AFTER DUST SETTLES, HOW MANY CITY AUDITS WERE THERE?

By Juan Montoya

This is a story about three audits; a city commission committee audit, an administrative audit that was never approved or accepted, and a review of both by a certified public accountant firm that was also never accepted and approved by the city commission.

All three dealt with the alleged wrongdoing in the Brownsville Fire Dept. under former chief Carlos Elizondo and his asst. chief Ernie Estrada while former city manager Charlie Cabler was the city's top administrator.

But that, according to the city's legal department, only the audit by the City of Brownsville Oversight and Audit Committee is an official document. That's because although the internal administrative report ordered by Cabler on the matter was never presented to the commission and it was never accepted as an official city audit.

However, when city commissioner Ben Neece – chairman of the Audit and Oversight Committee – found that Cabler had directed the city's internal auditor's to put together a report on the matter, he had the administration dig it up and gave it to CPAs Burton, McCumber and Longoria, LLP for a review of both audits.

Here's where the problems with the audits began.

The initial Audit and Oversight report was issued by the committee on Oct. 2, and adopted by the city October 26, 2017 and outlined the machinations of Elizondo and Estrada to steer EMS patients to InterCity Ambulance, a private firm that was later found to be associated with Elizondo. That firm was found to be operating without a permit issued by the city.

Elizondo, on Dec. 13, 2016, pushed an ordinance increasing the rates to be comparable with sister cities in the area such as Port Isabel and Harlingen. The rate increase amendment was approved on the second and final reading at the January 3, 2017 City Commission meeting through a consent agenda item with no discussion.

A series of meeting s were held bewteen Elizondo, Estrada, former Chief of police Orlando Rodriguez, and Cabler where Elizondo asid he had "gauged" that the city had a need for help with ambulance service because firefighters (who are also EMTs) would be in training and ambulance service would be affected.

Just a little over a year later Elizondo and Estrada convinced Cabler to approve a Mutual Aid agreement with Intercity which was signed January 9, 2017.

The audit committee report under Neece, listed the number of instances that the fire department had been instructed to steer patients to Intercity despite letters from the police and city attorney that they were not in compliance with the ordinance.

Cut to the chase.

After the city audit and the internal audit ordered by Cabler were reviewed by Burton, McCumber and Longoria, Neece tried to present their report to the city commission even after the city attorney and new city manager said that since the internal audit had never been presented or accepted by the city commission, it was not an official document and should not be released by the chair of the committee because it was not in his purview to release unauthorized city documents.

That same day, the Audit and Oversight Committee was abolished by a 4-3 vote and the matter was left to the purview of the new city manager Noel Bernal. When the Oversight Committee was established, the commissioners cited their perceived inaction on the issue by Cabler as justification for the committee.

On  August 17, 2017 City's Office of Internal Audits issued an Administrative Investigation Report – Fire Department Non-Emergent Ambulance Transfers (Report FI-0617-02).

The report noted findings related to 1) Chain of command, 2) Unpermitted EMT service as well as 3) Invoking of mutual aid incorrectly by both the Brownsville Fire Department and the Brownsville Police Department. The report was addressed solely to the City Manager and was not reported to the City Commission and up to today has never been adopted or approved by the city commission.

According to an interpretation by City Attorney Rene De Coss, for better or for worse, that makes the findings of the internal audit a non-official document. Even Burton, McCumber and Longoria had problems with it.

They stated that "The internal audit department did not follow through on the stated scope of the administrative investigation," that "the investigation did not address possible motives or financial relationships with Intercity that might reveal possible conflicts of interest" and that "the internal audit department lacked the organizational independence that caused the investigative report to go unreported to the City Commission for necessary action."

And of course, there's always a political angle. Critics of the oversight committee and its chairman say it was abolished because it was found to be acting illegally and without authority and that their audit was used to avenge personal and political vendettas while abuses like the Casa del Nylon purchase by his cronies (Mayor Tony Martinez and Abraham Galonskys) were overlooked. They claim that Neece pressured city employees to do his bidding, released documents without authority and interfered with supposedly independent internal and external reports to suit his agenda.

So what do we actually have to go by?

We have the Audit and Oversight Committee's audit that was presented and accepted by the city commission, a flawed internal audit which the accountants discarded as deficient in accounting practices, and a review of both – irregardless of the accountant's dismissal of the latter as not meeting professional standards.

Meanwhile, the Cameron County District Attorney will try Elizondo for theft by a public servant and one count of misapplication of fiduciary property. He has also been charged with 11 felony counts of computer security breach. His trial is scheduled for early 2019.