A sworn affidavit that citizen Ricky Quijano had in hand when he went before the Laredo City Council for public comments on October 19, alleges that union members of the Laredo Fire Fighters Local 872 — who in August helped assemble and deliver bags of federal CARES Act-purchased food intended for the elderly, bedridden, and disabled — delivered food instead to the homes of registered voters in District VIII.
The affidavit — that of a young woman who had packed food sacks and delivered them for two weeks — alleged, among other things, that the union members encouraged her and others to say that the food came from District VIII City Council member Roberto Balli.
Union president David Gonzalez admitted as much in an August 17, 2020 story by LMT writer Julia Wallace, in which he explained that the firefighters who delivered bags of food used Balli’s name to build trust with District VIII residents hesitant to open their doors.
According to the affiant, instructions to say the food was from Balli came from Firefighter Union member Daniel Perez.
The firefighter union members who prepared the bags for delivery at the Laredo Regional Food Bank on Jefferson did so while on association business leave (ABL) — paid leave for work that promotes the union. In addition to the $25 or $30 an hour the firefighters earn, they were also being paid an additional $15 an hour by the union. Association business leave carries the burden of backfilling with additional personnel to cover the hours of a firefighter who has taken leave.
Egregious enough in the narrative of the sworn affidavit, is that the criteria for qualification to receive a bag of food was adjusted from elderly in need or the disabled to “registered voter” and that recipients were told the food came courtesy of Balli, the incumbent council member of their district who faces five opponents in his re-election bid. The CARES food was paid for by taxpayers, including, perhaps, some of the recipients of the “free,” politically weighted groceries.
Beyond egregious in the sworn food-for-votes allegations in the affidavit, is the largesse of members of the Fire PAC who encouraged firefighters, their wives who were helping with the bagging for $10 an hour, and the handful of hired temporary employees to help themselves to bags of food. One affiant avers that the wife of one of the firefighters added special items to her bag, including extra pudding and animal crackers.
The affidavit discloses that the list of 224 District VIII recipients was generated by the Union’s PAC and that paychecks to temporary employees handed out by Firefighter Union member Andy Mendoza referenced “Food Drive #8” on the memo line of the check.
Of those 224 names on the union’s recipient list, 95 percent were registered voters in District VIII, 11 were not registered to vote, and two were deceased.
With the Elmo overhead projector at the podium in Council chambers out of commission on October 19, Quijano was unable to show the Council the substance of the affidavit. His appearance during public comments was the opening salvo in a heated Council discussion that dominated the Council meeting and culminated with fiery sparring between Balli and District VII Council member George Altgelt.
The agenda item that brought Quijano before the Council was for an update on the status of “the City Manager’s investigation as to the use of City, State, and Federal funds (CARES Act) for the South Texas Regional and Laredo Food Banks for the purchase of food to be distributed to the indigent and elderly and whether the FIRE PAC/alias “La Union” misappropriated any of the said donations/food for their own benefit and/or the benefit of certain elected officials; and any matters incident thereto.”
City manager Robert Eads deferred to City Attorney Rene Benavides, who seemed to be looking for his anemometer to measure political wind speed and direction before he endeavored to define the extent of his investigation into the matter. He said that he had spoken to the president of the Fire PAC, the fire chief, the CFO of the fire department, and the executive director of the Laredo Regional Food Bank.
“Is fire union time being used for politicking? Is your investigation not over? Are you done? Are you interested at all in what Mr. Quijano has in his hand?” Altgelt asked the recently appointed City attorney.
When Benavides hedged, Quijano asked, “Is it yes or no?”
Benavides answered that he did not have a conclusive opinion about the allegations.
As only he can distil the substance of a protracted discussion into seven words, District II Council member Vidal Rodriguez said, “The City attorney said nothing was wrong.” He added that the August distribution of food bags, despensas, had been “a tremendous help.” In forming a motion to continue working through the food banks, he suggested that furloughed City employees be used to volunteer at the food banks.
Altgelt attempted to amend Rodriguez’s motion with language to “exclude any on-duty or off-duty fire personnel” from delivery of food bags. “This food is relief from the Federal government,” he said.
City manager Eads told the Council that the City was committed to keep feeding those who need assistance. “We need to support organizations that will distribute food, but we need to deliver only to the door steps of those organizations.”
He noted that there is a balance of $125,000 in remaining CARES Act funds that will carry food distribution through the end of the year and into the next. He added that the money was strictly for the purchase of food and that it would be in the City’s best interest not to offer employees for bagging and delivering.
“The City Charter prohibits politicking by employees,” Altgelt reiterated. “When Fire PAC members deliver only to certain addresses in certain districts, and when the Fire PAC notes in its campaign finance reports filed with the Texas Secretary of State that it only helps certain elected officials, that’s politicking. No other City employee would be able to do that, but because the firefighters’ collective bargaining agreement is so one-sided against the City, they can take union time to go deliver food and say whatever they want. They are paid by the City, and the union pays them another $15 an hour for volunteering, double dipping all through the process,” Altgelt said.
Balli responded that he concurred with management “that they want to avoid politicizing the distribution of food. Management wants to proceed cautiously. It is terrible to be unfairly dragged into this. I’m being smeared here. I encourage city management to put distance between Council members and food. I’ve only been to one food drive. I support an investigation. It’s not about getting to the bottom of this; it’s about politics,” he said, showing from his home computer screen a campaign finance report that he said evidences that the affiant works for the campaign of one of his five opponents.
“It is all about politics,” countered Altgelt. “It’s about the Fire PAC members utilizing association business leave to politic only for one certain candidate. It’s also interesting how the mention of this individual is also in the investigative report from the City,” Altgelt said.
Ever up for a deflecting ramble, District VI’s representative Dr. Marte Martinez, offered, “We don’t need to be political with this, but it’s obvious that there is politics coming from every angle, and it is coming from Council and also from the general public.” He referred circuitously to “certain nuances on whether certain members should or shouldn’t participate, but I must say that we are overstepping our reach. We have to find these organizations and that the organization is doing the right thing. It’s going to be the individual responsibility of each individual to do the right thing. We can make accusations, but the truth of the matter is we don’t have enough information to know what’s happening. Making this as public as it is, people are very apt to not do anything that is outside the norm.”
Altgelt, citing the blatant use of City money to pay the salaries of firefighters on leave to politic, asked Fire Chief Guillermo Heard, “How are you going to pump the brakes on this runaway ambulance?”
Fire Chief Heard said he was looking into union association leave and personal leave and how they are requested. “I am working with the city manager and the city attorney for assistance in interpreting what union leave is.” He also said he speaks often with union president Gonzalez, “who is accessible.” He said they are working on specifying leave requests to certain articles of the collective bargaining agreement and also looking at the time length of union leave requests.
City manager Eads said that at a recent meeting Fire PAC president Gonzalez “said directly and emphatically that there would be no more union assistance for food drives specifically.”
Chief Heard said that not all requests for association business leave required backfill, but did acknowledge that the recent participation of union members in food bagging and delivery in District VIII did require backfill.
In a call for discussion of the motion made by Altgelt to continue with the investigation into Fire PAC members allegedly politicking on behalf of Balli whlle delivering bags of food in District VIII, Balli said, “What I see is that management is capable of doing any job that it needs to do. Council needs to remove itself from this because it’s completely and entirely political. Mr. Altgelt — I think it is pretty clear that he has always had it out for the Fire PAC, that he had it out for the prior fire chief. Management has a job to do. They know what their job is. They know what our previous direction was. The fire chief has talked about what he’s been doing, how he’s been working with the union.”
Altgelt suggested to Balli, “Since you are a subject of this investigation, you should abstain from this vote and this discussion.”
To which Balli answered, “As a council we need to remove ourselves from this and let management do its job. I’m going to tell you, Council member Altgelt, maybe you are the subject of the investigation. You are being disrespectful to the firefighters. You have a special interest in being disrespectful to the fire union. That’s what we are seeing here. Instead of working on items we should be working, we are spending our time on this, and so I don’t think we should as a Council proceed with this, and we should let management do their job. I don’t support your item.”
“Naturally,” Altgelt responded.
Mayor Pete Saenz asked, “Shouldn’t the end result be an outright prohibition of any political activity by the Fire PAC? These allegations, these things, we can eliminate that from now on. I’ve heard the fire chief saying he’s instituting these practices now. Write off politicking by the Fire PAC.”
Altgelt amended his motion to include Saenz’s suggestion — that there be an amendment to the collective bargaining agreement that outright prohibits anything that even has the appearance of politicking for a specific elected office, whether it be city, county, or otherwise. “We should not be paying them to politic,” he said.
“We can’t amend the collective bargaining agreement without actually going into another collective bargaining agreement negotiation with the Fire PAC at this point,” city attorney Benavides apprised the Council.
“Then the amendment would be that at the point in time that negotiations are re-opened, that’s one of the very first things that is negotiated, but in the interim though, the City charter controls the collective bargaining agreement, does it not?” Altgelt asked.
“The city charter does not conflict with the collective bargaining agreement, and it should be controlling,” Benavides advised.
“Then the Mayor’s amendment I interpret to be that the City Charter should be enforced and that all city employees are tasked with enforcing the City Charter, and that as such that the fire chief and management enforce the City Charter so that no politicking occurs by any Fire union employees consistent with no politicking of any other City employee,” Altgelt said.
Fire Chief Heard interjected from the podium. “I’m the Chief answering the questions that I am asked, but I am also the chief of 379 firefighters that are out there working hard every day. I know we are clarifying some questions. They are working very hard, they are answering the calls and they are doing more than they are asked. I want to make sure as the chief that I am making the public aware of that,” he said.
The motion passed with five voting in favor — District I Council member Rudy Gonzalez, District III Council member Mercurio Martinez III, District IV Council member Alberto Torres , District V Council member Nelly Vielma, and Altgelt. Voting in opposition were District II Council member Rodriguez, District VI Council member Dr. Martinez, and Balli.
