Bryan Martinez
Hometown: Brownsville
Other political office held: Precinct 54 chair for the Democratic party
Education: Attended UTRGV and studied marketing
Occupation: Owner of Influex, a social media marketing management business, and chief of staff for City Commissioner Roy De Los Santos
Family: Raised by mother and grandmother
What qualifies you for the position?
“Being the only candidate that is born and raised in Southmost, I believe that I have the institutional knowledge, the background, to see the area transform from being one of the first incorporated areas in the city, to now being one of the densest. And, as the area continues to grow, so did the needs. However, time after time, the area continued to be underserved and overlooked, and that’s one of the reasons why I decided to run for city commissioner District 1.”
Goals if elected: “My top three priorities are economic development, the quality of life and, most importantly, accountability. During my campaign, I had a hard time looking and finding locations in my district to host events, and I think that is detrimental and a disadvantage for our district. I want to be an advocate to bring in investors and developers to look at our area for retail, for coffee shops, restaurants, you know, establishments where families can go out and stay in the district and not have to venture out to other areas in town. Quality of life includes cleaning up the district, sidewalks, you know, streets, lights. Most importantly, our parks and our trails. Having a healthy choice for families to venture out in the evenings and exercise. You know, it not only impacts our health, but it also impacts our family and being able to go out with them and spend quality time in the evening. And last but not least, accountability in regards to permitting for businesses. To be a business-friendly community in Brownsville, in order for us to attract all of these investments and developments, we need to first be business friendly. That involves fixing our permitting process. So, accountability falls into that. And also, I mean, holding all of the directors in the city … accountable for everything they do and working to represent the best interests of the people as a commissioner.”
Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska: “I think as a city-owned utility, we should have the management over these institutions. When we allowed for this to happen, it was because we were not doing our due diligence as elected officials. And I think that the leadership failed us at that time. Now it is imperative to elect individuals who are going to stand up against PUB and demand that they return the money that was stolen from the residents of Brownsville. I am advocating for us as a city to now elect our PUB commission, not appoint them by the city commission. I believe that this would allow the people to have an upper hand in controlling PUB, but most importantly, not allowing commissioners to put people in places like that. That will just be an extension of them. I think that we need to have the people more involved in the decision-making things for the city, especially those that impact the families directly. Some of those things, some of the candidates that are currently running in this election took part in that Tenaska, and we cannot be afraid to speak out anymore. I think that me … as a young candidate, that is one of my messages that says enough is enough. We as a generation need to come together and fight for a future. Because if we continue to allow these same individuals to be recycled in our elected official positions, we will never be allowed to prosper as a community. So, as an elected official, if I do get elected, I will make every effort to return not just the money taken from the people, but also the interest incurred and pursue justice to those that broke the law and that were unethical in their votes, whichever board or commission that they sat on at that time.”
SpaceX: “I think that SpaceX has definitely influenced and molded our economic economy down here in South Texas. It definitely brings us the spotlight. The national and worldwide spotlight, I think that we could use to our advantage. As an elected official, what I would like to see if elected, or even now, you know, from our elected officials, is to put our foot down, to be more accountable to them and say, ‘Yes, you can do X, Y, Z, but these are the rules and you need to respect our rules. If you don’t, then we’re going to pull resources or we’re going to prohibit permits from continuing to move forward.’ I think it’s about working, you know, hand-in-hand with them and making sure that communication is there. I think that communication really saves us sometimes from big catastrophes, but it also is proactive in the sense of establishing good relationships with our partners, with our stakeholders here. Because they have now become a stakeholder in our region. Now they do have a seat at the table with all the other entities who really employ a large labor force of our community. But also bring in a big investment into our community. And sometimes, you know, gentrification is a lot that I hear from people. And I truly believe that in order for us to prosper as a community, we need to balance those out, you know, not gentrify everything from one day to the next, but look for opportunities where we can preserve what we have, but also at the same time prosper as a community forward.”
Downtown renovations: “I think that that ties in, it’s a great bridge from SpaceX. We recall SpaceX did make a big donation to the City of Brownsville and other surrounding entities within the past couple of years. And that was in hopes of revitalizing the downtown area to make it cleaner, to make it safer, but most importantly, to make it prosper. And now, we see so many businesses around the [Brownsville] Market Square that [are] walking distance, most importantly, and that has shifted our sales tax revenue to go through the roof, now, where we are able to now look at that sales tax number and minimize our property taxes to be a less of a burden for our taxpayers. That is the goal in mind with economic development, is being able to lessen the burden on taxpayers and increasing our sales tax by incorporating, by inviting businesses to open up establishments to produce that sales tax revenue.”
Road capital improvements: “I, as a chief of staff for [Brownsville City] Commissioner [Roy] De Los Santos, have seen this past year we passed the largest budget for infrastructure in the history of Brownsville. I think it was a great start, but that’s not enough. Another thing that I’ve seen is that now we have a capital improvement plan. What that means is that we actually have a plan for 10 years where we were able to see a timeline of where we should be at to not lose focus on the bigger picture. These things were not in place a couple of years ago. So, I think working towards having the vision of where we want to see Brownsville definitely is a start for us to continue to move forward. I would like to see the districts prioritize their needs and come to the budget meetings with these needs. That way we can look at our resources per capita, not necessarily per population or per district, but by priority of per capita. That means that if … there’s a neighborhood that’s in dire need, no matter what district it is, that should be our first priority, our focus as a city. And that’s the way we should go about every other resources being prioritized.”
Nurith Galonsky Pizaña
Hometown: Brownsville
Political office held: Current District 1 commissioner
Education: Double major in international relations and Spanish literature from Stanford University, Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin, law degree from Southern Methodist University
Occupation: Attorney
Family: Parents, sister and two nephews
What qualifies you for the position? “My education, my experience and I currently hold the position. I think most of my constituents are very happy with my performance for the past four years. I have been very active in advocating for the residents of District 1. I’m a lawyer and I also have my MBA. My professional care has always been in advocacy, so this role requires that you be an advocate for your constituents.”
Goals if elected: “I would like to continue advocating for the residents of District 1. For a long time, we were often overlooked and, thankfully, since I got elected the city manager then was Noel Bernal. He was a proponent of equal distribution of resources across the different districts, which I think allowed for a lot of projects to get done in the district and I would continue to go in that direction. A lot of people have seen change in District 1 since I got elected. And so, I would want to keep that momentum going in terms of infrastructure improvements and quality-of-life improvements and other opportunities that make it a great place to live.”
Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska: “There’s still a lot of work to get done to resolve the Tenaska situation, but we’re making progress. Soon, the city commission will be presented with steps to take forward in returning some of the money that our ratepayers overpaid. And so, we’re working that out and we’re probably going even faster than anticipated, but it’s not going to be corrected overnight or very quickly and completely. So, at least we’re making progress in that there’s other people’s concerns about the usage of the resaca fee. We’re actually also in the process of reviewing that again and seeing the best steps to move forward. There’s been changes just in the past six months that have had a very big impact, and, hopefully, it’ll all be for the best and that, yeah, we will have to continue working on that with the PUB board and the city commission.”
SpaceX: “We need to find a way … to balance the interests of environmentalists and those who work in the space industry. … Because both sides are very valid and legitimate and we need to protect the environment for our future. But at the same time, I like that the SpaceX president has created a world of opportunities for the students here, for the young people. In my generation, I never would have conceived [the idea] of having a career in space science, and now it’s actually a possibility. So, we need to also work together on that, to strike a balance so that both things can happen.”
Downtown renovations:“It’s good. I think it’s actually driven a lot more people to downtown. You don’t want to leave your downtown blighted. During the pandemic, everything was shut down and there was barely any movement. So, to see now that there’s more new businesses and people are, you know, going back. … Back in the ’80s … going downtown, a weekend was a must and, hopefully, in the near future we’ll get back to that. At no point should we leave any part of Brownsville neglected because that’s when you make blighted areas and then it’s really difficult to come back out of that. We should spread the money to other places. … But I think right now I understand why we’re focused. We’re focused on downtown and bringing [it] up to be a vibrant place that attracts young people to stay and to visit and to have entertainment there.”
Road capital improvements: “There is a lot of investment in capital, in infrastructure, and thanks to the [American Rescue Plan Act] money that was presented from the pandemic, there’s been investment in broadband, there’s been investment in surface drainage, which is important on days like today, to try to improve the flow of water so that streets aren’t flooded. Then they’ve also spent some of that money on some of our nonprofits that help the homeless. The homeless and even the migrants that are coming here. Those are some of the things that are very needed, for as much as there’s so much need here in Brownsville. And organizations are always interested for more money. We also need to be aware that it’s best to spread it around so that all problems get addressed. Not just one and take it one by one.”
