Even someone who knows nothing of construction or public works will tell you that the scene at the right poses unacceptable dangers to the workers in the trench.
Cave-ins happen much too often and foremen and supervisors who should know better than to expose their workers to these risks.
However, scenes like the one at right happen way too often at the Cameron County Public Works Dept., a favorite repository for patronage from some past county commissioners.
For example, the scene at right took place in Houston Road, where Public Works employees were made to climb into the trench without the protection required by the federal government's Office of Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that state that: "While the excavation is open, underground
installations shall be protected, supported or removed as necessary to
safeguard employees."There is a diverse number of ways to protect workers specific to the excavation. But tell that to the current supervisors and foremen who now work for Cameron County.
"We were working in an unprotected trench a couple of streets from a private company where workers doing the same thing have the required protection," said one. "We already had one cave-in which resulted in injuries to one worker."
The accident happened under former Public Works Director Luis Ara, a protege of former commissioner Ernie Hernandez. You remember Ara. He tried hard to explain to county commissioners why he was pouring thousands of dollars on the new Carmen Road when less than a year before the county had finished paving the road.
Well, it wasn't exactly paving, but more of a rural road upgrade using Texas Department of Transportation "millings," the name given to the asphalt when the department scarifies existing highways.
At one time, the TDOT used to give the millings away, but now it sells them to the county for $10 a ton, still a good deal.
Unable to give a good explanation of why the road project had failed miserably, Ara blamed the quality of the TDOT millings. In other words, the material was no good. Perhaps someone should alert the TDOT managers that they are selling shoddy material. Funny how it worked fine before.
Ara brought in supervisor Santana Vallejo to oversee the work. To seasoned Public Works employees, that alone caused red flags to go up. Something was bound to go wrong. And, when the county had to go back and correct the mess, their suspicions were proved right.
You remember Vallejo, he used to to be streets supervisor with the City of Brownsville until management sniffed out something wrong with their neighborhood sidewalk program. Apparently, some of the cement being delivered to the program somehow found its way out of the city and ended up being used by individuals who then sold it to homeowners for driveways and sidewalks.
Vallejo had a homeowner from Olmito file a complaint against him with the Cameron County's Sheriff Department charged that he and his compadre Rosendo Rodriguez had sold them driveway pipes they were replacing as they performed ditchwork on the roads and then keeping the money for themselves.
Sheriff Dept. officials said that the complaint against the two were dismissed on a "technicality," but insiders say that aggressive defense attorneys for the men scared the complainants into withdrawing their charges telling them they were just as guilty as their clients because they knew the pipes were not legitimately acquired.
With the charges withdrawn, the men returned to their positions free and cleared.
And it just so happens that Rosendo's brother, Ricardo, is also working for the county in the colonia grants section and mostly in Cameron Park. Ara put that crew under the supervision of inexperienced supervisor and one of his (Ara's) favorites, foreman Ruben Gonzalez, who showed immediately upon arrival at the project that he didn't know his keister from a bar ditch.
He had workers climb into deep trenches without the OSHA-mandated protection for workers in sloping ditches. OSHA mandates that entities doing the work may use a trench box or shield that is either designed or approved by a registered professional engineer or is based on tabulated data prepared or approved by a registered professional engineer.
Well, our Mr. Gonzalez knew nothing of this and had the workers climb into the trenches without the required protection. One, Javier Mendoza (Nuco), had the misfortune of suffering the predicable: the trench collapsed and trapped him under tons of dirt.
He suffered serious injuries including damage to his internal organs and has now been declared disabled and can no longer work. The county was forced to pay for all the injured worker's medical and disability payments.
Ara suspended him for two weeks, but after Ara had to resign, county supervisors (Administrative Asst. David Garcia) rewarded Gonzalez by promoting him to Ara's position and putting him in charge. Now he continues to expose the workers (and the county) to injury and liability.
Well, Hernandez is gone but the vestiges of his political patronage remains with us. To the workers still at Public Works, as long as the Hernandez proteges remain in charge, it is the same as if Ernie was still here.
6 comments:
The problem here is that there is no strong Union or leadership and/ or an organization demanding safety standards. That is the way the State of Texas operates.
The Brownsville Herald is a useless newspaper. It is great for recycling. I am new to your community. I can easily concur that the citizens really don give a damn. They don't vote and much less demand to the elected officials to do their jobs.
People come first. Fiscal conservatives know that short term gains frequently result in long term loss. When the potential loss could come from putting people in harms way the potential gain is not worth it, it is criminal. What "can't happen here" does happen.
Some of the Cameron county public works employees used to work for the city. They were fired for wrongdoing but somehow were hired by the county.
Montoya, what do you expect when the county hires non-certified, un-educated family and individuals to be supervisors? The county is so family oriented that nepotism is a non-existing word? Why do you think the corruption is rampant!
The reality is that this foreman that have been put in charge have no ethics or knowledge of how to be a supervisors. For example public works foreman Cisneros who lives out on Valle Escondido. He spents more time at home during working hours or at the courts sucking up to his compadres then at the work sites.
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