Emails show dueling plans for Harlingen airport firefighting services
May 27—HARLINGEN — For months, city and airport officials have been debating two proposals known as Plan A and Plan B.
In the last few weeks, Valley International Airport officials' Plan A has come to the forefront, a proposal to hire Pro-Tec Fire Services, an Appleton, Wisconsin, company that's become North America's biggest provider of aircraft rescue and firefighting services.
At City Hall, airport officials' plan to terminate the city's $1.2 million agreement providing the Harlingen Fire Department's airport firefighting services is drawing opposition.
In response to the plan, the Harlingen Professional Firefighters' Association is warning it would file a lawsuit against the city if the airport's board of directors hires Pro-Tec, arguing the move could lead to a violation of Civil Service law protecting firefighters' jobs.
Meanwhile, Marv Esterly, the airport's aviation director, is standing behind the proposal to hire Pro-Tec.
While Pro-Tec is offering its services for $973,000 as part of a proposed five-year contract, the city's planning to boost the fire department's fees by 7% next year and then by 8% in 2027.
For the airport operating on a break-even budget, Pro-Tec, which serves more than 20 U.S. airports, would help save about $1.9 million during the next five years.
Esterly has also expressed concern over the fire department's federal training violations.
From 2017 to 2024, the FAA cited the department for three training violations while last year Esterly self-reported "misleading" entries raising concerns of the possibility of records falsifications in training logs stemming from two classes last June and July.
THE PLANS
An email thread helps outline officials' discussions over the proposal they call Plan A.
In response to the Valley Morning Star's request filed under the Texas Public Information Act, Esterly released emails sent from April 29, 2024 to April 16.
In a Feb. 26 email to Mayor Norma Sepulveda, Esterly addressed concerns leading him to propose hiring Pro-Tec.
"The rising cost of ARFF services is placing significant strain on the airport's budget," he wrote. "The current ARFF arrangement is unsustainable, placing significant financial stain on the airport."
Then Esterly pointed to what he described as "safety and regulatory compliance."
"FAA-mandated training standards must be met to maintain (the airport's) Part 139 certification," he wrote to Sepulveda, referring to the FAA's airport operations certification. "Given budgetary constraints and critical safety and compliance concerns, Plan A remains the most prudent and responsible path forward to ensure regulatory compliance and public safety."
Meanwhile, Plan B would consist of an overhaul of the fire department's ARFF program.
Under Plan B, the department would "implement FAA-recommended best management practices to enhance compliance and transparency," Esterly wrote to Sepulveda, adding the proposal would "address systemic failures in training oversight and establish strict compliance measures to prevent future violations."
Esterly then referred to a memorandum of understanding specifying firefighters' qualifications and requirements.
While Plan B would call for a "cost-sharing strategy" to "develop a financially sustainable ARFF plan that aligns with federal regulations while balancing fiscal responsibility," the proposal would also "evaluate the current MOU to determine necessary modifications, replacement or possible termination," he wrote.
In an April 29, 2024, email to City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez, Esterly expressed concern over what he described as rising costs stemming from fire department ARFF staffing leading to overtime pay.
"It has come to our attention that there is a recurring practice of calling in ARFF alternatives from different shifts, rather than utilizing those assigned to the current shift," he wrote. "This has resulted in increased overtime costs that area subsequently billed to the airport."
Esterly argued overtime billing violates the parties' agreement.
"According to our current memorandum of understanding, the airport board should not have to bear the financial responsibility for overtime expenses that arise due to the city's failure to maintain adequate staffing levels, including the provision of designated alternatives for each shift," he wrote to Gonzalez. "Maintaining compliance with our MOU is crucial to ensure the cost-effectiveness and regulatory adherence of the ARFF services provided."
In a Feb. 25 email, Sepulveda pointed to "legal challenges surrounding privatization," adding Gonzalez was working to address overtime costs.
Meanwhile, City Attorney Mark Sossi argued the Texas Government Code's Civil Service stance prohibited the city from hiring a contractor such a Pro-Tec.
"After review of the legal issues at hand, we believe that Chapter 143 of the Texas Local Government Code will be a legal bar to privatization of the firefighters positions," he wrote in a Dec. 2, 2024, email to Gene McCullough, the airport board's attorney. "This will also confirm that the city, as the airport sponsor, has not given its consent to the privatization of AARF functions at the Valley International Airport."
Earlier this month, Evan Mann, president of the Harlingen Professional Firefighters Association, warned city commissioners the union would file a lawsuit against the city if they didn't stop the airport board from hiring a contractor.
In an interview, Mann said the board's hiring of a contractor would violate Civil Service law protecting firefighters who could lose their jobs.
Mann also claimed airport officials were overstating FAA reports citing "isolated" firefighter training violations as part of a plan to "discredit" the fire department in order to lead the airport board to terminate the city's $1.2 million agreement providing aircraft rescue and firefighting services.
Esterly denied the claims.
In February, the FAA closed a 2024 investigation stemming from Esterly's move to report "discrepancies" in two firefighter training classes held last June and July.
"The FAA determined training and misleading entries to be directly isolated to the identified sessions and not systemic to the entire ARFF training program," Denson E. Stasher, the agency's safety and standards manager, wrote to Esterly in a Feb. 19 report closing the investigation. "In closing this case, we have considered all available facts and have concluded the matter does not warrant legal enforcement."
In its investigation report, the FAA found the fire department's ARFF program in "full compliance," Erik Ramirez, the union's vice president, said in an interview.
Meanwhile, Mann said airport officials were overlooking the fire department's five years of "perfect scores" on its annual FAA inspections.
Featured Local Savings
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
21 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Slovak Lawmakers Approve Resolution to Oppose Russia Sanctions
Slovak lawmakers approved a resolution that empowers government members to not support new sanctions against Russia. The motion, proposed by a junior pro-Russian coalition party, was backed by 51 out of 76 lawmakers that cast their votes on Thursday.
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Contributor: Every shooting reflects our culture of violence, which the president cheers
On May 21, as they left the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were fatally shot, and because they were employees of the Israeli Embassy and the suspect was associated with pro-Palestinian politics, the story was reported in the familiar mode of Middle East politics. The questions that reporters and pundits have been asking are: 'Was this antisemitic?' 'Was this killing a direct result of Israel's starving of Palestinians in Gaza?' 'Was this another act of pro-Palestinian terrorism?' 'Is this the direct result of 'globalizing the intifada'?' While these are valid questions, they miss a central part of the story. Only in the eighth paragraph of the New York Times report are we told that the night before the shooting, according to officials, the suspect 'had checked a gun with his baggage when he flew from Chicago to the Washington area for a work conference' and, further, that officials said 'The gun used in the killings had been purchased legally in Illinois.' (The Los Angeles Times article does not mention these facts.) This tragic shooting, however, is not unique. In November 2023, a Burlington, Vt., man was arrested and charged with shooting three Palestinian college students without saying a word to them. (He has pleaded not guilty.) In October 2018, a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot and killed 11 Jews at prayer. In 2015, three Muslim students were shot and killed by their neighbor in Chapel Hill, N.C. This brief and very incomplete list of the literally hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed by guns in the U.S. in the last decade does not include the racist mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.; the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.; or the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, at a music festival in Las Vegas in 2017. This macabre list also leaves out the thousands of people who have been shot and killed by law enforcement. The elephant in the room — so fundamentally accepted that it largely goes unmentioned — is the deeply ingrained culture of violence in the United States. Gun ownership, police violence and abuse, and mass shootings are symptoms of that culture. However, the militaristic approach to international conflict (from Vietnam to Ukraine) and the disdain for nonviolent solutions are also grounded in this culture, as are the manosphere and the cruelty of predatory capitalism. Now we have a presidential administration that embodies this culture. Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, personifies this ethos of cruelty and violence when she is photographed in front of a cage full of humans in a Salvadoran jail known for torturous treatment of inmates or writing casually about killing her dog. Noem is a key player in the theater of cruelty, but she is not the only one, and the unparalleled star is of course President Trump. Trump's policy agenda is based on vengeance. He revels in the theatricality of violence of the world of mixed martial arts, and he signs executive orders that aim to destroy individuals, law firms and universities that have not bent the knee, and the economics of his 'Big Beautiful' budget moves money from those in need to those who need for naught. Now, the president wants a military parade on his birthday that will include tanks, helicopters and soldiers. Although Trump himself evaded the draft, and he reportedly called American soldiers who were killed in war suckers and losers, he likes the strongman aesthetic of an army that is at his beck and call. He exulted in the fact that 'we train our boys to be killing machines.' Although some want to draw a dubious line from pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations to the killings of Lischinsky and Milgrim, the direct line that should be drawn is the one that everyone seems to have agreed to ignore: a culture of violence coupled with the widespread availability and ownership of guns inevitably leads to more death. The only way we get out of this cycle of violence is by addressing the elephant in the room. Aryeh Cohen is a rabbi and a professor at American Jewish University in Los Angeles. @ If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Every shooting reflects our culture of violence, which the president cheers
On May 21, as they left the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were fatally shot, and because they were employees of the Israeli Embassy and the suspect was associated with pro-Palestinian politics, the story was reported in the familiar mode of Middle East politics. The questions that reporters and pundits have been asking are: 'Was this antisemitic?' 'Was this killing a direct result of Israel's starving of Palestinians in Gaza?' 'Was this another act of pro-Palestinian terrorism?' 'Is this the direct result of 'globalizing the intifada'?' While these are valid questions, they miss a central part of the story. Only in the eighth paragraph of the New York Times report are we told that the night before the shooting, according to officials, the suspect 'had checked a gun with his baggage when he flew from Chicago to the Washington area for a work conference' and, further, that officials said 'The gun used in the killings had been purchased legally in Illinois.' (The Los Angeles Times article does not mention these facts.) This tragic shooting, however, is not unique. In November 2023, a Burlington, Vt., man was arrested and charged with shooting three Palestinian college students without saying a word to them. (He has pleaded not guilty.) In October 2018, a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot and killed 11 Jews at prayer. In 2015, three Muslim students were shot and killed by their neighbor in Chapel Hill, N.C. This brief and very incomplete list of the literally hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed by guns in the U.S. in the last decade does not include the racist mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.; the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.; or the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, at a music festival in Las Vegas in 2017. This macabre list also leaves out the thousands of people who have been shot and killed by law enforcement. The elephant in the room — so fundamentally accepted that it largely goes unmentioned — is the deeply ingrained culture of violence in the United States. Gun ownership, police violence and abuse, and mass shootings are symptoms of that culture. However, the militaristic approach to international conflict (from Vietnam to Ukraine) and the disdain for nonviolent solutions are also grounded in this culture, as are the manosphere and the cruelty of predatory capitalism. Now we have a presidential administration that embodies this culture. Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, personifies this ethos of cruelty and violence when she is photographed in front of a cage full of humans in a Salvadoran jail known for torturous treatment of inmates or writing casually about killing her dog. Noem is a key player in the theater of cruelty, but she is not the only one, and the unparalleled star is of course President Trump. Trump's policy agenda is based on vengeance. He revels in the theatricality of violence of the world of mixed martial arts, and he signs executive orders that aim to destroy individuals, law firms and universities that have not bent the knee, and the economics of his 'Big Beautiful' budget moves money from those in need to those who need for naught. Now, the president wants a military parade on his birthday that will include tanks, helicopters and soldiers. Although Trump himself evaded the draft, and he reportedly called American soldiers who were killed in war suckers and losers, he likes the strongman aesthetic of an army that is at his beck and call. He exulted in the fact that 'we train our boys to be killing machines.' Although some want to draw a dubious line from pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations to the killings of Lischinsky and Milgrim, the direct line that should be drawn is the one that everyone seems to have agreed to ignore: a culture of violence coupled with the widespread availability and ownership of guns inevitably leads to more death. The only way we get out of this cycle of violence is by addressing the elephant in the room. Aryeh Cohen is a rabbi and a professor at American Jewish University in Los Angeles. @
