Cortez: RioPlex will be sending people all over the world to develop relationships

3 weeks ago 86

MCALLEN, Texas – Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez was asked about RioPlex during the Q&A portion of a recent McAllen Citizens League luncheon.

In his earlier presentation Cortez explained that RioPlex is “a group of business people that got it together to organize themselves and market this area as RioPlex.”

Nonprofit executive Miriam Gelman asked how long would the RioPlex project would be necessary.

Cortez answered the question this way: “Let me tell you about leadership. If you call yourself a leader and you have no followers, you’re not a leader.” This response drew laugher from the audience.

“But if you have people following you, then you are a leader. We have many, many, many followers of RioPlex. I have had people call me, big companies, who want to be part of RioPlex. (They ask) how much do I have to pay? We have very important people, I won’t mention names here, entrepreneurs, that call me and say, Judge, if you need an employee, you need money, whatever you need, tell me, I will be happy to pay for it, because I like what you are doing.”

In answer to another question, Cortez explained what RioPlex is.

“It’s a map. It’s a marketing tool. But when you show that map and everything inside that map, it is better than any one part of what’s in that map. If I have the whole and all you can show me is a part of the whole, I have more than you. So why would you not show the whole.”

Cortez said RioPlex is not replacing any existing entity.

“RioPlex is nothing more than a marketing tool. That’s all it is. It’s another tool for cities, for counties, for businesses, for anybody that wants to say, ‘hey, I’m part of RioPlex and RioPlex encompasses this area’.”

So, basically, RioPlex is like this region’s version of DFW, asked Gelman.

Cortez responded: “Yes. RioPlex is just an area on the map, but we’re using it to be able to market ourselves throughout the world. We will be sending people to South America, Central America, North America, Asia, Europe and different places to develop relationships. Every area in the globe will be covered by RioPlex.

“So, you all get ready. Weneed you (the various cities in the region) to have things to offer. Because if we don’t have things to offer, then we’re going to waste money bringing somebody here when we don’t have what they want.”

Along with drainage, water conservation, the new county courthouse, and jail overcrowding, Cortez spoke about RioPlex in his prepared remarks. He spoke about the marketing tool in the context of the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force, a group he set up to tackle the region’s high rate of poverty.

“How do we attract investment to come here? How do we move people out of poverty and make them taxpayers?” Cortez asked. “Well, we’ve actually done a fairly decent job in creating human capital here in Hidalgo County. But, with a lot of it, we have had a brain drain. Many graduated, but the jobs were not here, so they had to leave and go somewhere else.”

Cortez said the task force started out with three goals. One was to serve those in poverty. “That’s what defines a good community. What do we do for one another.”

The second washow to move people out of poverty. “Our jails are full of young people that come from broken homes. So mentorship, to me, was a first step in helping someone,” he said.

But if someone is helped and they go back and get a good education and there is no job at the end of it… “then we just created human capital for someone else. This is where RioPlex comes in.”

This, he said, was the third goal, to attract better paying jobs.

“Who are we? When I was the mayor of McAllen, I would go out and I would try to sell McAllen. McAllen is like a star in the sky. But you are talking about competing in a global economy? We (McAllen) were very good, but we were not that good,” Cortez said.

“So, we needed to expand, expand who we are. And we thought about the region, the four counties, Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron and Willacy counties. We call ourselves, One Region, One Voice. But we’re really more than that. We’re really Northern Mexico and South Texas together.”

Cortez then showed a map of the South Texas/North Mexico region.

“When you put the Rio Grande Valley and Northern Mexico together, we have four seaports,seven airports, I think 13 (international) bridges, a medical school. We have much more to offer than if I only go show them (prospective investors) McAllen.”

Cortez said the analogy he likes to tell people is RioPlex is like a shopping center and the individual cities are the stores in the shopping center.

“We’re building a shopping center and we’re going to try to bring people to the shopping center. Because with that shopping center, I have lots of things to sell, not just some things. I have lots of things to sell. And it is the duty of every store in the shopping center to have something to offer. We can’t bring people to the mall if I don’t have good stores, right? So we need every municipality. We need McAllen. We need everyone to be good at what they do.”

Editor’s Note: Here is a video recording of Judge Cortez’s remarks on RioPlex and the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force at the McAllen Citizens League event: