DID TONY ESTELA, ET AL GET PUBLIC TO PAY FOR WASH. D.C. TRIP?

By Juan Montoya
Did you hear about the Mayor and city commissioner who got the city or the PUB to pay for their flights and hotel accommodations in Washington D.C. to attend inauguration of President Barack Obama?
As we hear it, city commissioner Estela Chavez-Vasquez and Mayor Tony Martinez are now on their way back to Brownsville after a few days taking in the sights and sounds of Inauguration-Day Washington D.C. with a delegation from the PUB.
 We have currently filed an information request with the city secretary's office to get to the bottom of the story. We had never heard of the city ot the utility having to pay for any elected officials to attend a presidential inauguration. We're sure some of our Republican residents would not appreciate the fact that their money might have been used to allow Tony and Estela to rub elbows with the Pres and his lady
As we understand, Chavez-Vasquez was overheard inquiring about the per diem to City Manager Charlie Cabler. We hear that rooms were at a premium, so it'll be intersting to know how much the city luminaries plunked down to get a place to stay.
Ms. Chavez probably figured that as long as the mayor could rack up expenses for his pie-in-the-sky schemes and have Cabler foot the bill, why not her? Right?
We have pointed out Hizzoner's lavish spending style and the outlays in cash to fly around his consultants and their assistants at public cost as he tries to convince the UT System to remain downtown and forge his vision of an "urban university."
Before the System came up with it "University of the Americas" plan, we had  "community university," a "partnership" and a host of other nomenclatures that sounded pleasing to the ear.
One of the consultants with buildingcommunitiesWORKSHOP even wants the city to pay for her monthly rental of a working apartment for the time that she spent helping Tony putting together his request for proposals for the UT System. Will the rest of the commission and legal counsel go along with it?
Tony and Estela probably figured that if the city was handing out money for that, why not pay for the city's representatives to hobnob with the Obamas? Ah yes, an ambassadorship is just a flight away, isn't it Hizzoner?