DE GUATEMALA A GUATEPEOR; SAN BENE SEEKS LEGAL RELIEF

By Juan Montoya

Is it simply a case of legal pitching relief over at the Resaca City (San Bene), or a trade in of an old model for an even older one?

In this Tuesday's meeting and budget workshop of the San Benito City Commission, item 9 and 10 deal with the apparent replacement of the firm of Roerig, Oliveira and Fisher LLP and the hiring of Brownsville Mark Sossi as interim city attorney.

Are both connected?

To the uninitiated, it would seem so. The commission, after all, needs legal advice with contracts, meeting procedure, and wording in its agendas. Sossi would seem to be a logical choice since – until he was unceremoniously terminated by the city commission – he was the city attorney for the City of Brownsville from 2009 until he asked to be made a regular, full-time employee January 12, 2017.

He was terminated during a meeting held August 15 later that year. At the time of the change from contract attorney to full-time employee he was receiving $10,000 a month from the city and another $5,000 a month from the GBIC for a grand total of $180,000 a year. When he was made a full-time employee, he stayed at the same level of compensation.

Sossi asked that he be hired as a full-time city employee after a court ordered him to pay health insurance to a child during a custody hearing. The child was born to his live-in girl friend who Sossi had tried to evict from his home. He had struck up a relationship with her after meeting her at a local gentlemen's club where she was a strip dancer.

In January, when he was hired as city employee, he promised the commissioners he would work exclusively for the city and seek no outside work. However, during the meeting held in August, commissioners were shown a copy of a contract that Sossi had inked with the City of Mission at $2,500 a month just a little over a month later on February 14.

That did it for his supporters on the commission and he was let go after executive session.

If the San Bene City Commission opts to hire him as the interim city attorney Tuesday, they are terminating Roerig, Oliveira and Fisher LLP. One of the principals in the firm – Rene Oliveria – has had his ups and downs as well.

Currently, Oliveira is the District 37 Texas State Representative and had held that position for 36 years. He was in a runoff in the Democratic party primary this May and lost to Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Alex Dominguez.

Just weeks before the runoff election, Oliveira was arrested for DWI after he rammed his black Caddy into the rear of a car driven by a woman who was waiting for the light to change on Boca Chica Blvd., one of the city's main drags. Oliveria left the scene after giving the woman one of his cards and promising to "take care of it" later.

When police went to his home the found the car's right had tires flat and damage to the front end. According to the police report, he refused to take a breath test and was taken to a local hospital where blood was drawn and then booked at the city jail and released.

Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz has refused to release the results of the blood tests citing an "ongoing investigation." Critics say that when former Mayor Pat Ahumada was arrested for DWI, not only were his alcohol-content results released, but also police cruiser cam recording and booking desk shots the following day.

Observers say the DWI and the subsequent bad publicity played a large part in the Oliveria loss of the election. Whether the resultant bad publicity also cause the City of San Bene to terminate the contract with his firm is anyone's guess.

But given the choices available to the San Ben city fathers, is it a case of the lesser evil in trading Oliveira for Sossi.