Coverage of the acceptance by the City of Brownsville of the 55-page Audit and Oversight Committee report by the local daily glossed over the findings that – if Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz took note – could result in indictments against the principals.
In its coverage, the newspaper blandly stated that City Manager Charlie Cabler was aware that former Brownsville Fire Chief Carlos Elizondo and his assistant chief Ernesto Estrada steered transfers of patients from the Brownsville EMS to Intercity, a private ambulance company with ties to Elizondo, but not that the former city manager lied about when he first heard about the illegal actions.
According to the audit, even after he had been informed by his police chief and others – including the physician in charge of EMS operations – Cabler refused to act.
In the report, the committee said that:
I. Cabler knew about the illegal operation of Intercity Ambulance since December 2016, but asserted that he had become aware of them in June 2017.
2. That both City Attorney Mark Sossi – since terminated – and Cabler, since "retired," with a $230,00 golden parachute, had allowed Intercity Ambulance Services, a private company with links to Elizondo to operate without a license in the city
3. That former City Attorney – as well as Cabler – knew of these activities and turned a blind eye to them
4. That Elizondo and Estrada said that they had established a "need" for Intercity to work in the city and that both Cabler and Sossi authorized it5. That Elizondo and Estrada – with Cabler and Sossi's support – ordered that only Intercity, not the Brownsville EMS, would handle transfers at $800 a shot during the 2017 Charro Days
6. That as a result of their actions, the city lost 78 transfers at a cost of $62,000 to the city
7. That Estrada and Elizondo provided city radios to Intercity so that they could listen in to calls for transfers which were then steered to them by the dispatchers
8. That the Brownsville Police Department had confronted Elizondo and Estrada on the legality of the transfers but that the two top fire department administrators said they had the blessing of both Cabler and Sossi.
Elizondo and Estrada have both been suspended without pay after Cabler retired, but ongoing investigations by the DA's Office could potentially result in indictments against them and others who were part of the scheme. Elizondo has since been indicted by a grand jury for Theft by a Public Official and Misappropriation of Fiduciary Property.
Those charges are unrelated to the ambulance scam and involve the theft of $8,000 from the bank account of the Political Action Committee of which Elizondo was treasurer. However, he neglected to inform the firefighters that the Texas Ethics Commission had sanctioned him in 2009 – just one year after he was appointed to the post – for failing to file reports on the PAC.
To read the entire audit report for yourself, click on the link below. It makes for some very interesting reading.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6lw4gOEnGiET3Y1QTBMQ19HY28/view?usp=sharing
20 comments:
I read the title and saw, "Why caller Retired" - I haven't read the article.. but I can tell you why.
Because he is a fucking crook and quit his job to dedicate 100% of his time to saving his ass from being hammered by buba in da tank.
It's just a matter of time before Cabler gets indicted. Just a matter of time, if Luis Saenz does his job.
And, who is the supervisor for all these people.....the Mayor and city commission. Is there no oversight? It seems to me that we are talking about a city afloat, rudderless and no captain on deck. The city commission and mayor chose both Cabler and Sossi and therefore should have provided oversight. Tony Martinez started off his tenure by spending millions on useless real estate intended to support Juliet Garcia in her effort to be kiss the ass of UT System. Since then Tony hasn't had an agenda, so Cabler and Sossi did what they wanted, without any supervision.
So why is this private company (inter city) still doing transfers??
Wake up third world idiots. Many complaints about no "CAPTIAN", better yet, " who was the supposed wanna be captian running the city'? Our so called commissioners, (FU----G) circus. It's time we the citizens of Cameron county come together, and I mean Real citizens, file our own lawsuit in our behalf and make these incompetent, corrupt, greedy so called wanna bees , SUE THEM for the golden parachute and much more for all of the wrong doing and manipulation that they created. We the citizens should not have to paid nor be responsible for these bastard taking a shit and we have to clean up. Sue Sue Sue We need to set and example and a present.
they always mention inter city taking the non emergency calls but they never mention them taking emergency medical calls
See page 12, vi. Concern 6: latitude of authority.....
Answer is there.
Ain't no one getting no indictment. Look atvthe building permit guy Gamez. Retired and rode off into the sunset to enjoy the big house he bought at a tax delinquency auction a la Tony Martinez. Sinverguenza OGT!
Thats because non-emergency transfers are a guarantee pay by medicaid or medicare. Emergency medical calls are not and since we live in a third-world country, no one is going to pay.
Wake up Brownsville citizens, now that these top officials are getting busted left and right, WHO is watching the others (ambulances) that are coming in and making monies with the cities transports/transfers? Brownsville Officials, D A and others are busy going after INTERCITY AMBULANCE that they forget that the other four or five ambulance companies are still coming into Brownsville and doing their business OR do they have permission from other City Officials to help themselves to these transports/transfers? Why, because Brownsville Fire Department does not have the resources to comply to the CITIZENS of Brownsville? Where are the enforcers keeping them out of Brownsville so that the fire department does not lose out on these transports? What is wrong with the picture?
SAS!!! Kuddos to the police department, the police chief and his communications supervisor. Their actions show that we have great leadership in the police department and that they won't settle for or be part of the status quo.
art rodriguez, luna,santana torres,dont remember the directors of parks all of them SE MOCHABAN CON CABLER is time FEDERAL AGENTS get involve there is federal money spend by this people so FBI need to be involved
The shortage of ambulances in this town has been a concern for many years.The ex fire chief lenny Perez and C.Cabler and commissioners Longoria and Gowen,and slick willie Mayor never did anything about it.its a dangerous and critical situation.Hope one day you or your Family don't need an ambulance and do not have to wait till los fresnos or port Isabel shows up by then it will be too late.
Which I'm sure they did took some emergency calls. But are they allowed to do so? Hmmm...
That would be nice.
It’s ok. You can swear on the internet.
Agree with your comment regarding resources. However, they failed to go about it "the right way". They got greedy and broke all rules.
A great Mexican dicho applies here: es pendejo, o se hace pendejo.
Pancho villa.
anonymous 10/27 @ 8:56, What better way to solve the problem but to invest in an ambulance company with your brother as a silent partners and double dip, at times had his daughter working in the ambulance brilliant Carlos too bad you got greedy.
You are all right what i meant @8:56 was the idiots at the city commission should of invested monies to fire dept EMS division to better serve the tax payers and their families.They should re allocate monies it takes in from that division to EMS instead of buying shity properties.
Post a Comment