DO WE HAVE A CITY COMMISSION? OR A MARTINEZ RUBBER STAMP?

By Juan Montoya
The ink isn't even dry on the rental contract that the City of Brownsville will be offering congressman-elect Filemon Vela Jr. and already Mayor Tony Martinez has escorted the young Fil into the second floor of the Municipal Court on Levee Street to see which employees he wants to move so he can set up shop.
The city employees at the building were startled to see the dour-faced new congressman eyeing their offices and parking spaces as he was escorted by the Italy-ambassador wannabe Martinez. Sources say that the item for the rental contract with the newer and improved Filemon Vela has not been submitted yet and so have no idea what the terms will be. But they expect that it will be on the agenda this December 4.
However, our sources indicate that Martinez will try to ram through the agreement through the pliant and rubber-stamping city commission at a proposed $1 a year giveaway of his constituents treasure, namely their city taxes.
This has led to many city residents questioning the motives of Hizzoner and his yes-persons on the commission. If Solomon Ortiz and Blake Farenthold paid nearly $2,000 a month at Bill Hudson's plaza off Ruben Torres Bvld., why does Martinez think he can just give away public resources and property to the new congressman-elect?
"It appears that Martinez thinks that the assets to the city belong to him and he can do with them as he pleases," said an infuriated city employee at the old federal courthouse. "The city buildings don't belong to him or to anyone else. They belong to all of us."
Some have contended that since Fil Jr. is a public official, he should be able to ge the cut-rate rental price. However, others have pointed that the U.S. Congress provides a rental fee to congress members and that any funds not used for that purpose actually go into the congressman's pockets to use as he wishes.
"It should be that the congressional members and the mayor of the city should be searching for ways to serve the public, not to have the public serve them," said another. "To have the residents of Brownsville subsidize his office space when they do so already through their federal taxes is a bad way to begin public service."
If the item is included in the Dec. 4 agenda, it won't go into force until the date in the contract. This leads to yet another question: If the city has not inked a contract with the congressman, who is ordering the city employees to begin remodeling the offices at the Levee Street facility and remove the employees from their offices, and by whose authority?
And we thought we had representative government?
Where are the representatives of the citizens on that city commission to tell the mayor that he doesn't have the authority to do that? Or do we citizens have any representatives on the commission at all?