Maverick County Commissioners Court hire new Legal Counsel
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
Maverick County Commissioners Court held a special meeting on Monday, April 20, 2015 and unanimously voted to hire the legal services of attorney Luis R. Vera, Jr. of San Antonio, Texas as general counsel for Maverick County and Maverick County Public Facility Corporation (Maverick County Detention Center), replacing former general counsel Poncho Nevarez of the Nevarez Law Group of Eagle Pass, Texas, who resigned due to conflicts of interest.
As the old proverb says, to the Victor goes the spoils. This was the case on April 20th as Commissioners Court addressed Agenda Item No. 17 calling for the possible approval of Luis R. Vera, Jr. as legal counsel for Maverick County and Maverick County Public Facility Corporation.
Vera was hired by Commissioners Court on December 8, 2014, as special legal counsel to represent Commissioners Court regarding the reappointment of County Auditor Fidencio Ortiz by the state district judges. As is now history, the three district judge panel split on the reappointment of Fidencio Ortiz on a 2-1 vote not to reappoint him and choosing to appoint a new County Auditor, Brenda Watkins, on a similar split vote of 2-1. During this period, Vera represented County Commissioners in their taxpayer funded campaign to oust Ortiz as County Auditor with legal research, drafting of documents, and advising Commissioners during the three judge panel meetings.
County Judge David R. Saucedo addressed the agenda item by reading a letter of resignation from Maverick County legal counsel Poncho Nevarez:
“As you are aware, our firm’s contract to provide general counsel services to Maverick County expired on January of this year. As a result, we have been going on a month to month. Please allow this correspondence to serve as our intention to discontinue serving as the county’s general counsel as of May 1, 2015. We are asking the county to waive the 30 day notice requirement that is standard month to month agreements so that we can aid in transitioning into any new counsel. Based on this waiver, we in turn will waive and hold harmless the county for any retainer fees to be paid through the month of May. We will continue to bill the county for any fees on litigation cases based on the agreement and hourly based work in the future. Based on my service in the legislature, the nature of my litigation practice and the fact that the associate who staffs my meetings at the office will soon be out on maternity leave, it has come and will become difficult to serve the county’s administrative needs on a week to week basis. My litigation practice is best set up to help the county from a litigation standpoint and we will continue to present and represent the county in the litigation that we are currently serving as legal counsel. This discontinuing of our services will also extend to any services provided to the Public Facility Corporation as well. Our firm has enjoyed the work and will continue to support the county in whatever capacity the county sees fit. Thank you for the opportunity.”
“I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mr. Nevarez. I know it was very difficult for him at this juncture to handle both jobs. We had several discussions and it was difficult for him because his first priority is the citizen of Maverick County. He has found himself in some situations in which he wants to advocate for Maverick County as a legislator but he has difficulty doing so because of the conflict. I know that it is great that we have a representative that cares more about this entity than about his pocket book. He knows that in order to help the citizens of Maverick County and this entity he could probably do better outside of serving as general counsel,” stated Judge Saucedo.
Judge Saucedo noted that Poncho Nevarez had agreed to stay on and continue working the litigation cases pertaining to the Dos Republicas Coal Partnership open surface coal mine known as Eagle Pass Mine.
“It is going to be sad to see him go. But he does a great job representing us, representing our interest. Its sad to see him go but we know he is a phone call away,” added Judge Saucedo.
Judge Saucedo stated that Nevarez’s resignation has opened up the opportunity to ask attorney Luis R. Vera, Jr. if he’d be willing to serve Maverick County as general counsel.
“He has worked some cases for us. Recently, the case we had with the auditor, obviously successful in that. And we asked if he would take on the responsibility of being general counsel at the same rate that of Mr. Nevarez’s and they have agreed to do that,” said Judge Saucedo. Although County Commissioners do not have to go out for Request for Proposals for the General Counsel position, the better practice is to go out for request for proposals but it was quite obvious that Judge Saucedo and Commissioners Court were rewarding Vera for his representation of them in the County Auditor case.
The Maverick County Bar Association with over 50 members was not consulted with nor given an opportunity to have any of its members considered submitting a proposal for the general counsel position instead of awarding to an out of town attorney or law firm.
Commissioners Court proceeded to award the spoils to Vera by unanimously approving him as general counsel for Maverick County and the Maverick County Public Facility Corporation with Commissioner Jose Luis Rosales being absent at the meeting.
