BERNAL-DE COSS POWER PLAY ON MUNICIPAL JUDGESHIP?

 By Juan Montoya

He can't say he hasn't been warned.

A majority of the City of Brownsville commissioners have in no uncertain terms warned City Manager Noel Bernal that his apparent plan to appoint current city attorney Rene De Coss as presiding municipal judge and have his assistant Victor Flores take over as interim city attorney is a non-starter.

From all indications, Bernal thinks it will fly.

But more than one commissioner have been reported to have warned Bernal that if he goes through with his plan to elevate Flores – an import he brought over from from Edinburg – someone else's performance (hint, hint) could be reviewed by the commissioners.

The city charter allows for the city manager to name the municipal judges. But only the city commission can name the city attorney. Commissioners resent the fact that so far Bernal has brought in people from outside the city instead of hiring locally. 

This has created a rift in the commission. Just last Wednesday, Bernal unceremoniously fired presiding municipal judge Bobby Lerma from one day to the other without any warning.

Did Bernal cover all his bases and follow the protocol required by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct in Lerma's removal?

Remember when former municipal judge Neece was fired without the required two-week notice? He was reinstated as soon as he filed his complaint in district court.

Now commissioners think that Bernal's power play to move De Coss to municipal judge is just a ploy to indirectly elevate Flores to interim city attorney, and eventually have him assume the position permanently. And it isn't going over real well.

"Remember that it was De Coss who approved of the removal of the board members of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation," said a city administrator. "He had cut a deal with former city commissioner (Ben Neece) to allow him to continue his law practice while serving as city attorney so he could get his retirement when the last attorney – Mark Sossi – was terminated for promising the commission that he would work exclusively for the city and then signed a retainer with the City of Mission no more than a month later. What's the difference?"

De Coss, who oversaw the GBIC Board Massacre, now has to contend with the fact that new city commissioner Pedro Cardenas was one of the board members who was removed under a cloud of suspicion that the board had engaged in an alleged illegal land sale. The city commission voted to appoint themselves to be te GBIC board. A subsequent audit of the real estate transaction later cleared the board members. But the damage had been done. Now the issue has gone full circle with Cardenas ~ by virtue of being elected city commissioner– automatically is back on the GBIC board.

De Coss – for good or ill – was seen as the facilitator in the removal of the GBIC board, a purely political move. As people sometimes say, elections have consequences. With Neece gone, Lerma's protection was gone. And De Coss, who had cut a deal with the former city commissioner, is apparently next on the chopping block.

And true to form, Bernal placed his out-of-town protege Asst. City Manager Helen Ramirez as GBIC CEO  following a $350,000 buyout of former GBIC director Mario Lozoya. Bernal now commands a $225,000 salary and Ramirez is at $195,000.

Now, as Bernal contemplates his next move, will he appoint De Coss to the municipal judgeship in the face of the commissioners' negative reception to the move? 

Some city administrators say that the city should take a cue from the board of the Brownsville Independent School District when they hired their board counsel. The board there chose to issue a call for Requests For Qualifications to give all law firms an even shot at the lucrative position. And although Bernal, like the BISD board, can choose whatever municipal judge he wants, the apparent lack of transparency in the city process smacks of favoritism.

"Al we want is a level playing field to offer our services," said a local attorney. "Putting De Coss as municipal judge for the sake of his retirement and Flores – who doesn't have the level of experience a lot of local attorneys have – isn't going to go over real well with the city commission. Bernal is skating on thin ice."

In the face of the negative reception to the scheme by a majority of the city commission, will Bernal stick to his guns and risk his own position as an at-will employee?

Who will blink?