After legal threat, Harlingen airport mulled hiring contractor to replace fire dept.

HARLINGEN — Days after the local firefighters’ union warned the move would trigger a lawsuit, Valley International Airport officials are considering hiring a contractor to replace the Harlingen Fire Department.

But it’s unclear whether the airport board would approve the proposal.

Three days after airport officials called a special meeting aimed at considering hiring a contractor, airport board Chairman George McShan canceled the meeting set for Wednesday.

“It was not warranted,” McShan said Tuesday. “We postponed that. The time wasn’t the best. In order to have a meeting, we wanted to make sure we had everything we needed.”

On Friday, airport officials called for the special meeting to “consider and take action to accept a proposal for aircraft rescue and firefighting service … from Pro-Tec Inc,” while taking steps to terminate the airport’s $1.2 million agreement with the city providing the fire department’s services.

On Tuesday, Marv Esterly, the airport’s aviation director, said he called for the special meeting instead of requesting the board consider the proposal during next week’s regular meeting set for May 20.

“We thought there was going to be a lot of discussion and wanted to make sure everyone was there for the meeting,” Esterly said, referring the reason he called for the special meeting. “It was a big item with a lot of discussion so we thought stand-alone would be better.”

Esterly said the proposal would again be presented to the board.

“If it’s not in the next meeting, it will be the next one,” he said.

For months, airport officials have been considering hiring a contractor to provide aircraft rescue and firefighting services, a move Esterly says would cut costs within a break-even budget.

Airport officials called for the special meeting two days after Evan Mann, president of the Harlingen Professional Firefighters Union, 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 the fire department and its firefighters while likely leading to the loss of 10 airport firefighters’ jobs.

As a result of Civil Service law, voters would have to approve the airport board’s hiring of a contractor, according to Texas Government Code, Title 4, executive branch, Subtitle B, Chapter 419.

“A local government which provided fire protection for its citizens utilizing a fire department and fire department personnel … may not … provide fire protection by utilizing an organization which is not a local government, a department of local government or a state or federal agency and which provides fire protection for the local government for profit under a contract or other agreement with the local government without approval of a majority of the voters at an election called for that purpose,” the law reads.

Two firefighters with the Harlingen Fire Department are seen during a June 2024 live burning training. (Courtesy: City of Harlingen/Facebook)

In an interview, Mann also claimed airport officials are overstating Federal Aviation Administration 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.

From 2017 to 2024, the FAA cited the fire department for three training violations, while last year Esterly self-reported “misleading” entries raising concerns of the possibility of records falsification in training logs stemming from two sessions in June and July 2024.

Earlier this month, Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said he could not comment on “pending investigations” when asked if his office was investigating the possibility of records falsification.

“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 an investigation based on last year’s findings. “In closing this case, we have considered all available facts and have concluded the matter does not warrant legal enforcement.”

In its 2024 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 are overlooking the fire department’s “perfect score” on its annual FAA inspections.

The post After legal threat, Harlingen airport mulled hiring contractor to replace fire dept. appeared first on MyRGV.com.