Marco Longoria Back At Work As Brownsville Firefighter!

 

by Jim Barton on Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 11:53pm

     For the second time in his career longtime Brownsville firefighter Marco Longoria has received his job back after the case was submitted to an arbitrator.  The firing was a serious blunder by Fire Chief Lenny Perez, a small-minded man known for his leadership deficiencies.  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.

      "Perez and Cabler waste hundreds of thousands of dollars of city funds with their machismo" remarked another longtime firefighter at a recent barbecue.  "Marco, not only gets all of his backpay, but we had to use overtime to cover his shift.  And the whole thing was total bullshit.  The only ones benefitting are the lawyers Navarro and Ozuna who get paid to work the cases."
       We wrote this back on September 16:   "The website for Navarro,  which includes Ozuna, lists labor and employment law, collective bargaining and civil service as among their areas of expertise.  They also represent the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool or TML-IRP, a self-insurance group charging an administrative fee to the city of Brownsville.  A wooden TML plaque is prominently mounted in the 4th floor hearing room of the city commission building.  A self-insurance group tends to resist claims, putting them into the appeal process.  The two labor law specialists could find themselves in a no-lose situation if they can work for TML, but still be hired guns for the city when appeals are pursued."
     So Navarro and Ozuna have no incentive to be effective in court.  They win when Brownsville loses.  They win when employment cases go to arbitration.  They win when appeals are made regardless of the outcome.  They still make their money.  Navarro and Ozuna make an obscene amount of money from the city of Brownsville that already has three lawyers on retainer or salary.  This is reckless asset management by Mayor Tony Martinez and City Manager Charlie Cabler. 


     Navarro and Ozuna are skilled at getting litigation but inept in court.  At the Marco Longoria employment hearing several months back, former firefighter and non-lawyer Louis Hebert totally kicked their asses legally at the hearing.  He  showed himself more versed in labor law, rules of argumentation, handling of witnesses, etc.  Several times he had to remind Navarro that as a lawyer he could not give testimony.
     Despite all of the political and administrative ineptitude, the City of Brownsville is fortunate to have Marco Longoria back as a first responder.