COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS INCOMPETENTS AT IT AGAIN, MA!

By Juan Montoya
Remember we told you about the county woker who was injured and disabled after he was made to work in a ditch without protection against potential cave-ins?
When we wrote that post, we pointed out that scenes like the ones 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 bottom right took place recently on 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 scene at top right is happening now on Vermillion Road near Lucio Middle School where workers are being made to go into the unprotected trench even though the trench is deeper than the four feet thresh hold where OSHA requires protection for workers. The heavy concrete sidewalks overhanging trenches are notorious for sliding off their earthen retainers and come hurtling down on unprotected workers. The photo, as you see it, constitutes an imminent danger to the crews below.
The Powers that Be at Public Works decided to make Ruben Gonzalez supervisor at Public Works after Luis Ara resigned and he showed immediately upon arrival at the project that he didn't know his keister from a bar ditch. His first project was in Cameron Park where workers were working on a deep trench.
He had workers climb into the deep trench without the OSHA-mandated protection. 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 one of the workers, 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 insurance payments.
Gonzalez was suspended for two weeks, but after Ara had to resign, county honchos (Administrative Asst. David Garcia) rewarded Gonzalez by promoting him to the supervisory  position and putting him in charge. Now – as we can see in the Vermillion Road worksite – he continues to expose the workers (and the county) to injury and liability.
Is anybody listening?