Lawsuits Past Present and Future

Tomorrow night's executive session discussion about suing the gas company has got me thinking about this lawsuit happy administrator we have. I came across this jewel of an article from the Big Bend Sentinel from last year (May 2005?). Remember those good old days when Florencio tried to sue Lanman for death threats? As the article states:

In his “sworn statement of witness,” Sauceda said, “I do recall that he (Lanman) stated that I disgusted him and I revolted him, and then he moved away from me about eight inches and said 'you know there are death warrants on you guy.' "

Oh the good old days! It is hard to remember the fun we were having back then when Florencio completely and totally botched the canvassing of the May 2005 election. The situation was mismanaged. Tempers were short. Fingers were pointed. Lanman and Sauceda were not getting along when Lanman first took office. Lanman sensed that the community was not behind Sauceda back then, and he turned against Sauceda. By the end of the year, Lanman became a member of the Sauceda fan club and gave him that pay raise (reported at $12,500 in the October 13, 2005 Sentinel) without consulting council first. In fact, Sauceda reports to City Council not the Mayor. Ever since then, those two have been tight as peas in a pod grabbing as much power from council as possible. Here is another good quote from that article:

“. . . still the matter is so serious that Mayor-elect David Lanman did indeed commit a serious offense by threatening a city official, in this case, with death warrants, which to me represents basically he is telling me that my life is in jeopardy, and I don't appreciate that. I think it's improper, immoral and is not something that is good for the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Marfa, Texas."

Remember when the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Marfa was something Flo talked about? Now it is his own welfare that he cares most about. His disrespect for the citizens that pay his salary is unacceptable.

Then this year Lanman threatened to sue the Board of Adjustments because he disagreed with one of their decisions. Nevermind that Council appointed those members to interpret laws and ordinances fairly and equally. He didn't like that they made a ruling that undid an illegal permit he personally issued. He wanted to sue the volunteer citizens on the council-appointed board. He wanted Marfa to sue itself! The funny thing was when Ann Dunlap wondered if both sides could use the city attorney in the lawsuit... Ultimately, he chose another path and tried to abolish that board and Planning & Zoning and recreate them under his loyal volunteer Betsy Burns. That too failed.

So now we are contemplating a lawsuit against the gas company. This will cost us money no matter how it gets settled. Lanman and Sauceda want to get their grubby paws on the surplus of the gas company to finance their operation. They need money because they have completely mismanaged the finances of the city in terms of budgets, taxes, employee compensation, audits, reports, accounts payable and expenditures. So they want to take away money that is earmarked for repairing leaking gas pipes to plug the leaks in their budget. Hopefully council will come to their senses and stop looking for quick fixes and start paying attention to Marfa's problems. The gas company runs itself well. Marfa is run poorly. And we want to sue the gas company to get their money.

What lawsuits can we look forward to in the future? One thing is for sure. Florencio Sauceda will sue Marfa when we finally get the nerve to let him go. This is what he does. He sues municipalities when they let him go. First he takes the money by showing up part time and doing a poor job. Then he gets fired. Then he sues the city to get money to live on until he lands the next job. We have an important and expensive decision to make. Do we let Florencio go now before things get worse or do we give him a contract and get rid of him later when we hit bottom? Florencio started on February 22, 2005. His contract expired February 22, 2006. He has been "at will" since then. If we let him go for poor performance, he will sue but will not have good grounds to sue because he has botched elections, budgets and taxes, and he has no contract. If we give him a contract, the lawsuit will be way more expensive and include much more severance pay on top of that.

This is going to cost taxpayers more or less sooner or later. Let's look at this long and hard before we make a decision. Sauceda and Lanman are lawsuit happy. Florencio and Lanman have tried to sue each other. Lanman wanted to sue the Board of Adjustments. Sauceda and Lanman want to sue the city's gas company. Sauceda "will" sue Marfa sooner or later if his past is any indication of the future. These guys are happy to sue Marfa at any chance. And who pays those legal fees and settlements if it goes to court? If Sauceda gets a contract, it will just cost us more. Council needs to take care of citizens first and foremost and protect us from these frivolous lawsuits.

P.S. Sauceda should be back at work by 2PM today. Council does not have a draft budget to review on Tuesday and he comes in at 2:00 on Monday...