City approves 'Imagine' board

City Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously backed the implementation of its master plan called Imagine Brownsville with Mayor Pat M. Ahumada Jr. dissenting.

Commissioners Anthony P. Troiani, Charlie Atkinson, Melissa Zamora, Rose M. Z. Gowen, Ricardo Longoria and Edward C. Camarillo agreed that a new group of public and private officials to be called the Imagine Brownsville Comprehensive Plan Coordinating Board (CPCB) would be responsible for coordinating the implementation for public entities. The commission also approved an allocation of $25,000 a year to fund CPCB operations.

Approval came despite unanswered questions regarding funding aspects of the group’s operations. Those questions include whether the board would be a nonprofit organization, if a budgeted facilitator would be a fulltime employee or not, and if a budgeted grant writer would be provided by the participating entities as an in-kind contribution.

Gowen said that not every "I" has been dotted or "T" has been crossed: "We can’t answer all the questions about what if, because we are just barely starting."

Banker Fred Rusteberg, who was involved in the master plan’s development, presented the proposal to authorize the CPCB to the commission Tuesday. "Maybe we haven’t thought about everything, but we think it’s a pretty good plan," Rusteberg said.

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College and the Brownsville Navigation District are the only two entities that have yet to consider what is being called a Memorandum of Understanding, but Rusteberg said that the two entities have indicated that they also are on board.

The Brownsville Public Utilities Board, the Brownsville Independent School District, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corp. and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corp. have approved the memorandum and each also has committed $25,000 a year.

"This board that we are trying to put together has no authority per se," Rusteberg told the commission. He later emphasized that the board would not have any authority over any of the entities. The entities would have the final word on the projects that the CPCB recommends.

"At the end of the day, we cannot afford not to participate in this," Troiani said of the effort to join with other public entities in guiding the city’s growth for the next 10 years.

"The time is now," Longoria said.

But, for Ahumada, Imagine Brownsville amounted to a compilation of plans that the city and the other entities have. He said that the master plan is a duplication of efforts.

Ahumada also said that he would work with the group, but expressed concern that the implementation plans are still being formulated and that it continues to be a concept.

"Imagine Brownsville is not the one that is going to walk on water and make things happen," the mayor said.