Vote to remove utilities board chair fails; CEO retires

_{During the Brownsville City Commission meeting on Tuesday, District 3 City Commissioner Roy De los Santos moves to remove Chair Sandra Saenz from the Brownsville Public Utilities Board due to lack of action in response to the Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC Forensic Examination report, which investigated BPUB’s activities on the Tenaska Project. District 2 City Commissioner Jessica Tetreau voted in favor to remove Saenz but the motion failed in a 2-to-3 vote.} _{SCREENSHOTS TAKEN BY AURA VELASQUEZ/THE RIDER}

Brownsville City Charter review committee meets

On Tuesday, District 3 City Commissioner Roy De los Santos moved to remove Chair Sandra Saenz from the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, but the motion failed.

“This is brought about in the interest of the fact that we’ve got the audit … that PUB has received on the Tenaska project,” De los Santos said as he made the motion. “There was action taken to place [BPUB Chief Executive Officer John Bruciak] on 60 days administrative leave. The 60 days have come and gone and there has been no word and no action.”

District 1 City Commissioner Nurith Galonsky Pizaña later asked De los Santos about the board’s transparency.

“I understand that maybe there was no public comment,” Galonsky Pizaña said. “Have you ever, though, gone to the meetings or asked, for yourself, board members or PUB staff [questions that] they did not answer?”

De los Santos responded that the board never left his questions unanswered.

_{District 1 City Commissioner Nurith Galonsky Pizaña votes against the removal of Chair Sandra Saenz from the Brownsville Public Utilities Board. City Commissioner At-Large “B” Rose Gowen and City Commissioner At-Large “A” John Cowen Jr. voted “nay” as well.}

“As I said, the motion was about a failure to act, not because of anything unethical, not because of anything illegal,” he said.

De los Santos and District 2 City Commissioner Jessica Tetreau voted in favor of Saenz’s removal, whereas Galonsky Pizaña, City Commissioner At-Large “B” Rose Gowen and City Commissioner At-Large “A” John Cowen Jr. voted nay.

Mayor Trey Mendez abstained from voting due to a conflict of interest, saying that Saenz “is the representative for [his] landlord.”

The Rider reached out to Mendez on Thursday for details about who his landlord is and for which property, but he did not respond.

District 4 City Commissioner Pedro Cardenas was not present in person or online, and did not participate in the vote.

Mendez spoke about flaws in the charter that hinder the commission’s ability to remove members of the utilities board, such as the requirement for a unanimous vote.

The City Charter provides no exception to this rule even in the case that a member must abstain from voting due to a conflict of interest or if a member of the commission is absent during the vote, he said.

_{Mayor Trey Mendez abstained from voting due to conflict of interest and District 4 City Commissioner Pedro Cardenas was absent from the meeting.}

“Commissioner Cardenas is absent,” Mendez said. “Based on the way that the charter reads and the way that it requires for any member to be removed, it would fail because it requires the unanimous vote of the commission.

“So, I think, that exposes a flaw which we’ve asked our charter review committee to look at. … For me, the current charter, the way it reads is not working and today is a prime example of that. Even if you have one commissioner absent, the vote fails.”

De los Santos said the commission does have the obligation to give BPUB time to act.

“We’ve given them that time,” he said. “They have not acted.”

BPUB special meeting

After an executive session during Wednesday’s PUB special meeting, board members announced their acceptance of Bruciak’s retirement.

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