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LOPEZ, ARAMBULA AND MASSO STOP HDR PORT GRAVY TRAIN
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By Juan Montoya Despite impassioned pleas from Port of Brownsville fishing-trip aficionados CEO Eddie Campirano, board member John Reed, and harbor master Michael Davis that commissioners approve an time that would allow consultant HDR (Shiner-Mosely) to modify a task order agreement that would put yet another pretty penny in the megaengineer company's pocket, a majority of the board tabled the request. Tito Lopez, Martin Arambula and Carlos Masso said "nyet" to the request place on the agenda by Port Engineer Ariel Chavez. Just last week that commissioners approved a task order agreement with HDR to do yet more work on Dock 16, a multimillion undertaken yweras ago for which the [port has no money. Earlier in the meeting, financial consultants Hinjosa and Estrada had briefed the commissioners on various schemes to indebt themselves to build new projects, and the outlook didn;t look rosey. "Basically, the consultant told them that there was no cheap money available to build these projects," said a port employee. "Then here comes HDR asking the commissioners to modify the task order to make it more expensive." <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BG-nU_4FVEFXYhqcaZz4ATJfJOvlh22gkaqk_mk6Fomqn0xlpoJqb8caQNJytu5MMzKnMXiBFD0yxMYyrJjUD4neruQ_I9t97CNjTHtmxG8-uQiAeVVU-dDI0fuwluSxNGeic-6AO0o/s1600/PORT_CHIEF2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BG-nU_4FVEFXYhqcaZz4ATJfJOvlh22gkaqk_mk6Fomqn0xlpoJqb8caQNJytu5MMzKnMXiBFD0yxMYyrJjUD4neruQ_I9t97CNjTHtmxG8-uQiAeVVU-dDI0fuwluSxNGeic-6AO0o/s320/PORT_CHIEF2.jpg" width="320" /></a>The HDR proposal would have had the company's engineers include the design of a deepening of Dock 16 project to a depth of 50 feet. However, since no dock exists and the commissioners have spent millions on the project already, the new modification proved too much for the commissioners to swallow. At the port's last meeting, commissioners approved a request from Port Engineer Ariel Chavez to enter into a Task Order Agreement with HDR-Shiner Moseley Engineering for a Redesign and Bid and Award Agreement for the elusive Cargo Dock 16. A Freedom of Information request by El Rrun-Rrun has revealed that the Port of Brownsville has already doled out more than $2.124 million to the Houston (and Corpus Christi) engineering firm for work on the future Dock 16 and has nothing to show but bare dirt for it. How much the new "task-order" agreement is worth is not specified on the agenda. But if the past history of the firm's fiscal relationship with the port is any indication, it will be a sweet deal for the Houston engineering firm. Dock 16 has been a project that has been in the making for years. Throughout that time, the costs for the engineering work have climbed steadily. But unless you know where to look, you will find nothing there but barren real estate at the side of the ship channel. Incidentally, right next to the future Dock 16 is located the finished Dock 15. The engineering work for that project (not construction, mind you) also went to Shiner-Mosely. That time, however, the company was lenient on the port. They only charged $1.32 million for the engineering on that one. Now, one many ask, why is it that engineering studies on the soil, compaction, etc. need to be done again seeing how the site is right next to Dock 15, which the port has already paid for? Isn't that a bit redundant, like paying twice (at double the price, apparently) for the same work? Port commissioners sitting on this board need to ask whether the amounts paid to this company are really justified before they start climbing beyond what is reasonable and fair. And while they're at it, don't local companies exist in the Rio Grande Valley (or Brownsville, for that matter) that are just as capable of performing the same work? We have seen the fine example of this company's work. They, after all, charged the port $97,872 to prepare the application for the TIGER 1 application that was seeking some $60 million from the federal government. The result of that "small" investment? Zilch, nada, nothing. The government turn down the application. We know that the some of the port administrators like Campirano and Reed have enjoyed the largess of the company on sumptuous fishing trips at the firm's expense. But shouldn't the port administration and the sitting board also justify the spiraling costs associated with Dock 16 before we end up with the same embarrassing questions they had to answer with the $21 million bridge that never got built? For now, however, we can thank Masso, Arambula and Lopez for not swallowing the bait hook, line and sinker.  <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-9152395381877106368?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/11/lopez-arambula-and-masso-stop-hdr-port.html

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ORTIZ OWNS UP TO SNAFU: SAYS BALLOTS WERE PUT IN UNSECURED YELLOW PLASTIC BAGS
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By Juan Montoya After mounting reports of election workers putting completed ballots in unsecured yellow plastic bags and a woman who threatened a Civil Rights action unless she was shown that her disabled son's ballot was counted, Cameron County Elections Administrator Roger Ortiz admitted that the votes were placed there by his workers for an undetermined amount of  time only until malfunctioning scanning machines started working again. But, until confronted by the woman, Ortiz had failed to disclose that his workers had resorted to using plastic bags to collect the votes. When confronted by more than one voter who saw their votes go into the bags instead of the boxes, he began collecting affidavits from the precinct judge and election workers to verify that those actions took place. However, just as he said this morning, he could not tell us this morning how many votes cast in the Brownsville Independent School District and the general election were "provisional" and had yet to be counted. It now appears that for hours on Tuesday, many of the votes cast in Precinct 71 (Perkins Middle School) were not gathered in the traditional secure ballot boxes, but were collected in yellow plastic bags until the malfunctioning scanning machines were fixed. For a time, they were placed along with other "provisional" ballots of people who showed up at the wrong precinct, had no ID, etc., and left uncounted in red plastic bags which were then taken to the elections office. According to workers, it wasn't until after 2 p.m. that the scanners were fixed at Perkins and the ballots were again placed in the secure boxes. As it stands now, there is still an unknown number of provisional ballots that have not been counted yet. The provisional ballots were placed in red plastic bags in the elections office and will be reviewed by the resolution board which will the decide which can be counted. The county has five working days to tally the provisional ballots as well as the military mail-in votes cast by voters in the armed forces. Right now, with one of the BISD races hanging in the balance with a four-vote difference, there could be  uncounted ballots that could determine that race, a recount notwithstanding. In fact, until those "provisional" ballots are counted, no one will know how many votes are in those red bags that have yet to be counted. Linda Gill Martinez beat Jose Hector Chirinos 14,709 to 14,705 according to the figures provided to the BISD administration and posted on their web site. However, Ortiz said there is no way of knowing what the final tally will be on that race, or on all the other races for that matter. "The totals will change," Ortiz told the candidates, trustees and BISD administrators who showed up Monday morning to learn about the discrepancies surrounding the election. However, Ortiz put on a good face when asked by a local broadcaster how the voting went on election day. "There were small hiccups, like always, there will always will be, but nothing major that you say couldn't be corrected immediately or that we could visit and fix, so I think overall it was a good election," he said.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-4888350315882249355?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/11/100s-perhaps-1000s-of-provisional-bisd.html

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

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