Article written by T.J Aulds Published in the Galveston Daily News May 23, 2010

Barrett: No-vote on fire contract was retaliation

By T.J. Aulds

The Daily News

You can view this and many other articles about the La Marque City Council at http://galvestondailynews.com

Published May 23, 2010

LA MARQUE — City council members were trying to send a message to the firefighters union when they let a new collective bargaining agreement sit idle for six months, a veteran councilwoman and the lead member of the negotiating committee conceded.

Councilwoman Deanie Barrett also partially confirmed the fire chief’s claims city council members had suggested they would approve the contract if he could have the union president removed. For months, Barrett and the other council members denied their inaction on the contract in September resulted from collusion or from retribution for someone having reported an infraction by Mayor Pro Tem Keith Bell.

Bell, a Galveston firefighter, was suspended after he attended a council meeting wearing his uniform.

Barrett maintains council members did not meet in secret to discuss holding up the contract, but she said the inaction was “more of a stall to prove a point.”

The three-year collective bargaining agreement, which all sides had said was acceptable before it came up for council approval eight months ago, didn’t even receive a motion for approval.

Barrett said no one on council had coordinated the lack of action.

“It just sort of happened that night,” she said.

Lead Up To Battle

The council left the contract in limbo just a week after Bell assailed Fire Chief Todd Zacherl about a proposal to buy a new fire truck. Bell said he thought the proposal included too many unneeded items and was overpriced.

Bell was wearing his Galveston Fire Department uniform during that meeting and was supposed to be on duty on the island at the time. Bell admits he was still in uniform at the meeting but said he had arranged for someone to cover his shift while he was attending the council session.

He later was suspended for wearing the uniform and for leaving his post without permission after his infraction was reported to Galveston Fire Department administrators.

Galveston officials have refused to discuss Bell’s suspension.

Bell, however, blamed La Marque firefighters and union President John Brasher in particular for reporting the infractions.

The next week, the collective bargaining agreement was up for a vote, but it died for the lack of a motion.

Council members Larry Mann and Connie Trube said they were waiting for Barrett — who led the city’s negotiating team — to make a motion before offering a second. Bell said he did not think it was proper he make a motion for approval because he is also a firefighter and considered it a conflict of interest.

Show Of Support

Barrett said the inaction was a show of solidarity for Bell but was not a violation of open meetings laws.

Still, she said she now regrets the move and would not do it again since she and Bell now are on opposing sides of several issues, including a contract for City Manager Eric Gage and giving Police Chief Randall Aragon the added title of public safety director and the responsibility of supervising Zacherl, who has filed a grievance against the city manager.

“You back a person, and it bites you on the butt,” Barrett said.

The firefighters union sued the city and reached an accord on the contract in March.

Union President Stunned

Brasher said he was “floored” by Barrett’s statement.

“It just confirms what we had already figured out,” he said. “I don’t know what to say to that. All it did was cost taxpayers money and us money to hire an attorney.”

On that part, Barrett seemed to agree.

“This fire thing really got out of hand over nothing,” she said.

And it has divided the city, as well as council. Factions have formed in opposition to Gage, Barrett, Mann and Trube for other actions that firefighters said were retaliation against the union and members of the volunteer fire department who supported the paid firefighters.

That overflowed into vicious fights over Gage’s contract, the public safety director position, the hiring of a fire marshal and other personnel moves. There also is going to be a recall election in November after residents successfully petitioned for an effort to oust Barrett, Mann and Trube.

Push To Oust Union Boss

Barrett’s revelation about the contract dispute wasn’t the only disclosure. She also confirmed key parts of an allegation made by Zacherl in complaints he filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stating he had been instructed to find a way to have Brasher removed as union president in order to secure the firefighters’ contract.

Gage also acknowledged it was suggested in a meeting in Gage’s office with Zacherl, Barrett and Bell as they tried to find a way to resolve the stalemate.

Zacherl alleges Gage instructed him to find a way to get Brasher removed. Gage denied that but said during a closed-door meeting last year, “someone in the room did suggest that.”

Asked who made that suggestion, Gage said: “I don’t remember. I was sitting there going through other stuff, and I heard it.”

Asked what was said, Gage responded: “One of the council members, I don’t remember who, said that if (Brasher) was gone, they would get their contract.”

Conflicting Accounts

When asked whether a man or a woman had the comment, Gage said he couldn’t remember. He also said Bell had done most of the talking.

Bell denied he made the statement and said he recalls no such meeting.

“I don’t remember that statement being said,” Bell said. “I don’t remember a meeting of that nature or anything of that nature being said any time.”

Bell said that during a recent executive session, “it could be possible that somebody may have admitted something.”

He would not discuss the matter further, citing the confidentiality of the executive session that was followed by a reprimand of Gage for actions he took in creating the public safety director’s position.

Barrett, however, said she clearly remembers the meeting and that she and Bell made the statement together. She said it was an offhand comment, not a directive.

“The four of us were sitting there, it was just a statement when someone asked, ‘How can we resolve this,’” Barrett said. “I made (the statement) halfway. It was like one person started to say it and the other finished the sentence.”

She did not say who started the comment or who ended it but said it was neither Zacherl nor Gage.

“It was never intended as an order or a demand,” she said. “We can’t do that. It was just a statement, and everyone seemed to agree to it.”

The City Manager and two of the City’s Elected Officials in conference with the Fire Chief and it was not an order or demand it was just a statement???