Firefighters Not Impressed with Fire Chief's Reversal on Line of Duty Death Benefits for Juan Casanova Family

Fire Chief Lenny Perez

All of the 70 or so firefighters meeting Wednesday night at the VFW were off duty and thus unaware of Fire Chief Perez's faxed memo posted below.  Whatever the motivation for the chief's reversal, it does not change the perception by many firefighters that Chief Perez's leadership has been inept at best.

As one firefighter put it:  "It's like robbing a bank and then, when the shit hits the fan, bringing the money back.  We all know what Lenny wanted to do, tried to do, how little support he gave the family.  Not only are we not impressed, this is not the only issue, by far.  It would take three days to explain all of our concerns with Lenny."

The fire chief's insensitivity in dealing with Juan Casanova's family was simply the emotional "straw that broke the camel's back," but not anywhere near the totality of the dissatisfaction.  Here is the fax sent 2:09 PM Wednesday:

From: Leonardo Perez
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 2:09 PM
To: Fire Dept
Subject: Juan Casanova
We have been hearing rumors that Juan Casanova’s passing was not reported as a Line of Duty Death. On Sunday after his death, I contact Chris Conneally with The State Fire Marshals Office at 512-961-2999 to report his death as a Line of Duty Death and am awaiting further instructions from his Office. The department will be working on filling out the Public Safety Officers’ Benefit application for his family… Please contact my office if any clarifications on issues are needed. Thank You…..…....Chief

Leonardo L. Perez
Fire Chief
Brownsville Fire Department
1150 East Adams Street
Brownsville, Texas 78520

Rumors, huh, Lenny?  Nice try!  While I've heard speculation that the City of Brownsville may have suggested Lenny stabilize his department, the reversal of position and rewriting of history above may simply be the result of Perez "lawyering up" to protect his job and provide some insulation from the recent rogue paramedic instruction fiasco.

A nagging question I posed to firefighters:  "Why was Lenny Perez hired as Fire Chief in the first place?" Here are a few snippets from that conversation:

"Lenny Perez probably had as much training as any firefighter.  He was always taking this course or that.  The problem was that he was not good at a fire scene.  If firefighters were chosen like playground basketball, Lenny would be the last firefighter picked.   As a supervisor, any fire scene he took control of went to shit."

"Lenny is not a bad guy, just stupid, dorky.  He doesn't have the balls or common sense for a fire scene.  I actually thought his being fire chief would be ok as long as he wasn't on the scene.  I never thought he would turn into this hateful asswipe."

"Lenny thinks that as long as he saves the city money he's doing a good job.  He has no vision for the department.  We desperately need ambulances, more fire stations.  As the sole providers of EMS in this area, we qualify for FEMA and Homeland Security grants for more paramedics, firefighters and equipment.  We need someone interested in obtaining these grants not making bullshit issues about a stray dog cared for at a fire station."