Local attorney Heriberto Morales was present on this day along with colleague Paul Fletcher who began the discussion of the item by taking the opportunity to thank the city for using their services and depending on their firm for all major legal issues the municipality faces in their day-to-day operations.
"We are very grateful for the service we provide to the City of Eagle Pass. You may see my colleague Paul Fletcher and myself here most, but I will let you know that we have six attorneys who work on a daily basis on contracts, legal notices and other specialized areas. We are very competitive with the services we perform," said Morales, "Our actual hourly rate of $175 per hour has not changed in eleven years. I know there have been some questions of certain services that have not been performed."
He cited a letter dated in 2003 outlining their responsibilities which noted they also have a $5,000.00 retainer fee.
In 2003, we were literally overwhelmed with the amount of work we had with the city" beginning with one and a half years of trials in Municipal Court that hadn't been heard. Morales cited that they used to have full dockets four to five Thursdays a month and now they are down to one Thursday a month with 20-30 cases in the morning and the same amount in the afternoon.
"It's twelve years of a lot of work, but I brought up this item because I've been surprised at some of the things I've seen," said Hernandez, "I wanted to know what your scope of work is. You review plans from the Planning Department on plats or certificates. We need to find a way, it's not my job to find it, but there's got to be a way. We get your opinions the day before they are presented and the Planning Department got them two weeks ago. I want to see your job, what you're charging the city. We're not getting your opinion and your charging us. Do you follow me?"
Morales said there was a subdivision review team who had not briefed him prior to a meeting. He also said there are opinions brought to Mr. (Brian) Shea that don't ever make it to council.
He also assured council they would get said invoices to council via e-mail prior to every meeting going forward.