ANATOMY OF A SELL OUT: HOW CARLOS MADE FIRE CHIEF

By Juan Montoya

For the last 10 years, the city of Brownsville had been chafing under and looking for a way to do away with the "me too" clause that was negotiated into the contracts with both the police and firefighter unions.

The city had been soundly beaten in the courts when one union and then the other filed lawsuits after – as a result of labor negotiations – it gave raises to one only to be sued under the clause by the other. When the city appealed everywhere and then lost at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015, there seemed no way out but to bite the bullet and pay.                                                                                                                      How to remove the pesky clause that stated that: "Section 1. If the City voluntary negotiates an across-the-board wage increase or new fringe benefit to all members of any FLSA nonexempt group which exceed that granted to the fire department personnel for the fiscal year in question, the fire bargaining unit shall be granted the same improvement."

It was evident that the neither the police or firefighters would negotiate themselves out of that clause. So the city's legal department – headed by former city attorney Mark Sossi – found a way.

Why not entice one of the union presidents to do away with it in return for a cushy salary and promotion?

The police union honchos didn't bite. But when the shiny red apple was held before Firefighter Association #970 president Carlos Elizondo, his eyes lit up and the city knew they had a live one. He would play, and they would pay. After all, they had seen that he was not above cheating on a civil service exam for captain and when the scam was discovered, caused the resignation of Carlos Ayala Jr. as civil service director claiming that he was a victim of job stress.

As president of the union, Elizondo was able to manipulate the officers of the union and hand-picked his replacements through the elections. None of the association's veteran firefighters could be induced to voluntarily surrender the benefits that had been defended throughout the time from 2007 to 2016. But the young guys didn't know any better. Before he left for his new position, he placed them as the negotiating committee for the new contract.

Just as he had promised his masters at the city, the firefighters' negotiating committee signed on the dotted line and voluntarily gave up the "me too" clause that the Supreme Court had upheld. 

They also agreed to give up salary parity with the police, and to circumvent the Civil Service statutes to allow the chief to pick two deputy chiefs. One of those deputy chiefs he could appoint, they agreed, "need not to have a personnel classification in at least an officer level."

Elizondo's stooges then rammed the agreement and convinced a majority of the union members to approve the contract on Sept. 29, 2016 over the objections of old timers who knew that the new deal would take the hard-fought gains previous firefighters had won for future firefighters. 

After the details of the contract were made known, Elizondo's hand-picked union officers – including union chief Eugenio Cardenas resigned en masse and the union had to hold elections to pick new ones.

But the die had been cast and the union now had to live with the existing contract that would cover the relations with the city from 2016 through 2022. And Elizondo had sold his brother firefighters down the river for his 30 pieces of silver, in this case, the fire chief badge and his white bell cap. Where he had criticized former chief Lenny Perez for wearing that traditional cap, Elizondo now sports it almost constantly.

But what about the deputy chiefs? One of those Elizondo was allowed to appoint had to have worked his way up the firefighter ranks from driver to firefighter, and through the officer grades as required by the civil service. The other, however, was Elizondo's personal choice and did not have to have the qualifications, a sort of administrative assistant, Elizondos' personal secretary.                                                                                               Beforehand, it had been agreed that the apple would go to one of city manager Charlie Cabler's pals, a paella-cooking crony named Ernie Estrada. Estrada had scant knowledge of firefighting, managing personnel, and none as an incident commander in charge of directing firefighters on a fire scene. (He is the character at right wearing a straw hat between Cabler and Elizondo).                                                                                                                                                        No one thought that Estrada would be placed above experienced veteran firefighters and put in charge of officers and personally bearing the responsibility for their personal safety. Neither Elizondo nor Cabler can make such a claim.                                                                                                                                                                              But that hasn't stopped Estrada from translating his friendship with Cabler and Elizondo into a position of authority over other experienced firefighters and officers with many decades of experience fighting fires.

According to department sources, fire crews were sent to a grass fire outside Olmito Saturday, May 13 and were battling the wind-assisted blaze when Estrada showed up and ran directly to Capt. Margarito Gracia, a veteran firefighter who's seen his share of grass and structure fires in his long career. Estrada, on the other hand, had less than a year's experience as a firefighter.

A handful of witnesses say Estrada confronted Gracia and demanded to know why he had allowed the fire to spread. But not only did he ask what he was doing to combat the flames, but he also confronted Gracia to the point where he was said to be interfering with the captain's abilities – as incident commander – to direct his men to fight the fire. Gracia was said to have told Estrada to get away from him and let him do his job.

It got to the point where Gracia thought Estrada was interfering with his duties as commander and called the Brownsville Police Dept. to keep him at bay. 

One another occasion where that occurred was when firefighters were fighting a grass fire along the river. Putting out grass fires is not an easy task because just when you think that you've got it beat, a sudden breeze will rekindle a burning ember and the fire will take off again, endangering both the men and equipment in the middle of the blaze.

On this particular occasion, a veteran fire crew had the blaze under control and were setting about the task to put out any embers still smoldering along the banks of the river. Suddenly, Estrada's voice came over the radio ordering the crews to stop what they were doing and emerge from the scene. Firefighters protested that they had the fire under control and were just mopping up.

Angered that his orders were being questioned, Estrada ordered the men again to get out. Thinking that – as procedure calls for – another crew would go in and replace them to finish the job, the men followed their water hoses back and came out. But Estrada did not have a replacement crew to relieve them. As they were coming out, a sudden breeze sprang up and the firefighters turned back to see that the breeze had rekindled the fire and that it was heading for their vehicles and equipment. 

In a mad dash, they managed to save their gear and then put out the fire. Had but one man lagged behind, he would have been in grave danger of getting caught in the rekindled blaze.

"We thought that Estrada had been hired as a personal assistant to the chief," said a firefighter who was on the scene. "He has no experience as an incident commander and his orders might have resulted in someone getting seriously hurt. This is what happens when someone without experience is put in charge of firefighters who know better. This is political promotion at its worst."

How long will it be before the haughty Estrada – with the blessing of Elizondo and Cabler – issues an order which will result in injury to his fellow firefighters or to the public? Was the public's safety one of the bargaining chips that Elizondo handed over to his masters at City Hall, too?