A call for the City of Brownsville to vote on creating an an all-inclusive coordinator position would oversee all activities, awareness and other accommodations for the special needs community is coming a bit late for former city employee Sandra de Leon.
De Leon, who is disabled, said she could have used such an advocate when she worked for the city two years ago after 15 years employment and was terminated by insensitive supervisors for what she says were reasons related to her disability.
According to city commissioners Jessica Tetreau and Cesar de Leon, Brownsville receives many calls asking for officials to increase accessibility throughout the area. They are asking the commission to vote on creating an all-inclusive coordinator position who they say would oversee all activities, awareness and other accommodations for the special needs community.
"The special needs community should be represented and these families have different needs than what ours are. So, I just want the city to cater more and make these children and community members know that Brownsville is an all-inclusive city," Tetreau told the local daily.
The city agreed with Rodriguez and kept her from using the handicapped parking space and De Leon said she had to threaten to contact a lawyer to initiate a legal defense before Rodriguez and the city relented and allowed her to use the handicapped parking space.
While she was there, in September 2012, fellow city employee Willie Gonzalez was involved in a shooting at a local nightclub. News accounts at the time indicated that Gonzalez had been involved in a late-night altercation and that, feeling threatened outside in the parking lot, pulled out a gun from the glove compartment of his car and shot a man and injured a woman. The man was left permanently disabled.
(Gonzalez, by the way, was the son of longtime city secretary Lydia Gonzalez who had a close relationship with city manager Charlie Cabler.)
That was on a Wednesday. On that Friday, after working hours, employees were called to an informal meting and told Gonzalez would be returning to work on Monday and were asked not to talk about or mention the shooting under threat of a formal reprimand or termination. De Leon, who had run-ins with Gonzalez in the past because of his inappropriate comments about her disability, stayed at work typing a letter to her supervisor expressing her concern and fear about him returning.
As a result, the city a had a guidance counselor sit with her for six sessions and came to the conclusion that she was in an unsafe environment.
That, and the fact that she felt it was unfair when Rodriguez transferred a woman he knew on a personal basis from her job answering calls at the Brownsville Animal Shelter to the City Plaza Building.
Those events led to then-Asst. City Manager Jeff Johnston to move De Leon to the Parks and Recreation at the old Boys and Girls Club on the corner of Eighth and Tyler streets.
That's when her real troubles started. Since the building was not ADA compliant, she suffered an ankle injury. Then-director Chris Patterson was trying to help her with Traffic when he left the city. Incoming director Damaris McGlone started using the handicapped space and told De Leon she could not enforce it since there was no signage on it.
But the parking space was the least of her worries at the time. Her overriding concern was the rat infestation in the building. On August 2014, she asked that two traps be placed near her desk to control the rats' spread. By October, the traps were being replaced almost daily and the number of traps had been increased to five.
One of the rodents had dropped from the ceiling and got caught in a sticky trap that city workers had placed near her work space.
After a month from November to December without traps, the infestation had become too great and the rats had eaten through the wiring between the ceiling and the roof.
For the next three weeks the department was without phones or Internet. That's when a decomposed rat was found underneath De Leon's desk and she was placed on a breathing machine to clear the resulting spores from her lungs.
The result was that the city had to replace the ceiling, wiring and roof to rid the building of the pests. De Leon, whose disability was compounded by the infestation, bothered her supervisors and she was given a performance evaluation on June 2015 and scored 13 even though a score of 9 is required for probation.
She was nonetheless placed on probation after 15 years employment and when she asked them if it had been her complaints about the rats that had triggered that determination, the reply was that the building was old and that "this sort of thing was to be expected."
She was also told her performance was not "up to par."
The next week, Parks and Recreation was awarded a grant that for which De Leon had written the application. Two days before Thanksgiving , De Leon was terminated. As a result of the bad evaluation and termination, prospective employees have turned her down.
It is good and well that the city commission is considering the hiring of an all-inclusive coordinator position to advocate for Special Needs residents and employees. Unfortunately, for De Leon, the move comes one job short and two years late.
11 comments:
This smells like a Cabler con, who states that he is confident that he has covered his back, and wants to be reinstated as city manager, as he knows where all the cons are.
Vector Disease Control, a company who has been hired by the City of Brownsville to track the Zika mosquito, has been running into walls put up by the City. This company was hired to monitor the Zika mosquito. Two days before the company was to monitor, Brownsville sprayed the entire city so that they were not hitting the high marks of the virus carrying mosquito. McAllen, Rio Hondo and Harlingen hit the high marks for this disease carrying mosquito, while Brownsville was on the low end because Brownsville sprayed on Thursday, even though they were told to wait until the study was done.
I don't recall a request for bids on this service. How was it awarded?
Juan can you check on the award if any of this service and if it's owned by a public servant or a close friend of an employee or relative? Sounds very suspicious.
So typical in this city; no action until something breaks down and lack of empathy for the handicapped. The city seems to be falling apart due to poor planning and no oversight. The problem starts at the top; Da' Mayor, Tony Martinez. He has no leadership ability and because of his arrogance and "above it all" attitude, the city is absent effective management.
of course the Zika virus will be higher if not sprayed than if sprayed.
So what are we looking for, a high Zika number or a low Zika number?
Is spraying typical? of Course, It would be a problem if the City DIDNT spray.
If we have a HIGH number AFTER we spray.. that is what will cause the alarms.
MHO.
I think Ms. De Leon needs to get a lawyer.
What are the requirements for this new position? GED and must live in Harlingen. What are the duties? Inspect handicapped signs and to see that they are properly installed? Memorize the American Disability laws? If it’s a new department an Executive Secretary position and several clerks plus a computer data entry clerk will have to be created. New office furniture with a secured communications booth, new car, travel expense and/or allowance typically 500 a month will be required. Less we forget one of the underlining requirements is that the candidate must be a close friend, or related in some sort of way to any existing employee or any elected official, in Cameron County.
The total expense incurred by creating a new department and/or a new position will be close to 400k to 500k. The removal of some line item expenditures will be required in order to add this new position and/or department.
The elimination of line items, improvements to streets, in the Southmost area will be required, also to include the removal of line items improvements to infrastructure, in the same area will also be required. Note that the commissioner in that precinct will not voice any opposition.
Art Rodriguez screwed De Leon.
Stephanie screwed De Leon.
Damarus screwed De Leon.
All inclusive will include non-binary and bike shorts. Count on it.
Non-Binary Defined
Most people – including most transgender people – are either male or female. But some people don't neatly fit into the categories of "man" or "woman," or “male” or “female.” For example, some people have a gender that blends elements of being a man or a woman, or a gender that is different than either male or female. Some people don't identify with any gender. Some people's gender changes over time.
People whose gender is not male or female use many different terms to describe themselves, with non-binary being one of the most common. Other terms include genderqueer, agender, bigender, and more. None of these terms mean exactly the same thing – but all speak to an experience of gender that is not simply male or female.
My question: Very Important-Do the bike shorts should be with or without zipper?
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