This morning’s paper brought notice that the city council had approved a $15 million bond package for street repairs. The story prompted me to write to city councilman Carlos Cisneros. Here’s that letter.

Dear Mr. Cisneros:

It seems that since its opening seven or eight years ago, Pablo Kissel Boulevard has been under nearly constant repair at one end or the other. To me, this calls into question the quality of the work that went into its initial construction which leads me to two sets of questions, the first about Pablo Kissel itself.

• When was it accepted by the city? Who signed off on the documentation that the road was complete and acceptable?
• What construction company (or companies) performed the actual work?
• Who was the developer on the deal?
• How many repair orders have been issued on Pablo Kissel?
• How much has been spent on those repair orders to date?

The second set of questions has to do with the city’s standards and how they’re applied:

• Are there published standards for street construction?
• Are there different standards for roads built for different use expectations? (I.e., are there separate standards for streets built primarily for residential use as opposed to commercial use?)
  
• Is there an inspection process for determining that those standards are met?
• Is there documentation that those processes are being followed?

That’s a rough list of concerns. I bring this up now because the city council just signed off on more debt to finance street repairs and construction. I am concerned that more defective streets are going to be built and take more than their fair share of Brownsville’s resources in order to stay in working condition. We need to have workable streets. It could be argued that without streets there is no city.

I realize that looking all this stuff up is beyond the mandate for a city councilman. Nevertheless, you are my representative on the council. I have no other “in” with the city. I expect that you will forward the questions to appropriate folks for resolution.

Sincerely,
Stan Raines

Mr. Cisneros responded a few minutes ago with this:

Dear Mr. Raines,

Thank you for your concern and your questions.  I too have had some of the same
concerns.  I will forward this e-mail to Carlos Lastra our city engineer.  I
would also like to make sure that we do not repeat these mistakes.  I have been
very disappointed with the outcome of this street.  

Once again, Thank you!

Carlos

And my response to him:

Dear Mr. Cisneros:

Thank you for your quick response. I look forward to detailed information on these queries. I will follow up with Mr. Lastra after an appropriate period.

Sincerely,
Stan Raines

I’ve marked my calendar to do that follow up in two weeks. I’ll keep you posted.