely when it comes to infrastructure.
“That’s drainage, roads, lighting,” she said. “If that is improved, then our tourism industry, I know, will prosper because people will come in, they’ll see a beautiful city, and they’ll want to come visit and stay longer. So, I think we really need to invest on that infrastructure and then improving the relationship between the city and the … small businesses.”
Carlos Guerrero
Guerrero, a Brownsville native, is the owner of CAG Industrial Services and partner in GURO Enterprise, a labor service firm. He graduated from Homer Hanna High School and began working at the Port of Brownsville for International Shipbreaking Limited LLC.
He believes Brownsville needs change and is seeking election to make a difference.
“We’ve lost a lot of opportunities to make Brownsville grow, especially to be able to create more jobs in our city, you know, better paying jobs in our city,” Guerrero said. “I have a lot of acquaintances. I have a lot of friends that have been willing to invest in Brownsville, open up businesses, you know. Obviously, by opening up businesses, it’s creating more job opportunities for other people.”
Guerrero said the city continues to place barriers on people trying to open businesses and there is also compadrismo going on in the city.
Having built a business from nothing and working his way up is one of the qualifications Guerrero cites.
“I started from the bottom, worked my way up,” he said. “Again, I do a lot with the government contractors. I do a lot with the Navy. I’ve made lots of friends with big industries. … I know how to work. I know how to budget. … I know I can make a big difference in our community on knowing exactly how to budget our stuff, what to do, what not to do. I know who we can reach out to get any type of projects, you know, to cut our cost.”
The biggest challenge Guerrero said the city faces is special-interest groups.
“I think to begin with, one of our biggest challenges the city is facing right now is, again, the special-interest groups that are controlling our city,” he said. “That’s the only issue we have. If we can definitely change that and get that out of the way, it’ll let us expand the way we should. … And that’s our biggest challenge, trying to get everybody synchronized to all work as a team and understand that we’re there to work as a team for our city.”
Guerrero said his main focus is the citizens and will push to lower utility bills and taxes if elected.
“Obviously, help with our infrastructure, help with our economic development, but infrastructure and economic development, whether you’re for it or not, you still have to do it, because it’s part of our city,” he said.
John Cowen
Cowen, a Brownsville native, is the president of Cowen Group LTD, “which is comprised of ownership interests in various businesses including U.S. and Mexican Customs brokerage, commercial real estate and multifamily development,” according to rosercowen.com. He is also the vice chairman of the Brownsville Housing Authority.
Cowen has a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame and studied Spanish in Spain.
He said he is seeking the position because Brownsville deserves strong leadership and people who are qualified, have the education and the ethics to do the right thing.
“[The city commission are] the ones that are constantly in front of big projects or opportunities or they make big decisions for, that can impact us financially over [a] long period of time,” Cowen said.
He said his business acumen is a qualification that would help him fulfill the duties of the position.
“I think the city, in a lot of respects, should be run like a business,” he said. “We need to be efficient in our expenses and also trying to increase the amount of income that we get as a city. So, that’s through sales tax, that’s through building permits, that’s through, you know, all the different ways the city makes money.”
Cowen said the city has great staff but just needs to be more focused at the top.
He said that with Brownsville’s population growing, infrastructure is a challenge.
“I think infrastructurewise, we’re not being as proactive as we can be in planning our growth,” Cowen said. “We’re currently averaging a thousand new households a year in Brownsville. So, in 10 years that’s 10,000 new households. … What does that mean for our city and in terms, from a PUB perspective, from, you know, our Planning and Zoning departments, where do we want our commercial bases, our industrial bases?”
Asked how he would improve the city if elected, Cowen said he brings an independent voice to the commission and encourages voters to look at candidate’s qualifications.
“I know a lot of people talk about special interests involved in politics and I think that’s a real concern,” he said. “I think my main thing is bringing [an] independent, business-minded voice to our commission.”
Ismael Hinojosa
Hinojosa, a McAllen native, is an attorney and a former assistant district attorney for Cameron County. He received his law degree from the University of Colorado
in 2003.
He said the timing and position felt right to seek office and because division in the country’s politics needs to change starting on a local level.
“I feel like it’s a national disease that needs a local cure,” Hinojosa said. “We need to start doing it by getting more people involved in the process because a lot of it just could be that it’s the same people over and over and over again. … I think we need to get more people involved and the way we do that is we make ourselves accessible. We make ourselves accessible either by office hours, by town halls, by making ourselves accessible to the people and see what their concerns are.”
He said it is not being a lawyer that makes him qualified for the position, but the work he does.
“I have to do a lot of listening, whether I want to or not,” he said. “I’m forced to listen and I’m forced to become a, I think, a fairly good judge of not necessarily character but where people really stand, reading between the lines. … I think that’s what qualifies me more than anything else, is that my job is literally to listen to people’s problems and help them formulate a plan to
overcome them.”
The candidate said the city is under attack due to the focus on the border crisis.
“The way I think that we need to address it is we need to push back,” Hinojosa said. “We need to push back using our U.S. representatives, our senators. … We need to just coalesce together, the people and the border region, to push back against this perception about who we are because that perception is going to drive how legislation that affects us is going to pass.”
He also said other challenges the city faces are few resources and the way money is being spent in the city.
Asked how he would improve the city if elected, Hinojosa responded: accessibility, accountability and transparency. He also said he would try to set up bus shelters that have not been set up and push for a stronger code of ethics.
“I don’t think people want a perfect leader,” Hinojosa said. “I think they want somebody who’ll admit to their mistakes and is willing to be held accountable.”
