Monday, September 24, 2012

Rick Navarro Continues to Milk His Cash Cow, the City of Brownsville

Alan Ozuna, Lenny Perez, Ricardo Navarro
Rick Navarro, the attorney who routinely represents the City of Brownsville against fire fighters and police officers in arbitration cases gets paid for litigation, not victories.

"That's fair," an observer might say.  "Doctors get paid regardless of whether the surgery is successful.    Navarro can't control the results and he should get paid for his time."

"OK.  That's a fair analogy," someone else might counter, "but what if the doctor is performing unnecessary surgeries just to rake in the bucks?  Isn't that unethical?"

Actually, this is exactly what's happening.  While the city has a its own legal team of three, earning over a quarter of a million dollars annually, Navarro's firm is said to have likely been paid several million dollars in legal fees in the decade or so of losing arbitration cases for the city.

Mean Mister Brownsville isolated several factors contributing to the enrichment of the Navarro-Ozuna labor law team in a September 13, 2011 article and a December 4, 2011 followup article.  Here is a quote from the second article:  "One firefighter put it this way: "Lenny is a total pendejo with a Napoleonic complex. He has total distrust of staff that have skills and abilities exceeding his own." Fire Chief Perez and City Manager Charlie Cabler are known for stonewalling grievances that could be easily settled by skilled administrators."  What we were saying back then is that Lenny Perez's soured relationship with his men led him to vindictively allow situations to go to arbitration that could have easily been settled by reasonable men.  Since City Manager Charlie Cabler was the last option to resolve a matter before arbitration, his poor management skills contributed to the problem, inflating Navarro's legal fees.

Thus Navarro benefits financially from an adversarial relationship between the fire chief and his men, but also the acquiescence of Charlie Cabler in allowing even obvious, clear-cut situations to go to arbitration.  Navarro, of course, laughs all the way to the bank.

Just today(9/24/2012) I received a call from a union member advising me of a hearing to consider new rules for arbitration cases.  "Jim, Navarro is pushing for new rules that will send almost all matters into arbitration.  And who do you think will represent the city in those cases?  If this goes through, the city will be wasting even more money.  Of course, this is "good for business" for Navarro.  He is just playing our stupid fire chief.  We went to a meeting the other day with the fire chief and our new police chief.  Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez said he didn't need new rules.  Everything is working fine.  Perez, though is so stupid.  He is brainwashed by Navarro."

So, in a time of tight budgets, threats of tax increases, mismanagement by city officials continues to squander tax dollars for unnecessary arbitration cases with one primary beneficiary:   Ricardo Navarro.

21 comments:

  1. Same guy who bilked BISD as the behest of Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This Rick Navarro has a good racket going. He found an area of ignorant elected officials in all areas of the Valley. It appears he is capitalizing on a financial windfall by tapping into the most gullible idiots that have the ability to get elected in a voters pool of apathy.

      Delete
  2. Jimmy Kimmel may need a stunt double for Guillermo. The Fire Chief can find his real calling. That may be all he is good for. Why does the City Commission accept this embarrassment ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is this the same dude that thinks he can do the fire marshals job at the same time as chief? Hahaha ... can you imagine adding more responsibility to this joker. Jim Carreys' Fire Marshal Bill In Living Color would be a better choice. Seriously, is there not anyone that can produce better skills for the job? We can't afford this type of waste anymore.

      Delete
  3. A fire and/or police department function as a paramilitary operation and by all accounts, this fire chief has never appeared to have the maturity to lead a group as important to the community as the fire fighters. He seems to be more occupied with non issues such as the time he ruined the good hearted fire fighters that rescued that fire station puppy. If I remember correctly, the news reported he actually stole the dog from the station and dropped it at the pound for what was sure to be a puppy execution. Instead of the fire chief getting disciplined, the puppy rescueing fire fighters were suspended !!! Who is keeping this fire chief in check ? He should of been fired long ago. What a waste of taxpayers money to pay his salary and to fight his legal challenges.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That incident should of been a RED FLAG to the city on where this fire chief and his priorities were. Amazing he actually concerned himself with a fire house dog and not on the responsibility of running a department so critical for life safety.

      Delete
  4. As a private citizen and someone that interacts with the Fire Department Paramedics via my employment with a local emergency room hospital, I must give credit to the fire fighters for their dedication and commitment in providing this critical life saving service. On the down side, they are obviously overworked and underpaid. On the upside, they are true professionals with incredible skills and quickly gain experience in life saving skills. Unfortunately, the fire chief appears to have no clue as how best to provide this critical service to the citizens of Brownsville. It is difficult to see the paramedics try so hard to hide the displeasure and low morale caused by this poor excuse of a fire chief. Maybe a future city commission will have the foresight to bring in a real leader for this excellent asset to our community. Keep your chin up guys and keep doing a good job!

    ReplyDelete
  5. No story here, Jimmy Boy. At least not in the realm of "news." This style/practice is old hat for many Valley politicos and political opportunists. Herrera alone is not to blame. All of you are to blame! All of you enable these outlaws into thinking the populace is too dumb to do anything about it. And, you know, they're right. So, keep choking the chile and issuing those drawn-out, hollow cries of pain. Only, don't expect anything to come out of it. Short of a targeted cleansing shower from God, nothing will change things for the little border town at the end of the colon known as the Rio Grande.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "End of the Colon" known as the Rio Grande" is what this town has accepted to be known as. What a shame there is no one that will represent and take action against this bullshit! Do we not love our town or what?

      Delete
    2. Vicious characterization of Browntown, but so true. Vicious!!!

      Rey

      Delete
  6. Ooops, as Rick Perry would say. I, of course, meant not Herrera, but Navarro.

    ReplyDelete
  7. After doing some research of my own, it appears that there is a lucrative racket going on here with this lawyer Rick Navarro. The City has two other lawyers on their payrolls but apparantly have been deemed useless for simple advice on Civil Service contracts and Civil Service Commissioners questions. You are correct Jim in the fact that some of these contract violations and questionable disciplinary appeals have been grossly mishandled and could have been easily resolved by local admainistration as opposed to a costly arbitration.

    Come to find out, my sources have advised that there have been over 20 arbitration cases that Rick Navarro has represented the fire chief on and has LOST the vast majority of. Most of these frivolous arbitrations by all means could have been resolved at no cost to the taxpayers by the grievance process here locally at no cost to the citizens! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE ... Isn't it the duty for the lawyer to give advice that will SAVE the city money? Why are we paying an extra attorney to litigate lost causes and keep allowing him to set up more useless litigation while losing most of those cases? Any fool can see that the Fire Chief is a financial windfall for Rick Navarro .... HELLO ???

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lawyers, for the most part, in Cameron County are leaches....sucking up tax dollars at every trough they can push their heads into. The city leaders and government agencies hire lawyers to protect the elected officials and their friends....then they hire more lawyers to defend or prosecute all other cases. Judge "Disable" Limas is a perfect example of the quality of layers we have in Cameron County. Add Erin Garcia who needed her daddy's corruption to give her a position which she couldn't win on her own....you have another good example. Then there is Armando Villalobos. We can add Dan and David Sanchez to the list of slugs that slither around our community sucking up tax dollars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We must all ask ourselves: When is this insanity going to end? Why are the elected leaders of Brownsville turning a blind eye to this abuse of taxpayer funds? Is there some kind of campaign contribution trail that will lead back to these money grubbing lawyers and abusers of government entities? Do the lawyers have perks for those in management or elected office? Is the fire chief getting free tickets to sporting events or hunting trips? What is going on? Why does this not get fixed NOW?!!!

      Delete
    2. You mean "leeches," don't you? Using the wrong word dilutes your argument in the same way that not enough lemon makes lousy lemonade. Get a dictionary and think about what you're about to type before you type it. This middle school error makes you seem a retard.

      Delete
  9. rick navarro has a yacht by the name of ss lenny perez and on the back of the yacht it reads city of brownsville. i guess when you suck at being a chief the only way you can protect your job is by creating litigation for rick navarro coffers,is not that so lenny perez.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is just the tip of the Iceberg. It may take several years to go through the courts, however the Mayor and Navarro think they have a case against the firefighters who have litigation regarding back-pay. You heard it here first folks. They already lost in the district court. Meanwhile, the clock and interest keep going up, up, up. Your money, my money. When these lawyers have had their fill at the trough, maybe then they can settle with the firefighters and paramedics which they tried to screw out of their pay before this case makes the BISD settlement look like a down payment at Walmart for 32" LCD TV. The City and Firefighters/Paramedics are in no hurry. Let the interest keep accumulating. The only one that suffers is the tax payer who will foot the bill for this litigation. And Navarro, Ha,Ha,Ha. Win or lose his pockets get fat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This wreckless behavior should be against the law. In the end the elected officials will walk away scott free with no financial obligation to the mess they leave at the city. Unbelievable!

      Delete
  11. Until the Brownsville Herald becomes a true reporter of community matters and holds officials to the scrutiny they deserve, this will continue. Stop the madness and do what is right Mr. Mayor and Commissioners. You can start with the City Manager and work your way down the line. Or the people will start with you.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I smell KICKBACKS!!!! Who profits from all of this? Slimy politicians!!!!!
    Same thing going on in BISD. No tienen verguensa los rateros.

    ReplyDelete
  13. como diria "paquita la del barrio", rata de dos patas. ya es hora de acabar con tanta corrupcion, el heraldo vendido no sale lo de willy gonzalez, ben medina. sr alcade usted sabe por donde empezar y antes que termine su gestion acabe con tanta rata.

    ReplyDelete

𝗧𝗦𝗖 𝗕𝗢𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗠𝗘𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗢𝗥𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗘 𝗥𝗨𝗕𝗘𝗡 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗥𝗘𝗥𝗔

TSC Board of Trustees Thursday evening's Texas Southmost College Board of Trustees meeting at Gorgas Hall , the first since the passing...