Mayoral candidate: Pat Ahumada Jr.

Top 3 issues

1. Prohibt future benefits for mayor and City Commission: Trust, with good transparent and honest city government, is the No. 1 issue citizens have expressed in this mayoral campaign to me. Citizens voted against paying the mayor and City Commission a salary and benefits in a referendum. Voters have expressed their displeasure in that their vote has been completely ignored on this issue and are saying that they want a mayor they can trust to do the people’s business. Given the opportunity, as mayor, I will immediately introduce a policy for discussion and adoption to prohibit any future benefits for the mayor and City Commission, including, but not limited to car allowance, insurance coverage and any kind of benefits not explicitly called for by City Charter. The policy will include a stipulation that no member on the City Commission can conduct direct or indirect business with the city of Brownsville.

2. Address capital improvement needs: Citizens have expressed their concerns regarding Brownsville’s fast growth and lack of capital improvements and equipment needed for the growth Brownsville has experienced. The two areas of concern, for planning sake, are capital improvements in order to purchase much needed ambulances, improve drainage problems, continue with an aggressive street paving program, build a West Side library and purchase much needed public safety equipment for firemen and police. The city of Brownsville has at this time the ability to sell $60 million in bonds for capital improvements, which I plan to put on the agenda for discussion and action. The bond issue will be a very restricted issue with oversight.

3. Increase impact fees: The other involves PUB impact fees, which have not been raised in 17 years to meet new development needs, which resulted in PUB rate payers paying 97 percent of the infrastructure needed for developer’s new subdivisions. Because of this, citizens have made it clear that they do not want to continue to pay for new developments through PUB rates to subsidize developers.

These facts regarding impact fees and high utility rates prompted me as a PUB board member to make public the injustice being forced upon citizens to pay for developers needs through their PUB utility water and waste water bills. Given the opportunity as mayor, I will immediately introduce experts Black & Veatch’s plan on impact fees in compliance with State Statue 395 to adopt a responsible plan for new growth and that will keep utility rates down for the citizens of Brownsville.