In a 4-to-1 vote Tuesday, the Brownsville City Commission approved a resolution supporting the merger of the Rio Grande Valley MPOs.
District 4 Commissioner Ben Neece cast the dissenting vote.
The concept is to merge the three Rio Grande Valley metropolitan planning organizations: the Brownsville, Hidalgo and Harlingen-San Benito MPOs.
In an interview with The Rider after the meeting, Mayor Tony Martinez said the regional plan now becomes equitable.
“We have to have equity between Hidalgo and Cameron [counties],” he said. “So, we have worked the equity out for it. Now, there is, and equity means that we both get a chance to be treated equally in accordance with our population, in accordance with our needs.”
The mayor said no one who had projects on the board lost any money and the city has to account for growth.
Asked whether the MPO merger was actually happening or if the city was just supporting it, Martinez replied, “It’s happening. We have a term sheet, which is more or less a memorandum of understanding that will translate into bylaws, which will translate into how we transition into this thing. … If there’s a capability with this term sheet to be able to accommodate additional funds to becoming a regional MPO, then we’d like to figure out how to start that process now.”
The resolution was approved with attorney recommendations that City Attorney Rene De Coss said could not be disclosed.
“In other words, the motion is to approve with, putting all of the attorney’s, our attorney’s, recommendations that are not substantive but are part of what we need to have, like attached exhibit et cetera,” Martinez said during the meeting.
A metropolitan planning organization “is the policy board of an organization created and designated to carry out the metropolitan transportation planning process,” according to the Federal Transit Administration website. MPOs compete for state and federal funds.
