Blank check: City paid $91,000 for aborted project

PHARR - The city paid more than $91,000 in taxpayer money to a consultant and has nothing to show for it.

The payments came after the City Commission made a decision last year to cancel its contract with Brownsville-based Ambiotec Civil Engineering Group, which was working on a comprehensive plan for the city.

Because Ambiotec was already 10 months into the project, Pharr had to pay part of the $465,000 projected cost of the contract.

A comprehensive plan is a document or set of documents many cities use as a plan for land use and future growth. Elements of such plans typically address facets of the community such as housing, economic development, the environment, recreation and open space, and transportation.

Despite spending $91,000 on the Pharr plan, the city has so far received nothing from the consultants, officials said this week, as news of the wasted money spread following the city's reimbursement request to the Pharr Economic Development Corp.

"I don't know what they gave, as far as something written," Mayor Leo "Polo" Palacios said Monday.

City Manager Fred Sandoval said that's because commissioners - led by member Ricardo Medina - prematurely canceled the project.

"What (Ambiotec) is telling me is they were in the information-gathering stage," Sandoval said. "There wasn't a whole lot of deliverables."

When Medina and his allies voted to cancel the contract in November - balking at the cost as it mounted to $465,000 - he accused Palacios of misleading the commission about the original price tag. Palacios denied that allegation.

Medina said even though he and the other commissioners knew the city would need to cover part of the contract, the $91,000 charge is excessive. For that cost, he pointed out, the city could probably have paid for another plan altogether.

In December 2000, the city published a comprehensive plan at a cost of about $115,000, though supporters of the Ambiotec plan said this one would have been more extensive.

Brian Godinez, a consultant to Ambiotec who has handled public relations for the project, said Ambiotec was two to three months away from having anything it could deliver to the city.

He said the company was meeting with city personnel and doing technical work when the project was terminated. Ambiotec wasn't even halfway into its timeline for the project.

Last month, Sandoval sent a letter to Raul Garza, executive director of the Pharr Economic Development Corp., asking the development corporation to reimburse the city the $91,000. The cost of the Ambiotec project was to be split among the development corporation, the Pharr Chamber of Commerce and the city. This year, the development corporation was scheduled to pay its portion of the bill.

Garza said he has received no reports based on the work Ambiotec performed, but because the development corporation had budgeted for the project, the payment is not a burden. Still, he said, he plans to discuss the matter with Sandoval.

Irma Elizondo, chairwoman of the development corporation's board, expressed outrage over the cost.

"Some of it is owed, but not this (much) money," Elizondo said. "This is crazy."
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Ryan Holeywell covers PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.