By Juan Montoya
A recent post about the City of Brownsville hiring outside counsel to contest the claims of a suspended firefighter reintroduced a familiar face to litigants far and wide.
We speak of Rick Navarro, the attorney from the Harlingen law firm Denton, Navarro, Rocha & Bernal, P.C., who was hired through the referral of city contract attorney Mark Sossi to represent the city in the claim brought against the suspension of Marco Longoria by Fire Chief Lenny Perez.
Perez suspended Longoria indefinitely (fired) after the firefighter refused to put up with the omnipotent manners of a medical technician who was to give him a perfunctory drug test after a tire on his vehicle was grazed by a motorist at a local HEB store.
Longoria reported that the motorist had admitted she had been careless pulling out of the parking lot and had referred him to her insurance company. When he reported it to his superior, he was told that since there had been no harm done, he wouldn't have to take the drug test as Longoria had first suggested. However, when his superior told Perez about the incident, the fire chief rose to his full height and insisted that Longoria undergo the exam.
As the people in the hearing reported, testimony from the witnesses indicated that the person giving the exam was an ex-military man who didn't ask – he barked orders. Longoria objected to the treatment and got the exam s
omewhere else. He tested negative.
That's when Lenny exercised his authority and suspended Longoria.
To the average reader, the fact that the examination was made and that the department got its sample should have close the matter. But not in Browntown.
At the hearing, Navarro sat by Lenny and contested Longoria's appeal of the suspension. (That's him on Perez's left.)
One of our readers asked why Sossi – at $120,000 a year – or any of the three attorneys on retainer with a combined salary easily exceeding a quarter million dollars – did not represent the city, but instead went with Navarro and Alan Ozuna (on Lenny's right).
His website indicates that Navarro and associates have made a nice living of representing other public entities such as Harlingen, McAllen, Pharr, Weslaco, Port Isabel, and irrigation districts in Cameron and Hidalgo counties.
They also represent something called the Texas Association of Counties (TAC), Texas Council Risk Management Fund (TCRMF), and the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool (TML-IRP).
These last two are of special importance because Navarro and Ozuna were influential in turning the city on to these "two bright, shiny new health-care toys."
An observer commented that behind the recent termination of the firefighters' contract by the city commission 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, but under the Navarro-Ozuna system will force litigants to submit to a grievance process, expensive for the firefighters association and the city, but lucrative for the two lawyers mentioned above.
If we are to judge from the work he did for the Brownsville Independent School District where he was hired to investigate alleged wrongdoing by Special Needs director Art Rendon and superintendent Hector Gonzales after they were suspended by the board, we're in for a very expensive ride.
On Jan. 16, 2009, the board majority then – Rick Zayas, Ruben Cortez, Rolando Aguilar and Joe Colunga – placed Gonzales on administrative leave with pay and ordered an investigation of him and the Brownsville Independent School District Special Services Department.
They then hired Navarro's law firm to investigate alleged wrong doing. Previously, the same pattern had emerged when they hired Navarro to investigate Rendon.
A recent post about the City of Brownsville hiring outside counsel to contest the claims of a suspended firefighter reintroduced a familiar face to litigants far and wide.
We speak of Rick Navarro, the attorney from the Harlingen law firm Denton, Navarro, Rocha & Bernal, P.C., who was hired through the referral of city contract attorney Mark Sossi to represent the city in the claim brought against the suspension of Marco Longoria by Fire Chief Lenny Perez.
Perez suspended Longoria indefinitely (fired) after the firefighter refused to put up with the omnipotent manners of a medical technician who was to give him a perfunctory drug test after a tire on his vehicle was grazed by a motorist at a local HEB store.
Longoria reported that the motorist had admitted she had been careless pulling out of the parking lot and had referred him to her insurance company. When he reported it to his superior, he was told that since there had been no harm done, he wouldn't have to take the drug test as Longoria had first suggested. However, when his superior told Perez about the incident, the fire chief rose to his full height and insisted that Longoria undergo the exam.
As the people in the hearing reported, testimony from the witnesses indicated that the person giving the exam was an ex-military man who didn't ask – he barked orders. Longoria objected to the treatment and got the exam s
omewhere else. He tested negative.That's when Lenny exercised his authority and suspended Longoria.
To the average reader, the fact that the examination was made and that the department got its sample should have close the matter. But not in Browntown.
At the hearing, Navarro sat by Lenny and contested Longoria's appeal of the suspension. (That's him on Perez's left.)
One of our readers asked why Sossi – at $120,000 a year – or any of the three attorneys on retainer with a combined salary easily exceeding a quarter million dollars – did not represent the city, but instead went with Navarro and Alan Ozuna (on Lenny's right).
His website indicates that Navarro and associates have made a nice living of representing other public entities such as Harlingen, McAllen, Pharr, Weslaco, Port Isabel, and irrigation districts in Cameron and Hidalgo counties.
They also represent something called the Texas Association of Counties (TAC), Texas Council Risk Management Fund (TCRMF), and the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool (TML-IRP).
These last two are of special importance because Navarro and Ozuna were influential in turning the city on to these "two bright, shiny new health-care toys."
An observer commented that behind the recent termination of the firefighters' contract by the city commission 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, but under the Navarro-Ozuna system will force litigants to submit to a grievance process, expensive for the firefighters association and the city, but lucrative for the two lawyers mentioned above.
If we are to judge from the work he did for the Brownsville Independent School District where he was hired to investigate alleged wrongdoing by Special Needs director Art Rendon and superintendent Hector Gonzales after they were suspended by the board, we're in for a very expensive ride.
On Jan. 16, 2009, the board majority then – Rick Zayas, Ruben Cortez, Rolando Aguilar and Joe Colunga – placed Gonzales on administrative leave with pay and ordered an investigation of him and the Brownsville Independent School District Special Services Department.
They then hired Navarro's law firm to investigate alleged wrong doing. Previously, the same pattern had emerged when they hired Navarro to investigate Rendon.
An Open Records request to the BISD indicates that Navarro was paid more than $400,000 for his role in the "investigations." In the end, with Rendon getting reinstated as part of the settlement with the BISD, all that laborious process gathering the "evidence" seems to have been all for naught.
"All we got was the work of our district auditor warmed over," said a BISD administrator. "There was no smoking gun anywhere to prove the allegations that were being made by the board majority then. It was just an expensive way to justify the ridiculous amounts paid to Navarro for his work."
7 comments:
Ay Juanito...I must said that im some article I admire you, in others you really really go overboard in protecting all the wrongs of the new majority of four... Pero como dice el dicho Money talks...and there is another one...la hambre es cabrona, nos hace olvidar la ethica profesional...Ni modo!!
Sossi shame on you for sleeping with Navarro it is bad enough that they question the appropiateness of tetreau kalifa, are you screing her too so they say.
As a local barrister I have taken on and represented many families on cases involving the TMLIRP. Your assertion is correct in saying this self-funded group denies and rejects the great majority of claims brought against the fund entity they represent; even on cases involving clear liability. I venture to say 95% of the cases that end up being litigated are eventually settled but not before going through mediation and the long drawn out settlement negotiations. Needless to say, all this could have been amicably settled without the use of a defense firm's involvement. Oh well, it's their money, I will eventually get mine.
Navarro law firm is looking to hire added attorneys so guess who would fit the bill and move in ? ?
Swezzy slossi saysi mee mee ! !
This is the way it works. I tell the City, the school district, the port or college board members no other Law Firm except Navarro Charro & Burro should be hired and to everyone surprise, the Law Furm of Navarro Charro & Burro is hired without bids because under the bidding rules and law, legal services are never bid out, you gotta just know how to rub rub rub the right way ! !
Next. Slossi is then guaranteed a job with Navarro Charro & Burro ! !
Surprise Surprise ! !
Oh yea Mayor Tony Sony Bono as a lawyer sees this as just business as unusual but los pendejos voters of Browntown dont know any better any way ! !
Rick Navarro, Mike Saldana, Rick Zayas will sooner or later be indicted, sued or arrested. Navarro is one of the most corrupt lawyers in South Texas. What a hoax he pulled on BISD with the Rendon case......he should return all the money back to BISD and the taxpayers. Rick and Mike are just your regular drunks who have never really practiced law...they practice voo do law...so sad for their families..
I wouldn't let Navarro, Sossi or any other City of Brownsville Atty. represent me if I was caught jaywalking. I may be looking at the death penalty. Can't say I blame them. I would suck on the citys tit till my head caved in. To let a non-atty kick your ass in the arbitration hearing is just laughable.
THe fire dept has been screwing the taxpayers for years by playing politics and getting blogs to back them up in getting huge raises. They are breaking the bank at the city. I m glad Navaro is there to stand up for us citizens. A fireman makes 80K a year for only owrking two days out of the week. We don't have grass fires, we don't have skyscrapers, so it gives them lots of time to play politics. The city should toss out their contract and we adjust their salaries back to 40k a year. Thats what they deserve and they know it.
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