George Lerma Comments on Issues Facing the City of Brownsville and the Firefighters

One statement in particular in Ty Johnson's 8/24/2013 Brownsville Herald article titled "Fire Marshal: Chief ‘did exactly what he’s supposed to do’" seemed suspect.  Johnson made this observation:
"City Manager Charlie Cabler said Thursday that he had received no documentation con-cerning any problems with Perez’s conduct and said he could not comment on the specifics of the association’s grievances until he was made aware of them."

Mean Mister Brownsville, George Lerma
of Brownsville Fire Fighters Association

We ran that comment by George Lerma of the Brownsville Fire Fighters Association.

Lerma:  "Jim, every grievance we've had  for the last 10 or 12 years has gone through City Manager Cabler, so he is certainly aware of the problems we've had with the leadership.  He told me some time ago that he doesn't concern himself with the actual results of the arbitrations.  But, with respect to the "No Confidence" petition, it doesn't actually become a petition until it is signed by the membership.  It would have been premature to discuss it with Cabler until it is signed and becomes official."

MMB:  "What about Fire Marshall Connealy's contention that Fire Chief Perez did nothing wrong with respect to the handling of deceased Fire Fighter Juan Casanova's funeral and death benefits?

Lerma:  "He did so after the fact. . . . Our association had already filed the necessary papers and arranged for the funeral.  Chief Perez simply wouldn't return our calls.  We again tried to call Perez as we needed the signature of a department head on paperwork to bring Casanova's wife from Mexico for the funeral.  We worked around that, got it done.  The family had no idea of our difficulties getting Perez to cooperate.  We had bagpipes, a very respectful, full honors funeral put on by our union with no help from the chief."

Lerma made it clear that the mishandling of the Juan Casanova situation is not the central issue for the association.  That is reflected in the "No Confidence" statement the association released today which cites a number of general issues with Perez' leadership.  Lerma asserted that the association has the specifics to back up the general assertions in the statement and is more than ready to engage the city in such discussions.

Another issue concerning Lerma and the Brownsville Fire Fighters Association  is that fact that the fire fighters have been working for some time without a contract.  Lerma states that it is a complicated issue involving a so-called "Evergreen" clause and a "me-too" provision shared by the fire and police departments. On October 24, 2011 a visiting judge from Corpus Christi ruled in Rolando Olvera's 445th Court in favor of a lawsuit by the Brownsville Fire Fighters Association against the City of Brownsville.  Lerma wonders if city officials fully realize the huge amount of interest that has accrued on behalf of the association since that ruling.

Lerma provided a little history.  He states that just before the June 2009 runoff between incumbent Carlos Cisneros and Melissa Zamora for City Commissioner, District 3, Cisneros sought to gain the BPD endorsement by settling their contract.  With Mark Sossi negotiating an "average" 15% raise for the police department, this created a disparagement between the pay of the two departments.  The fire fighters invoked the "me-too" clause in a lawsuit, eventually heard in court October 24, 2011.  Visiting Judge Hinojosa from Corpus Christi ruled in favor of the Brownsville Firefighters to add a similar 15% to their contract.  The judge also added 6% interest from the ending of the last contract(October 2008*) till their court date(October 2011) and 5% going forward.  This interest continues to accrue and, by not dealing with it, the City of Brownsville is potentially adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to their liability.

Let's do the rough ball park math.  If the fire fighters lump sum supplement to the last contract is $2,700,000, the interest added to that from the end of the last contract to the date Judge Hinojosa ruled in their favor(I'm compounding the 6% interest annually), the added interest would be $515,743.20 for a total owed of $3,215,743.20.  Now, if we add the 5% ongoing interest Judge Hinojosa added in his 2011 ruling, we add an additional $329.613.60 for a grand total of $3,545,356.80.  Of course, it the interest is simple, not compounded, the grand total will be somewhat less, but, in any event, the longer the city takes to settle this, the more interest accrues.

Lerma is not certain Attorney Ricardo Navarro has clearly communicated this with the city, since his fees continue whether the city wins or loses on appeal.  Clearly, the city may be putting itself in severe financial jeopardy by following any advice to simply ignore this issue.


*The city is still under contract with the firefighters until October 2014.  It is primarily the "me too" disparagement between the BPD and the firefighters that, although ruled on in court, has not been acknowledged by the city.