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Council gets letter from Rodriguez' lawyer
Published July 15, 2010
City Manager Frances Rodriguez apparently believes the rumors that the Del Rio City Council, now led by Mayor Roberto “Bobby” Fernandez, wants to fire her.
But Rodriguez has put the new mayor and council members on notice that she won’t go without a fight.
Following Tuesday night’s eight-hour-long city council meeting, Councilman Mike Wrob gave the Del Rio News-Herald a copy of a “cease-and-desist” letter sent to City Attorney David Sorola July 8. That letter, in turn, has been distributed to the new mayor and to the other members of the city council.
Wrob also gave the News-Herald a copy of Rodriguez’s objections to the council’s meeting in closed-door session during Tuesday night’s meeting to discuss “possible litigation relating to personnel matters in the city manager’s and/or mayor’s office.”
Wrob said this morning although he cannot comment on many of the issues raised, he could say he “is very disappointed by the whole situation.”
The letter sent to Sorola by Rodriguez’s attorneys, the San Antonio firm of Oppenheimer Blend Harrison and Tate Inc., advises Sorola that the firm represents Rodriguez “regarding her employment as city manager of Del Rio, Texas.”
“Several issues have come to light recently that indicate the city may be violating or planning to violate Ms. Rodriguez’s rights under state and federal employment laws. This letter is to protest such violation and demand that the city comply with all applicable laws involving Ms. Rodriguez’s rights,” the letter, signed by Oppenheimer Blend attorney M. Cheryl Kirby, begins.
Kirby writes that Rodriguez “has done an excellent job as city manager following exemplary service as city finance manager.”
“(Rodriguez) has received excellent evaluations throughout her tenure and has been loyal to the city, serving through the terms of three previous mayors. She was instrumental in balancing a budget that was near bankruptcy and has consistently followed city policies in managing a workforce of around 450,” Kirby wrote.
The attorney then alluded to a spate of rumors that arose during the recent mayoral election, that if Fernandez won the mayor’s seat, he would work to push Rodriguez out. Those rumors reached a crescendo after Fernandez won the election for mayor.
In the letter to Sorola, Rodriguez’s attorney links those rumors to a plan to discriminate against Rodriguez based on her age.
“Despite Ms. Rodriguez’s successes, rumors are flying that Ms. Rodriguez, age 67, has been targeted for termination to be replaced by a much younger person. Such termination would be in violation of the age discrimination laws under state and federal law. Hopefully the rumors are untrue, but if there are plans to terminate Ms. Rodriguez and replace her with a younger person, we demand that such unlawful plans be canceled immediately,” Kirby wrote in the letter.
“It also appears that the mayor plans to keep Ms. Rodriguez employed just long enough to use her to carry out unlawful terminations of other employees. For example, the mayor questioned Ms. Rodriguez as to why the city secretary was still employed since she had been ticketed for a DWI. Ms. Rodriguez advised the mayor that the city charter prohibits the city manager from taking any action against the city secretary and specifically gives that authority only to the city council. As you know, the city council discussed the matter and decided to retain the city secretary as they are pleased with her work,” Kirby wrote.
In the letter, Kirby also claims that the new mayor “told Ms. Rodriguez to terminate an employee who was active (on her own time) in the campaign of the mayor’s opponent.”
“Ms. Rodriguez questioned this (such a discharge would violate that employee’s right to freedom of speech) and suggested transferring the employee to another position rather than terminating her. The mayor then said, ‘I don’t want her anywhere in the city.’ The mayor’s actions and comments show such disregard for employee rights that they appear to give credence to the rumors that Ms. Rodriguez has been targeted for termination to be replaced by a much younger person,” Kirby wrote.
Kirby then wrote that Fernandez told Rodriguez “he was going to meet with each city council member individually to get consensus about what they wanted to do with her.”
“Since the city charter provides for termination of the city manager only by the city council, Ms. Rodriguez understood that to mean that he was going to meet with each member individually to discuss terminating her. If the mayor follows through on this threat, it will blatantly violate the Open Meetings Act, which prohibits deliberating about public business without a quorum being physically present in one place, i.e., conducting secret deliberations and voting over the telephone. In the mayor’s case, meeting individually with each council member to deliberate about terminating Ms. Rodriguez would clearly violate the Act,” Kirby wrote.
Kirby in her letter also claims that the termination of Rodriguez as city manager would “defame” Rodriguez.
“. . . It is important that the city council and mayor understand that Ms. Rodriguez greatly values the good reputation she has built over the last 45 years of public service she has given Del Rio and trusts no one will attempt to tarnish her reputation. However, should anyone defame Ms. Rodriguez, the damage would be irreparable, and we demand the city council members, the mayor and city employees refrain from defaming Ms Rodriguez,” Kirby wrote.
The attorney ended the letter by directing the city elected officials not to speak to Rodriguez about the issues raised in the letter and asked the council members and the mayor to call Kirby instead. “We trust that the city of Del Rio will continue to be well served by Ms. Rodriguez as city manager for years to come,” the letter concluded.
“This has become a legal matter so I can really make no comment about the letter’s contents,” Fernandez told the News-Herald in a telephone interview today.
The mayor said, “ I can only say the letter from Ms. Rodriguez’s attorney has a lot of misinformation in it.”
Fernandez said, “That was what part of the executive session during Tuesday night’s meeting was about, to consult with our attorneys on a particular course of action regarding this matter.”
Fernandez added, “The majority of the time in executive session was spent on two other legal matters that are pending with the city.”
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