CITY-PLACED BANNER MAY HAVE DOWNED SCAFFOLDING

By Juan Montoya

When the workers erected the scaffolding at about 5 a.m. that would mark the start of the Bi-National 10K & 5K Run early in the morning Saturday, they tested it for its sturdiness and solidity. 

"Everything was fine," said one of the workers. "It was sturdy and wasn't going anywhere. We've done this a lot of times."

That was until city crews under the direction of City of Brownsville Government Affairs Liaison Ramiro Gonzalez arrived with city workers and he directed them to place a large "start" banner on the structure. 

And as the morning wore on, the wind began to blow stronger. The National Weather Service reported that before daybreak the wind speed was 21 miles per hour and increasing as daybreak approached. At race time, it is estimated that it had increased to more than 3 miles and hour. On that day, gusts reached speeds of nearly 42 miles per hour.  

If there had been no banner installed on the scaffolding, workers believe, it would not have collapsed.

Instead, the wind gusts caught the "start" sign installed at Gonzalez's directions and several people were injured when it collapsed.

"It might as well have been a sail," said one of the runners. It was just too windy to have placed it then. There really was no need for it."

Local media reported that several runners said the metal structure fell as the race was about to begin.

Several runners were transported to local hospitals, officials said, and the rest of the race proceeded without incident.

Runners at the Bi-National 10K & 5K Run, which started on the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus, said the metal structure fell as the race was about to begin.

Interim City Manager Michael Lopez said in a statement that the city had started an investigation into the reasons for the structure's collapse

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 “With respect for the privacy of the individuals involved, in addition to the ongoing investigation, no further information will be released at this time,” Lopez said in a statement.

The event was also notable in that Mayor Tony Martinez and Gonzalez organized the event as a kind of international diplomacy. Other city commissioners had indicated that they had not been invited to participate. 

"It was all done by the mayor and his select group," said a city staffer. "The other commissioners didn't know and weren't invited."

That afternoon Martinez said that three people had been released from the hospital, and two others were in stable condition but under observation.

“We want to make sure nothing like this happens (again),” he told the Brownsville Herald, adding the decision to continue the race was made once first responders began treating the injured.

Gonzalez has led a charmed existence. He was fired by former City Manager Charlie Cabler for resisting following city personnel policies such as punching in and out and reporting his activities, but had to relent when Martinez commissioner Rose Gowen intervened.

He had threatened to leave when he was not picked to be an assistant city manager and said he had a job offer as in Denton as an assistant city manager. However, when city commissioners checked with that city, it turned out not to be true and was left without a job. 

But then Gowen and Martinez intervened and Cabler was forced to rehire him and create a new position called government liaison, sources say. Even his mother called Cabler to plead his case. No one – except for Martinez and Gowen, really know what he does, they said. At at $65,000 a year, it has proven to be a costly proposition.

He has represented Gowen's so-called Active Plan to the county and travels widely at city expense to conferences dealing with bicycling and urban design, something that might come to an end in the near future as the bills for his travel rise and the commission's Budget and Oversight Committee puts the city salary schedule under scrutiny.

Meanwhile, local attorneys say that the city has been exposed to liability as a result of the injuries to the runners. "The people injured by the falling scaffolding have an actionable case," said a local attorney. "It would be easy money if someone does file an injury lawsuit."