By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
A proposal to limit the communication between individual San Benito City Commissioners and the city attorney drew sharp criticism from elected officials.
During a regular city commission meeting Tuesday, June 21, City Attorney Ricardo Morado presented a memorandum which proposed that the commission “channel any legal questions raised by the City Commission through a designated officer,” such as the city manager or mayor. Maintaining control of legal costs was cited in the memo.
Morado also wrote the following in his memo to the city commission and city manager: “As the chief legal advisor to the City Commission, the city attorney’s allegiance is to the commission as a whole, and to no single member as an individual.”
The memo further read, “It is important for all agents and representatives of the city to understand that the city attorney cannot serve as their personal counsel in any matter that would create a conflict of interest with respect to the city attorney’s obligations to the city commission and the city administration in general.”
Although Commissioners Rene Villafranco and Celeste Z. Sanchez agreed that the city attorney does not serve any commissioner’s personal interests, they expressed concern and in the latter’s case sharp criticism regarding the proposal to limit individual commissioner’s access to the city attorney.
City Manager Manuel Lara and Mayor Joe H. Hernandez called the proposal an opportunity for Morado to emphasize what his responsibilities are.
“He just wanted to clarify to the elected officials the functions of a city attorney, that he’s here to work with all of the elected officials,” said Lara. “He’s an appointee of the board, and elected officials, individually, do not have any power. The power is when they sit as an executive table, that’s when they have power. He just wanted to share that he works for all of them; he’s there to serve them as a group, not as an individual.”
Lara added, “He (Morado) does not want to accept requests to do individualized requests without the rest of the group knowing what he’s being asked. Standard procedure is that the executive CEO or the highest appointed official of the city, it’s standard that most of the departments will go through the city manager, and not make direct calls to the attorney. Everything has to be siphoned through a contact.”
The city commission did approve all of the issues brought up by Morado with the exception of that in which the city commissioners would not be able to speak directly to the attorney.
Sanchez said, “That’s fine. Everybody can know what we’re asking. That’s not an issue, and we said that in the meeting. Everybody can have a copy of the question or the issue that’s being discussed or the response, but the part where we would have to ask for permission (to speak to the city attorney), that did not pass. That was my understanding. We approved everything with the exception of that one issue, where we needed to give our question to the mayor or the city manager and they would get an answer for us.”
According to Lara, the idea of commissioners going to the city manager and the mayor with questions for the city attorney is standard procedure.
“Basically, what he was sharing with them was that it’s very routine. It’s just a basic process that most cities use. He just wanted to make sure that they were aware of what a city attorney’s responsibilities are,” Lara said.
In comparison to other municipalities, however, Rio Hondo City Attorney Eddie Lucio, III said that the relationship between the city attorney and city commission, as proposed by Morado, was unconventional.
“I’m of the opinion that they should be able to communicate directly when the commissioners have questions. Sometimes those questions may be contrary to the beliefs of the city manager or the mayor, and they should have that autonomy to be able to speak openly, honestly regarding the attorney’s legal opinion on whatever issues are before the commission,” said Lucio.
Port Isabel City Attorney Robert Collins echoed such sentiments.
“It’s not the way it’s done in Port Isabel, and I’ve not heard that in respect to other cities. I can’t imagine that it’s necessarily a good thing, because I would think that the more access the city commissioners and mayor have to obtain advice and all the information that they can when decisions are made are probably preferable,” Collins said.
“If I was their city attorney, and they were asking me about this policy, I would have probably advised against it,” said Lucio. “You work at the will of the commission who is elected and the mayor, all of which are elected by the citizens of San Benito or the citizens of Rio Hondo or the citizens of wherever. They should have unfiltered access to the employees that they hire.”
To see this story in print, pick up a copy of the June 29 edition of the San Benito News. Or view our E-Edition by clicking here.
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