IS SOSSI'S DEPARTURE FROM THE BCIC IMMINENT?

(Ed's Note: After we posted the story below, we were informed that the meeting place had been changed. The meeting will take place Monday at 2 p.m. at the IBC Conference Room (Second Floor) located at 1600 Ruben Torres Blvd. instead of City Hall.)

By Juan Montoya
Based on a five-paragraph July 15, 2009 "agreement for legal services" between the City of Brownsville and ethics-challenged contract attorney Mark Sossi, the taxpayers of Brownsville will have paid this lawyer $1,080,000 this coming July 15 for his mighty labor.
Sossi, who signed the flimsy "contract" with Mayor Pat Ahumada and City Manager Charlie Cabler, has managed to ingratiate himself to a majorities of the subsequent city commissions holding office since.
At $10,000 a month, plus the $5,000 per month that he has contracted out with the Greater Brownsville Investment Corporation (GBIC) and Brownsville Community Incentives Corporation (BCIC), Sossi makes $180,000 for his labors.
Over the last six years – at $180,000 per annum – that amounts to $1,080,000 that his The Good Government Firm has received from these entities.
Now, at least one of these, the BCIC, may be reconsidering this arrangement. Sossi has been sitting in as its legal counsel at the direction of the city commission. The BCIC now wants to go at it alone without being fettered by outside (city) counsel.
We understand that in the upcoming 2 p.m. Monday meeting agenda of the BCIC there is an item to consider and take action on the board's legal counsel. The BCIC meetings are held at the IBC Meeting Room on the second story of City Hall at 1001 E. Elizabeth downtown.
"9. Consideration and Action to Approve the RFQ for the Procurement of Legal Services"
Since Sossi is listed as the corporation's counsel, it can only mean that his tenure there may be at an end. Thanks to his legal prowess, it might result in Sossi still receiving $5,000 from the GBIC and leaving the BCIC without a legal counsel. Or who knows, it may be that he will submit an application for that gig, too, to get paid more. In any event, the staff there says that he has not shown any interest in responsing to the RFQ once the BCIC approves it. He has, it seems, enough on his plate
How did Sossi worm his way into such a sweet deal with the city?
A cursory reading of the "contract" shows that it is an open-ended deal that can be terminated at the whim of  a majority of the city commission or by Sossi himself.
The BCIC (and GBIC) are funded through the use of a one-quarter penny from the 8.25-cent sales tax as a result of the special election held on November 7, 2001. The citizens of Brownsville voted to reduce the Section 4A economic development sales and use tax from 1/2 cent to 1/4 cent and adopt the Section 4B economic development sales and use tax at 1/4 cent.
This led to the creation of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC) in 2002.
Both the GBIC and BCIC collect roughly $4,25 million each from their share of the one-quarter penny.
In its website, the BCIC states that its mission is to fund quality of life projects and support economic development opportunities in the City of Brownsville. This has not always led to the desired results. Take, for example, the $30 million spent to fund the Brownsville Sports Park. That was former city commissioner Charlie Atkinson's baby. Now, with new city commissioners on board (notably Rose Gowen) the new white elephant is the system of bike trials to promote healthy life choices.
Sossi has done exactly as his benefactors have asked him to do, from closing off the public comment section from the city's air waves citing a fear of litigation, to defending the commissioners for taking benefits not specified in the city charter like  health insurance, mileage and other benefits.
Sossi represented the commissioners on that one and despite charging the city approximately $40,000 and losing, he was adept at having his grateful clients jettison city attorney Jim Goza and replacing him as the municipal attorney.
Meanwhile, his critics have pointed out that he doled out legal work to a firm to which he lost a court settlement.
Local watchdog Argelia Miller wrote Cabler to complain that Sossi had let out city-paid contracts to Willette and Guerra LLP, "a firm that had sued him and won a judgment of $167,00. He took money that belonged to the firm...and was sued and lost..."
"At the time I wrote the letter," Miller continues, "he had given Willette and Guerra city contracts in excess of $37,000. Now in 2011, records indicate he has given them contracts for over $75,000 from January to March 2011."
Miller wrote Martinez that it was hard for her and others to understand how Sossi "could favor a firm that sued him and that he owed $167,929 to as of 8-09-2009. It is also hard to understand how the city of Brownsville allows this arrangement."
Since this has happened, Sosi has been sued twice for legal malpractice, and has been accused of underpaying the Texas Workforce Commission unemployment fees of $20,711.66.
He is also been diligently working to produce a code of ethics for the City of Brownsville at Martinez's request since 2011. So far, no code of ethics. Some city wags have said Sossi thinks that Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" will suffice as a code.
Along the way, he allowed the GBIC's corporate charter to be forfeited because he didn't file the mandatory four-year report, has allowed his own law license to lapse, and has even allowed his Mark Sossi P.C. corporate charter to expire.
In fact, the GBIC had been conducting business since November 14, 2003 when the state forfeited its right to operate. It wasn't until this was pointed out four months later (April 8, 2014) that he filed the required periodic report of a non-profit corporation for the GBIC and the tax exemption status was returned and the corporation was legally activated to do business.
A copy of the form shows that the way Sossi filled it out would have probably forced a third grade teacher to hand it back to a student with a note to do it over again, this time neatly. Note the cross-outs.
Has his lackadaisical attitude toward his responsibilities finally caught up with him. We'll see.