CITY'S RESPONSE TO WHISTLEBLOWER: SHOOT THE MESSENGER

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

What if you had a hard-working, conscientious employee with a sparkling service record who discovered that someone was stealing the paychecks of his fellow employees using electronic fraud and after informing you of the thefts, also reported the crime – as his experience and training dictated – to local police and the FBI?

Would you:

A. Place a letter praising his actions to protect his fellow employees and your company in his personnel file?

B. Name him Employee of the Month for protecting the integrity of your finance and payroll departments?

C. Recommend him for promotion and a recognition in your monthly newsletter?

D. Fire him? 

If you are the City of Brownsville, it's City Manager Noel Bernal, and his immediate supervisor Lupe Granado III and Director of Enterprise Applications Gail Bruciak, you chose D, to fire him.

Such is the state of things in this city's Total Alignment philosophy. They all aligned together and fired Accountant III Gustavo Gross and then summarily denied his appeal justified by Bernal to be "in the best interest of the organization and the appropriate course of action for the city and the public."

Now the case has landed as a Whistleblower lawsuit against the city and its administration filed by Gross' attorney John Shergold of the Hodge and Shergold LLP law firm.

In their lawsuit, Shergold et al are asking the court to reinstate Gross to his former position, lost wages, and his fringe and seniority rights based on Chapter 554 of the Texas Government Code Section 55.002 (a). They are also asking for monetary relief over $250,000 but not more than $1,000,000.

That section states that:

"A state or local governmental entity may not suspend or terminate the employment of, or take any adverse personnel action against, a public employee who in good faith reports a violation of the law by the employing governmental entity or another public employee to an appropriate law enforcement authority."

Gross learned of the ongoing use of emails to defraud the city and its employees on July 2021 when a lowly city maintenance employee came to his department and reported a missing paycheck that covered one payroll period. When the Finance Department director and other personnel – Gross included – met to discuss the matter, he learned that HR Business Partner Sylvia Paz had received the fraudulent email requesting a change of banking information for the maintenance employee.

Paz then forwarded the email to city employee Sylvia Maldonado for processing and payment. As a result, the maintenance worker's banking information was changed without his authorization and his money sent elsewhere.

He then learned that there were approximately 13 other fraudulent emails attempting to divert city employee paychecks through theft and deception. The maintenance employee, who relied on his biweekly paycheck to sustain his family noticed it right away.

But another victim of the phishing scam was Asst. City Manager Elizabeth Walker who earns $140,000 a year, and had not. In fact, she had not received four electronic deposits before she noticed.

Following the meeting, Gross sent the participants an informational document published by the FBI concerning a threat overview discussing "Business email compromise actors targeting State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Governments, training resources."

Then, on September 3 he filed a police report with the Brownsville Police Department with Detective Juan Alvarado. Four days later, on September 7, he went to the FBI. Fresh on his mind was a similar phishing scam that had Brownsville Public Utilities Board finance department personnel who received a similar fraudulent email that resulted in the transfer of a vendor payment of $2.1 million to a fraudulent account.

Two days after he made the criminal report to the FBI, Gross received a letter of termination from Perla Cepeda, OD and Human Resources Director with copies to Bernal and City Chief Finance Officer Carlos Garza.

He appealed his termination to Bernal, who had 15 days to respond, but responded in three citing the now famous "in the best interest of the organization " justification. Bernal did not provide Gross an opportunity to appear and present any evidence or make any argument person. 

Gross, on the other hand, was of the conviction that his termination was in the worst interest of the "organization" and was not the appropriate course of action for the city an the public because he had blown the whistle on the city and employees involved in the fraudulent activity and theft that resulted in retaliation and termination against him

The case was filed Friday, Oct. 15, in the 107th District Court. Mayor Trey Mendez – who acknowledged he was aware of the phishing being perpetrated on the city – was served today.