DONNA — The lone item on the executive session portion of the most recent city council meeting agenda has prompted questions over whether officials here are planning to hire a man who once served as a consultant and city manager — a man who has been entangled in a lawsuit against the city since 2019.
“Discussion on retaining the services of Silva, Otting, & Silva, LLC.” reads the item caption for the July 5 regular meeting of the Donna City Council.
However, in June 2019, Ernesto Silva, the manager of SOS, sued Donna, its two economic development corporations, and the administrative arm of the Donna-Rio Bravo International Bridge known as the International Bridge Corporation.
Silva’s suit claims breach of contract and includes allegations that Donna reneged on millions of dollars in payment for services rendered as the city sought to build the international bridge and to improve Donna’s water and sewer infrastructure.
According to the lawsuit, Silva and his firm first began working for Donna as a consultant in 2002.
The city hired him as a consultant that May during its quest to build an international bridge where Farm-to-Market Road 493 ends at the Rio Grande not far from the Mexican town of Rio Bravo.
A few months later, in August 2002, the city also tasked Silva with consulting on a large-scale project to improve Donna’s water and sewer infrastructure.
Silva’s work involved securing state and federal grants, including some $9 million for the bridge, and $20 million for the water infrastructure.
Silva was also integral in “implement(ing) a financial plan to obtain the refinancing of bonds in the amount of ($27.9 million)” meant to pay for construction of the international bridge.
For his efforts on the projects, Silva invoiced the city just over $2.6 million.
Over the next several years, Donna and Silva agreed to several different payment plans regarding the invoices, with the most recent pay agreement approved in March 2017.
Throughout that time, however, Silva’s position within the city fluctuated.
He went from being an outside consultant on the city’s biggest projects to being ousted in 2010 after a change in the city council.
The city brought him back in 2013 to again serve as a bridge consultant. Then, in 2016, Donna asked him to be interim city manager. But by the end of 2017, Silva stepped down from the role.
All the while — even as he worked as interim city manager — Silva continued to receive payments for his consultant work.
Silva received those payments in accordance with the March 2017 payment plan up until June 2018, when he claims the city abruptly terminated the agreement and stopped paying him.
A year later — on June 6, 2019 — Silva filed suit.
The lawsuit remains ongoing, with the judge handing down an order as recently as Tuesday — the very day the city council met to discuss whether they wanted to bring Silva back.
That discussion happened behind closed doors. When the council emerged from executive session, however, neither the interim city manager nor city officials were willing to talk.
“We agreed that the city manager would be doing all the talking on that subject,” Mayor Rick Morales said while signing a stack of documents after the meeting.
All the mayor would say was that the council had taken no action on the matter and that he had not been the one to place the item on the agenda. He deferred additional questions to the city manager.
However, Frank Perez — who has served as the interim city manager since Carlos Yerena was forced to step down from the position in late March — refused to speak with The Monitor.
“I don’t want to be recorded ahorita,” Perez said while walking out of the legislative chamber immediately after the meeting ended.
Perez’s unwillingness to comment follows a pattern of ducking questions from local media. Just last month, the interim city manager at times gave conflicting statements or outright ignored inquiries from multiple media outlets regarding the termination and subsequent reinstatement of Police Chief Gilbert Guerrero.
On Tuesday, Perez walked away as The Monitor attempted to ask about Silva.
“No comment,” Perez responded when pressed as to why the city was considering re-engaging Silva’s services when the man’s lawsuit continues to be fought in court three years after it was filed.
Court documents indicate the dispute is a bitter one.
The city’s 4A and 4B EDCs and the bridge corporation were released from the lawsuit in April 2020 after then-state District Judge Ysmael Fonseca made a ruling partially in their favor.
However, Fonseca denied the city’s similar request to be dismissed from the lawsuit.
Instead, the case has dragged on and attempts to mediate have fallen flat.
Silva’s attorneys have argued that Donna has not participated in mediation attempts in good faith. Meanwhile, the city’s attorneys have countered that they have no obligation to do so.
Now the two sides are arguing to have each other sanctioned by the court. Donna is also continuing its efforts to have the lawsuit tossed.
The two sides are expected to meet again in court on Aug. 16
Reached for comment Thursday, Silva said he was unaware the city was considering contracting with his firm once more, adding that the last several years have been difficult.
“It’s tough when you work for a client and … they admit they owe you the money, but for some legal reason — or presumed legal reason — they feel that they don’t have to pay it,” Silva said.
Despite that, he still has nothing but positive wishes for the city he once led, saying he hopes Donna will, “continue to move forward with the projects that were brought in during the time that I assisted them.”
Just a few months after Silva filed his suit, Donna officials began taking the first steps toward making the bridge accessible to commercial traffic. It’s a $60 million project that, as before, requires the city to take on millions in new debt.
Silva helped Donna find the funding when the international bridge was first built, but when asked if he would be willing to help the city do so again this time around, he said not as long as the lawsuit exists.
“Unless there’s a settlement, I don’t think it would behoove for us to be involved and work together if there’s still pending litigation,” Silva said.
