By Juan Montoya
Is Brownsville's contract city attorney using public funds to pay off his personal debts?
That's the question some legal eagles are asking under their breath after the Brownsville Herald's Emma Perez-Treviño disclosed in today's paper that Mark E. Sossi ha
d hired the Willette & Guerra LLP law firm to represent the city in the lawsuit that eight taxpayers filed in state district court against the City Commission, challenging its issuance of debt without voter approval.
Sossi, who did not disclose the hourly rate that would be paid to the firm, said he had the authority to contract outside attorneys.
“I’m still the city attorney,” he told Emma, adding that none of the city commissioners had objected to the hiring of the firm.
The city has been paying Sossi (DBA as Good Government Law Firm) $120,000 a year since March 2009. That does not include another $5,000 monthly paid to him by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC) a city entity. That totals to $180,000 for part time work.
But that's only half the story.
Over the past seven months the City of Brownsville has paid Willete & Guerra another $37,209 since the first check (#212516 issued Jan. 28 for $5,978.79) until July 22 when the city cut check #217082 for $11,632.
What does that have to do with Sossi, one might ask?
According to court documents, that same firm sued Sossi in the 357th District Court on June 27, 2002 for $150,000 and charged in their original petition that Sossi did not pay that amount to the firm as a result of work he performed for the partners.
The suit states that "Mr. Sossi was assigned to represent a client of the firms. (and) as a result of his involvement in the litigation, Mr. Sossi received payments of $150,000 from attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the litigation as a result of settlements with defendants other than the defendant represented by Willette & Guerra, L.L.P. These payments...were for legal services and were received at the time in which Mr. Sossi was employed by Willete & Guerra."
Further, the suit claims that "Mr. Sossi breached his fiduciary duty by not accounting...for the $150,000 he received. Instead of tendering the compensation to Willette & Guerra...Mr. Sossi intentionally retained it for his own use."
The suit was finally resolved in an agreed final judgment filed on October 25, 2004, and approved by the court on Nov. 1, 2004.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sossi agreed to pay Willette & Guerra the original $150,000 and an additional $17,363 in interest (at 5 percent) for a total of $167,363, plus court costs ($838.85) accrued by the plaintiffs.
At the time, the parties consented to "without any admission of any liability or wrongdoing of any kind...to avoid the expenses and uncertainty associated with further investigation or litigation."
According to city records available online, Sossi is asking a couple of things more for his proposed budget for 2010-2011. He will ask the city commissioners to allot an additional $40,000 for extra help. another $50,000 for professional services, $3,000 for communications (cell phone?), $2,000 for travel, $4,200 in personal auto allowance, and $3,600 for training.
This is in addition to what Brownsville residents are already paying for two assistant city attorneys John E. Chosy( $79,996 a year) and Allison Ann Bastian ($45,240 a year).
Is Brownsville's contract city attorney using public funds to pay off his personal debts?
That's the question some legal eagles are asking under their breath after the Brownsville Herald's Emma Perez-Treviño disclosed in today's paper that Mark E. Sossi ha
d hired the Willette & Guerra LLP law firm to represent the city in the lawsuit that eight taxpayers filed in state district court against the City Commission, challenging its issuance of debt without voter approval.Sossi, who did not disclose the hourly rate that would be paid to the firm, said he had the authority to contract outside attorneys.
“I’m still the city attorney,” he told Emma, adding that none of the city commissioners had objected to the hiring of the firm.
The city has been paying Sossi (DBA as Good Government Law Firm) $120,000 a year since March 2009. That does not include another $5,000 monthly paid to him by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC) a city entity. That totals to $180,000 for part time work.
But that's only half the story.
Over the past seven months the City of Brownsville has paid Willete & Guerra another $37,209 since the first check (#212516 issued Jan. 28 for $5,978.79) until July 22 when the city cut check #217082 for $11,632.
What does that have to do with Sossi, one might ask?
According to court documents, that same firm sued Sossi in the 357th District Court on June 27, 2002 for $150,000 and charged in their original petition that Sossi did not pay that amount to the firm as a result of work he performed for the partners.
The suit states that "Mr. Sossi was assigned to represent a client of the firms. (and) as a result of his involvement in the litigation, Mr. Sossi received payments of $150,000 from attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the litigation as a result of settlements with defendants other than the defendant represented by Willette & Guerra, L.L.P. These payments...were for legal services and were received at the time in which Mr. Sossi was employed by Willete & Guerra."
Further, the suit claims that "Mr. Sossi breached his fiduciary duty by not accounting...for the $150,000 he received. Instead of tendering the compensation to Willette & Guerra...Mr. Sossi intentionally retained it for his own use."
The suit was finally resolved in an agreed final judgment filed on October 25, 2004, and approved by the court on Nov. 1, 2004.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sossi agreed to pay Willette & Guerra the original $150,000 and an additional $17,363 in interest (at 5 percent) for a total of $167,363, plus court costs ($838.85) accrued by the plaintiffs.
At the time, the parties consented to "without any admission of any liability or wrongdoing of any kind...to avoid the expenses and uncertainty associated with further investigation or litigation."
According to city records available online, Sossi is asking a couple of things more for his proposed budget for 2010-2011. He will ask the city commissioners to allot an additional $40,000 for extra help. another $50,000 for professional services, $3,000 for communications (cell phone?), $2,000 for travel, $4,200 in personal auto allowance, and $3,600 for training.
This is in addition to what Brownsville residents are already paying for two assistant city attorneys John E. Chosy( $79,996 a year) and Allison Ann Bastian ($45,240 a year).
And, with Sossi saying that it's up to him to decide who he hires and how much they get paid, some observers say that to all appearances, it seems like he might get done paying back the terms of the settlement with his former employers within a few short years thanks to us good ol' Browntown folks.
Cluck.
4 comments:
you would think this guy was the best and ONLY lawyer in town? give me a break...
the people of brownsville are getting it-- what are you guys doing? letting this bastard take your cake!!
Hey, the latest poll in the Perry White governors race has the race at 49/41% respectively with a margin of error at 4.5%. Bill White is running a campaign of running from integrity. He went into racist East Texas and called President Obama a community organizer. Had this been a Republican the Democrats would have yelled racism. While Rick Perry met with President Obama, Bill White ran. Bill White knows he cannot win without the LRGV. So he comes to Brownsville and runs from the very people who vote. Instead he met with the criminals who run the politics of the LRGV. This is a man without an ounce of integrity. I am not saying rick Perry is a better choice. I would never vote for Perry. But if Bill White is the best we can do, then we are screwed. This man is devoid of any sense of integrity.
Jude
Sossi gets $120,000 per year to serve as City Attorney and he is allowed to also maintain his outside legal practice. So, I guess we hire outside attorneys, at an unknown hourly rate, to represent the city....while Sossi is free to spend time on his outside legal work and keep the taxpayers' stipend of 120K. Wow, what a deal. In addition there are other city attorneys getting paid to do what????? Lawyers are a plague...and the taxpayers suffer so that lawyers can feed off the public. And, Sossi seems to be using his position as city attorney to make or direct policy while the idiots on the city commission play pocket pool. Taxpayers continue to take it in the shorts by unethical politicians and lawyers.
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