Commissioners cry liar, liar

City manager Charlie Cabler’s decision to grant the U.S. Department of Homeland Security access to survey public lands brought a division as wide as the Rio Grande among city leaders in the last few days with name-calling and accusations weighing on the issue.

How, when and where Cabler agreed to allow DHS entry also brought an array of conflicting scenarios.

On Monday, Mayor Pat M. Ahumada was defending comments and last week’s assertion that the City Commission violated the Texas Open Meetings Act when it agreed in a closed meeting

Jan. 8 to allow DHS access.

A Brownsville Herald review of the access-agreement found that it is dated Jan. 8.

Commissioners Charlie Atkinson, Ricardo Longoria and Leo Garza contacted The Herald, disputing the mayor’s position and said that action was not taken in executive session.

“The mayor totally opened his mouth and didn’t know what he was talking about,” Atkinson said.

The District 2 commissioner and mayor pro-tem was present at the executive session meeting in question, but has abstained from discussion or action on the matter because of continued negotiations to recover his job with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

“He is lying,” Longoria said of the mayor’s comments.

“He might be the mayor, but he’s a rookie,” the second-term commissioner added.

Longoria said that Cabler signed the agreement not long after an October meeting when the commission rejected Ahumada’s motion to deny access to government surveyors.

Garza complained that “The only one that doesn’t communicate is the mayor and that is his problem.”

Ahumada stood firm Monday and explained that Cabler and Assistant City Manager Carlos Ayala told him that the access agreement was discussed in executive session and signed without objection from those present.

Ahumada said he was not present at this session.

“The fact is the agreement to allow access was signed and it wasn’t brought to the commission for action,” he said.

Though Ahumada arrived late to the Jan. 8 executive session, he maintained Tuesday that the matter was not discussed then.

He has softened his stance on a possible Texas Open Meetings Act violation but is holding strong to his opinion that the decision should have been the City Commission’s and not the city manager’s.

Cabler said Tuesday that he signed the access agreement after consulting with Assistant City Attorney John Chosy, contract attorney Jim Blackburn and consultants from California.

He emphasized that it provides access only to survey and not to construct a fence.