While America Honors Their Firefighters, Brownsville Dishonors Theirs

by Jim Barton on Monday, September 12, 2011 at 7:25pm

Louis Hebert, Union Representative, Ex-Firefighter
Hebert, Marco Longoria
Alan Ozuna, Lenny Perez, Ricardo Navarro


     Sometimes you really can't see the forest for the trees.  It's easy to focus on a petulant Commissioner Ricardo Longoria mustering up enough machismo to boldly make a motion to terminate the firefighters' contract or Fire Chief Lenny Perez teaming up with former Commissioner Charlie Atkinson to give Marco Longoria, president of the firefighters union the death penalty for a minor infraction.  In two separate court actions this week it was the City of Brownsville versus the firefighters.  What's intriguing is who you DON'T SEE as a prominent player in either of these two actions:  City Attorney Mark Sossi.  Mark and his two assistants were on the sidelines briefly in the hearing about the contract termination at the court house but never stood up as attorneys.  They were not in sight during the Marco Longoria employment hearing on the 4th floor of the city commission building.
     Instead the city chose not to use any of the three attorneys on retainer with a combined salary easily exceeding a quarter million dollars, but instead went with Ricardo J. Navarro and Alan Ozuna.  These two attorneys are influential in turning the city on to two bright, shiny new healthcare toys:

Texas Council Risk Management Fund (TCRMF)

Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool (TML-IRP)

Behind the termination of the firefighters' contract is a move to a different form of health care, the self-supporting system with an administrative fee.  This type of system substantially rewards fighting claims.  The kicker is that when claims go to arbitration, lawyers like Navarro and Ozuna are there to pick up the attorney dollars.  No one seems to know how much Navarro and Ozuna are netting in the Longoria case, but a courtroom observer mentioned the fee of $19,000 recently charged in a very similar McAllen case.
     The city could very well lose both pending cases, although I'm certainly no legal expert.  With respect to the recent termination of the firefighters contract, language in the old expired contract calls for a continued honoring of the former contract until a new one is arbitrated.   That seems to have been done UNTIL the termination was announced.  Now claims that have been honored in the past are going to a grievance process, expensive for the firefighters association and the city, but lucrative for the lawyers mentioned above.  Recently a claim for tuition reimbursement that had been consistantly honored in the past was denied by Fire Chief Perez.  City Manager Cabler was next up the chain of command.  He denied the substantiated claim as well, foolishly adding:  "The city has money to fight these claims."   So, it goes to appeal.   Another mistake the city made was not giving the firefighters association written warning of the termination.  They read about when the agenda for the city commission meetings were published.  Bad move.
     A few observations on the Marco Longoria employment hearing:  The charges are so ridulously petty as to be laughable.   Yet the fire chief, Lenny Perez, obviously viewing Longoria as a thorn in his side, a rival, gives Longoria the strongest discipline possible, an indefinite suspension, which amounts to termination.  Testimony showed that on 2/21/11 Longoria drove a city emergency vehicle through the H.E.B. parking lot on Central Blvd. to avoid the congestion at the intersection.  An H.E.B. customer was not paying attention and backed up into the city vehicle, just glancing one of the front tires with no damage to either vehicle.  The lady got out of her car, apologized, gave her license and insurance information and left.  She said to contact her if needed.  Longoria called his supervisor, Lt. Garcia, who initially said essentially "no harm, no foul."  Longoria wanted to know if he should follow normal post-accident protocol and submit to a drug test.  Garcia initially said "no", but later after conferring with Perez, changed his mind.  Longoria initially submitted to the drug test, but took exception to the loud manner of the staff person, and his insistance that Longoria surrender his wallet.  Longoria walked out, eventually taking a drug test at another station.
     Chief Perez declared this to be insubordination, although no direct order to take the test was ever issued.  He then rejected the options of a 15 or 90 day suspension, going for the maximum, an indefinite suspension.  All of the testimony was given today.  A court reporter has 30 days to complete a transcript and the lawyers have another 30 days to file briefs.
     Actually, Lous Hebert, representing Longoria is not an attorney, but has a great legal mind combined with clever common sense.  He elicited laughter from the courtroom audience when he got Chief Perez to perjure himself with the homespun question:  "Now, you just really don't like Marco Longoria much, do you?"  Perez replied:  "Oh no, I care about him."  The judge had to call for order with a big smile.  Earlier Hebert got Mr. Gonzalez, the former Army Staff Sergeant turned clinical worker to admit that he was accustomed to people jumping to his commands, simply asking "how high?"