BND candidates outline platforms

Taxes, lease rates, job outlook, safety, immigration, and $21 million spent on a nonexistent bridge highlighted the Brownsville Navigation District candidate forum Monday.

Candidates up for election May 8 outlined platforms before a crowd of supporters at St. Joseph's Catholic Church parish hall.

Candidates for Place 1 Eliceo "Cheo" Muñoz and Ralph Cowen, Place 3 candidates John Reed and Don DeLeon, and unopposed Place 5 candidate Sergio Tito Lopez called for lower taxes, adjustment of lease rates for new tenants, and gradual-step increases for present leaseholders.

Muñoz proposed a safety and environmental health position to monitor safety issues and called for a, "lift on the moratorium," on the shipbreaking business. He said BND should "court" business instead. Muñoz said he has, "no encumbrances" in the form of special interests, doesn't lease property at the port or have a brother who is chief of staff, referring to Cowen's brother Paul Cowen, who works for Sen. Eddie Lucio.

"Nobody pulls my strings," Ralph Cowen rebutted. Of taxes and revenues that must be collected to maintain and operate BND and pay debt, Cowen said that "it's not the port and I. We are the port . . . There is no magic checkbook in the sky." Cowen also said the bridge project had been a "train wreck" and suggested that an independent project manager could have prevented this.

Reed called for a, "better job of marketing the port," to bring jobs and new business, adding that BND cannot continue to "burden existing industry." Reed said he could analyze budgets, balance a checkbook and ask tough questions. He said that it is not BND's job to call federal safety or immigration agencies to "start raiding businesses."

DeLeon suggested "strong action against businesses," noting that BND must take action if workers' lives are on the line. DeLeon also noted that with debt payments, the $21 million spent on the bridge balloons to $60 million, and asked how many docks and warehouses could have been built with that. 

Lopez talked about faith, understanding and forgiveness, noting that mistakes have been made and, "we must learn to forgive," to work together and, "to have faith in the people you elect."

Brownsville Navigation District and Texas Southmost College candidate forum Monday night was a Brownsville 2020 project, a collaboration between The Brownsville Herald and UTB-TSC's Center for Civic Engagement. St. Joseph's Catholic Church Parish Hall on St. Francis St. The forum was held in conjunction with the Faith Community.

>The moderators were Herald editor Rachel Benavidez, Zavaletta, St. Joseph's Catholic Church's parish pastor Rev. Jerry Frank, and Brother Charles Imbergamo of St. Joseph Academy

>KMBH television videotaped the forum and it also will be available on The Herald's and Brownsville 2020's Web site.

 The Brownsville Herald will be addressing issues more specifically with the candidates in the days to come.