Emerging Mobility Innovation: A Medium City Perspective

"J. Joel Garza Jr, a Brownsville native, began his public service career with the City of San Benito more than a decade ago. Soon after, he was hired by the Harlingen-San Benito Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) as their GIS Specialist/Transportation Planner. And within a few years, the Harlingen-San Benito MPO … Read More

"J. Joel Garza Jr, a Brownsville native, began his public service career with the City of San Benito more than a decade ago. Soon after, he was hired by the Harlingen-San Benito Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) as their GIS Specialist/Transportation Planner. And within a few years, the Harlingen-San Benito MPO Board of Directors appoint him to be their next Executive Director. In that role, he managed more than $50 Million in transportation projects and an annual operating budget of just under $600,000. Later he transitioned into municipal administration and was hired as the Special Projects Director under the City Manager’s Office for the City of Harlingen. As the SPD, he assisted with several economic developing projects, including the $6 Million Multimodal Transportation Terminal in Downtown Harlingen. Currently, Mr. Garza is the Multimodal Transportation Director for the City of Brownsville, leading more than 90 city employees and managing an annual budget of $9.4 Million. The Multimodal Transportation (MMT) Department is a critical function of the City of Brownsville with its main division - Brownsville Metro. B-Metro is the City’s public transportation agency, providing more than 5,000 trips per day (Pre-COVID). Mr. Garza has an undergrad from the University of Texas RGV and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Public Administration. He is a Certified Public Manager (CPM) through the William P. Hobby Center for Public Service at Texas State University. He is currently the Vice-Chair of the Regional Transportation Advisory Panel and an Associate member of the Texas City Management Association. " Read Less

"Helen Ramirez is the City Manager for the largest City in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) with over 186,000 residents. She is the first female City Manager in Brownsville's 170 year history, ranked the 18th largest city in the State of Texas. Prior to being named City Manager on January … Read More

"Helen Ramirez is the City Manager for the largest City in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) with over 186,000 residents. She is the first female City Manager in Brownsville's 170 year history, ranked the 18th largest city in the State of Texas. Prior to being named City Manager on January 9th, Helen was serving our community as the Interim City Manager. She did so for six months. She was initially hired by the City of Brownsville in March of 2019 to serve as Deputy City Manager and for a period, served as the Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC), Type A Economic Development Corporation. Prior to joining the city, Helen served communities in both Central Texas and Southern California. Helen brings more than 20 years of experience in municipal government, urban planning, and economic development, including 10 years of experience working in the private sector. In her service to the City of Brownsville, Helen has been instrumental in accelerating economic growth, downtown redevelopment, overhauling development codes, preparing the city’s first mobility transportation plan and strengthening the organizational culture of the municipality. Helen earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in City & Regional Planning from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. She earned an American Institute of Certified Planners Certification and is working towards an Economic Development Finance Professional Certification. She is a member of the Texas City Managers Association, is a member of the International City County Management Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners. She formerly served on the Technical Advisory Committee of The Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization (RGVMPO) and CAMPO in Central Texas." Read Less

Ben has over fifteen years of professional experience and nine years of experience as a transportation and transit planner. Ben started his planning career as a sustainability and resilience planner at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette working for the University’s Office of Sustainability. He continued his career as a … Read More

Ben has over fifteen years of professional experience and nine years of experience as a transportation and transit planner. Ben started his planning career as a sustainability and resilience planner at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette working for the University’s Office of Sustainability. He continued his career as a transportation planner at the Lake Charles MPO and focused on federal compliance review as well as on active transportation and transit planning. He developed several complete streets projects and worked closely with local agencies on implementation and funding strategies. Ben joined ATG in early 2018 and worked extensively on similar projects including helping to write eight MTPs in the last three years and complete analysis and plan development for the Wichita Falls MPO Freight Mobility Plan as the Deputy Project Manager. In addition, Ben has worked on various components of the current SSO assistance projects for the States of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Ben also worked to develop the Louisiana Statewide Transit Asset Management Plan and several other capacity building efforts for LADOTD and transit providers across the state. Read Less