SOSSI EMBARRASSES CITY IN FEDERAL COURT; HANDS OVER ANNEXATION CASE TO LAGUNA VISTA, PORT ISABEL

By Juan Montoya
The lawyers for the cities of Laguna Vista and Port Isabel must be laughing all the way to the federal courthouse.
The cause of their mirth is the lawsuit filed last week in federal court by Brownsville City Attorney and Legal Eagle Mark Sossi against them in the municipalities ongoing annexation dispute.

Sossi filed July 24 in federal court against both entities to prevent Laguna Vista from acquiring more land after it declared itself a home-rule city despite an Intergovernmental Agreement with the City of Brownsville on fixed territorial lines.

Sossi tells the court that in a 2009 agreement between the cities, "Brownsville surrendered a significant amount of Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction to Laguna Vista in return for Laguna Vista not claiming any more land in the future.

However, on May 2011 the City of Laguna Vista passed a resolution declaring itself a home rule city, with the ability to extend its ETJ one and a half miles. Later, additional legislation (HB 4059) was passed that Lguna Vista said allowed it to extend its ETJ.
Sossi claims that the Interlocal Agreement that was signed on 2009 binds Laguna Vista to the reduced ETJ and that the legislation should not apply to Laguna Vista in the first place since Laguna Vista's population does not exceed 5,000, a requirement to be considered a Home Rule City.
Sossi cites the 2009 agreement signed by then-Mayor Pat Ahumada as the guiding instrument that binds Laguna Vista to the reduced territory.

There's the rub.
The agreement states in Part 4, Section H (see graphic above) that the deal is "null and void" unless it is executed by both parties on or before May 29, 2009.
As can be plainly seen in the graphic below signed by Ahumada on June 17, 2009, the City of Brownsville failed to execute the agreement before May 29. In effect, Legal Eagle Sossi has handed the Laguna Vista  (and Port Isabel?) folks the right to establish their Home Rule ETJ since there is no agreement binding them to the restrictions.

This is not the first time Sossi has shown his legal prowess.
He was the attorney representing the city commission when a group of citizens took them to court to prevent them from taking benefits that were not authorized by the City Charter. Sossi lost.
He was the attorney who represented Charlie Atkinson in his fight against Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa when Atkinson challenged her residency in District 2 and had visual proof (surveillance footage) that she didn't. Atkinson, defended by Sossi, lost.
He is also the attorney for the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (at $5,000 a month) who allowed the GBIC's corporate charter to lapse and operated outside the law for months before someone called his attention to that little oversight.
 The GBIC had been conducting business since November 14, 2003 when the state forfeited its corporate charter.
Sossi failed to filed the required periodic report of a non-profit corporation for the GBIC. He finally filed April 8, 2014, and the tax exemption status was returned and the corporation was legally activated to do business.
The simple form (handwritten with Sossi's chicken scratch) probably didn't take more than two minutes to fill out the two pages. A copy of the form shows that the way Sossi filled out out would have probably forced a third grade teacher to hand it back with a note to do it over again neatly.
He let things get so bad for simply the failure to pen in a 2-page fill-in-the-blank form. Note the cross-outs. It isn't even typed. And for this, GBIC pays him $5000 a month?
He was also the attorney who settled a case with a local law firm with whom he was associated and agreed to pay them some $167,000 he took that belonged to the law firm. City watchdogs pointed out that after he became the city's contract attorney, Sossi handed them contracts and in effect used city money to pay off his debt.
And he was the city attorney who claimed that the sale of Lincoln Park to the University of Texas System was merely a "conveyance," even though many critics said it was a giveaway of city real estate for a fraction of its price.
He, by the way, is the same city attorney who in 2011 was told by incoming Mayor Tony Martinez to bring a code of ethics to the commission.
We're in 2015 and we still have no code of ethics to guide city officials and employees.
 At $10,000 a month, plus the $5,000 per month that he has contracted out with the GBIC, Sossi makes $180,000 for his mighty labors.
See you in federal court for more of this comedy.