City shells out $10K for search of city manager

By Pleasanton Express Staff | on August 02, 2023

Mayor Robert Williams (right) said Public Safety Solutions search firm was hired by the city to search for a city manager, eventually leading to the hire of Bobby Martinez, who has not held a city government position since 1992. EXPRESS FILE PHOTO

The City of Jourdanton remains under scrutiny after the resignation of Finance Director Vanessa Alvarado following a long hiatus after she filed a grievance in June against City Manager Bobby Martinez.

Martinez, who continues to tout his experience as a proven city leader, has been mum on the issue as Mayor Robert Williams makes no movement for a resolution to Alvarado’s grievance which cites ethical issues against Martinez as she affirms his lack of leadership skills.

The scenario for Martinez appears to parallel his only other role as city administrator as employees and department heads continue to quit under his leadership and the city battles to appease citizens’ outcries for better roads and services.

According to records, Martinez has not worked in city management since 1992. In 1990, Martinez was terminated by a majority vote by the Crowley city council after he served as the city’s administrator from February 1989 to May 1990.

The Crowley Review Newspaper on May 24, 1990 headlined their story “Council overrides mayor with vote to terminate Bobby Martinez as City Administrator.”

Former Finance Director Vanessa Alvarado resigned from the City of Jourdanton after a grievance she filed against City Manager Bobby Martinez in June was never heard or discussed with councilmembers. Alvarado was hired in early November 2022 by former City Manager Lamar Schultz. EXPRESS FILE PHOTO

On his resume submitted to the City of Jourdanton, Martinez states that his appointment as city administrator concluded with the new council election.

The Crowley Review article states, “Martinez had drawn criticism over his handling of not only the environmental issues, but also personnel problems.” According to the article, the City of Crowley police chief and two long-time public works employees resigned over differences with Martinez.

“Many of the issues discussed during the campaign centered around the toxic waste problems in Crowley and the morale problems faced by city employees since Martinez took office as city administrator in Feb. 1989,” the Crowley Review states.

In a letter to the editor in the Crowley Review, one public works employee that resigned stated, “The women employees at city hall are afraid to say anything to anyone, except ‘May I help you?’ or ‘Thank you.’ There is only one lady left that was there before Bobby Martinez. There have been five ladies who have quit since January 1989.”

He continues in his letter, “(Bobby) Martinez blamed everything that’s happened since I left on me. He (Martinez) insinuated that I stole a desk from the city. Martinez does not want the truth. I don’t think he even knows what it is.”

The former City of Jourdanton Finance Director, Alvarado stated the environment in the offices at the City of Jourdanton was oppressive, which eerily match that to the City of Crowley.

“He is not a good leader and before I filed my grievance, you have to take a look at people that were leaving abruptly,” she said. “That says a lot and that’s why, because of his micromanagement, he has no sense of respect for people and leadership. It’s a lot like ‘you’re gonna do what I want you to do and that’s it.’ And I’ve seen it personally happen with the police chief. It’s very controlling and oppressive. And if you speak up, you’re gone or he finds a way to get rid of you.”

Martinez was hired from a pool of two other candidates for city manager in October and November 2022, all chosen by the executive search firm of Public Safety Solutions, LLC (PSS).

Mayor Williams said PSS was hired by city council in a 3-1 vote. The firm was paid $10,473.73 (fee plus expenses) through the city’s general fund. That fee covered the cost of PSS finding three candidates to choose from for the city manager position but did not include reference checking or verification of employment history. The Pleasanton Express contacted PSS, the mayor and city council via email asking who, among them, was responsible for checking references and employment verification history on the candidate resumes.

In an email sent to the Pleasanton Express, PSS representative Max Westbrook said, “PSS does not provide background investigative services. I have a few references that I provide to clients if asked; however, we encourage the cities we work with to follow their established policies with background investigations, and we always make it clear that we do not provide these services. It is not listed in our scope of work.”

According to Mayor Williams, the city council was aware that they needed to check references and verify employment history. He stated that it was council’s responsibility. He also stated that they did check resumes and references. However, two councilmembers told the Pleasanton Express that they did not check references nor were they requested to do so by the mayor.

The mayor and council did not ask Martinez if he had ever been fired from a city management or city government position prior to his hiring. Mayor Williams said about the firing, “we didn’t know until several months later.”

Martinez states on his resume that his career began as an assistant to the city manager in human resources for the City of Tyler. He then states he worked at the City of Austin from 1985-1989.

Records obtained from the City of Austin do not match the job titles or departments that Martinez listed on his resume. On his resume, Martinez listed his positions as executive management assistant and manager of administration of finance and department of environmental protection. The description Martinez listed under Executive Management Assistant stated that position was an executive role as the chief of staff to the deputy city manager.

The City of Austin records showed that Martinez served as community development coordinator of public works solid waste services refuse collection from Jan. 17 to July 20, 1985; executive assistant of public works solid waste services refuse collection from July 21 to Feb. 29, 1987; division administrator of public works solid waste services refuse collection from March 1, 1987 to Jan. 1, 1988; division administrator of the Dept. of Environmental Protection and an executive assistant in the financial services department from Nov. 6, 1988 to Feb. 14, 1989.

After working in Austin, he took the position of city administrator for the City of Crowley from 1989 to May 1990. This position from 33 years ago was Martinez’s sole executivelevel management position he held in city government.

After his termination as city administrator from Crowley, Martinez states on his resume that he worked from 1990-1992 as an assistant to the city manager and as assistant director street department’s office of emergency preparedness for the City of Dallas. He lists no other city management experience since 1992 according to both his resume submitted to the city and on his Linkedin account. His resume submitted to the mayor and council did not include years or dates for his jobs but he did list them on his Linkedin.

Another general discrepancy in Martinez’s work experience are statements he made regarding his years of relative work experience.

In a Pleasanton Express article published on Nov. 9, 2022, Bobby Martinez stated, “I spent about 15 years in city management working in cities about two or three times the size of Jourdanton, so I hope that depth and breadth of experience is something that can be helpful for the mayor and the city council as well as the citizens of Jourdanton.” An email forwarded to the Pleasanton Express by Martinez shows, “Again, as often stated, and as the council has witnessed, my commitment to fiduciary responsibility for Jourdanton’s ‘common good’ is firmly grounded on my 20+ years of city management and government experiences.

Along with several employees that have resigned at the City of Jourdanton under Martinez’s leadership, there were also the resignations of the city’s legal counsel Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, PC and the resignation of the interim attorney Thomas Cate.

In his resignation letter submitted on July 7, Cate said, “As I stated to the council when I first accepted this position, my primary goal was to keep the city out of the bar ditch, i.e., keep the city out of trouble. In my opinion, the current personnel issue involving Mrs. Vanessa Alvarado will continue long after my employment with the city ends. I think that it would be in the best interest of the city to have the new city attorney advise the city on this personnel issue because the city attorney will be defending whatever action the city council takes. If the city was to take action on the issue based upon my legal advice, your new city attorney would have to defend the city based upon that advice.”

On Tuesday, July 25, council approved hiring Davidson Troilo Ream & Garza, PC as the new legal team to represent the city of Jourdanton.

“Obviously, I filed a grievance against him (Martinez) that’s not even being heard, even in the face of some council members wanting to hear it, so why isn’t it being heard?” Alvarado said. “If there’s nothing to hide, why isn’t it being heard? I’ve helped a lot throughout this process and I just want an opportunity to say, ‘this is what’s been happening.’ And then you can go ahead and make your own conclusions.”

Alvarado told the Pleasanton Express she was hired in early November 2022 by former city manager Lamar Schultz and responsibilities in her job were taken away by Martinez after her grievance was filed. She has since left the city for another position in San Antonio.

In Alvarado’s resignation letter, she stated the reasons for her resignation were due to Bobby Martinez’s recent changes to her role and access restrictions that have hindered her ability to do her job as hired, preventing her from finding errors in financial reporting. She gave the example of a $556,880.56 entry found by a consultant that was made to the January 2022 bank reconciliation.

Alvarado stated that this “plug” entry was alleged to be done intentionally to force the bank to balance. She said in her letter that this information was immediately reported to Bobby Martinez and City Secretary Debbie Molina in November and December 2022.

“My intention, when I accepted this position, was to help fix things. And you know, there are still a few issues with the water but I want to say that for the most part, the billing issues are fixed,” she said. “But the financials are just a mess.”

The City of Jourdanton’s audit was due on March 31 and is currently overdue. The firm Garza, Gonzales & Associates was awarded as new auditors in June after Martinez mutually separated ties with the former firm of Armstrong, Vaughan & Associates.

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