By Edmond Ortiz
Johnny Rodriguez’s powers and duties as Balcones Heights mayor are temporarily limited while the city investigates employee complaints against the city’s top elected leader. The move follows a tumultuous March 23 City Council meeting involving multiple heated exchanges among Rodriguez, the city attorney, and several council members.
What you should know
City Council voted 3-2 to proceed with the investigation based on a resolution offered by city attorney Cynthia Trevino, who said City Administrator Maria Hernandez was made aware around March 2 of allegations regarding Rodriguez’s interactions with certain city staffers.
Council’s vote greenlights an investigation by the Austin Institute, an Austin-based firm where consultants focus on organizational risk, vulnerability and security.
Council also voted 3-2 to pass an ordinance that indefinitely limits the mayor’s duties and powers in an effort, according to Trevino, to insure an objective, unfettered investigation. Mayor Pro Tem Jack Burton signed off on the resolution and ordinance.
What officials are saying
Although council held a March 9 closed session to get an initial briefing on the allegations against Rodriguez, the March 23 meeting served as an open session where Rodriguez launched into several tirades in which he denied wrongdoing and accused Trevino, Burton and other city officials of usurping his authority.
Rodriguez said even before the March 23 meeting, he had already been locked out of city governmental offices and resources, preventing him access to the full meeting agenda packet.
Rodriguez sought to claim the ordinance and resolution were improper, and that Trevino essentially conjured up an investigation as a way to keep billing the city to make more money for her law practice, Bojorquez Law Firm. He also implied Trevino faced ethical issues in her departure from the city of Bastrop.
Additionally, Rodriguez claimed locals who do not like him filed complaints against him because they see him as too stern or blunt when seeking accountability and transparency in his role as the elected chief executive officer of a general law city.
“These are the things that (adversaries) try to do – they try to lie, try to entrap me, and come up with things,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez asserted Trevino failed to offer legal precedence and arguments to support the resolution and ordinance calling for the investigation and limits to his authority.
“You’ve been provided with the case law, the research and the statutes in the ordinance being adopted tonight,” Trevino responded.
Rodriguez claimed he feels like he’s fighting an uphill battle to rectify questionable decisions made by previous administrations, and correcting what he described as uncooperative employees. He also expressed worry the investigation and limitation of mayoral powers will kill momentum on initiatives such as redevelopment of Wonderland of the Americas Mall.
“Which one of you on City Council has actually put something on the agenda that would push that forward?” he added. “It has been the work of myself, (Roger Enriquez), and the board members of the EDC that have pushed for this change.”
Rodriguez’s queries and claims spurred arguments with Burton and other council members at the dais, leading to remarks that sometimes veered from the meeting subject at hand to more pointed, personal comments that were irrelevant to the agenda item.
In one segment, Rodriguez and Council member Tracy Ebersole complained that they have had trouble getting full meeting agenda packets from city staff with enough time prior to a meeting. In a few instances, the mayor and one or two council members loudly talked over each other.
What residents are saying
A handful of residents, including former council members and current May 2 council election candidates, offered their own comments. Some defended Rodriguez and others chided him.
Roger Enriquez, an economic development corporation board member, is one of several residents who urged town officials to justify their investigation by being more transparent about the complaints made against Rodriguez.
Enriquez voiced concern that city staff and council are overreacting by locking the mayor out of city facilities, and not enacting due process to address the allegations filed against the mayor.
“This is not a narrow response, it is a fundamental shift in the way that the city is governed,” Enriquez said.
Rodriguez’s personal attorney said the state law that governs general law cities such as Balcones Heights does not let council members unilaterally limit the mayor’s responsibilities.
The mayor’s daughter, Ana Maria Rodriguez, described the exchanges among the mayor, council and staff as “middle school stuff” that embarrasses the city as a whole. She added that while nobody has to personally like her father, council members and staff should be more direct and open with him about the allegations and claims rather than keep him out of the loop.
Additionally, Ana Maria Rodriguez said her father has grown depressed because of a lack of support from council, and by rumors pushed by staff or community members.
“He is so stressed because of what you’re doing to him,” she added.
A few other speakers said the investigation – and behavior displayed by the mayor and council members March 23 – further jeopardize the public perception of Balcones Heights, which is already under widespread scrutiny because of other controversies.
Last fall, a Bexar County grand jury indicted ex-police lieutenant Theodore Herrera for tampering with evidence.
Last December, council approved an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to let ICE agents use the suburb as a station from which to enforce immigration laws. The move has made the town unpopular among critics of ICE’s tactics.
Others such as former Councilmember Lamar Gillian read a letter from Zach Baldwin, who was resigning as a fire department captain. According to the letter, Baldwin said a toxic political atmosphere exists at City Hall, where city leaders do not care for city staff.
Baldwin also accused Rodriguez of threatening to fire him if he spoke out about a demoralized fire department staff. According to the letter, many city employees have been politically targeted by a “certain elected official.”
In recent months, residents have complained that many staffers and city committee members have parted ways with city government over a rumored toxic work environment at City Hall.
“I can no longer ignore that my mental health or my family’s financial well-being are at risk by being employed by the city,” Baldwin stated in his letter.
Resident Gloria Cantu said Rodriguez recently sent out a letter that some residents received, but not her nor her neighbors. The letter referenced progress that Balcones Heights has made on key issues under Rodriguez’s leadership, but that such momentum could be undermined by what the mayor described as an internal threat in the form of lack of routine governance, accountability and trust.
Cantu said Rodriguez’s letter is not an ideal public communication that is expected from an elected leader.
“I would ask that you treat all of our citizens with respect, integrity and professionalism,” she told the mayor.
While he vehemently opposed council’s direction, Rodriguez said he welcomed the internal investigation in order to clear his name of any wrongdoing.
