El Paso City Council disagrees on whether City attorney was picked on

El Paso City Council on Tuesday settled the controversial issue of how to evaluate City Attorney Sylvia Firth.

Last week, City Representatives Ann Morgan Lilly and Cortney Niland suggested evaluating Firth by getting feedback from those above, below and at the same level as Firth though electronic surveys. Firth pointed out that was outside the scope of her contract, which states the Mayor evaluates her.

Some City Representatives complained Firth took too long to resolve issues stuck in her legal department. But since the council has been discussing evaluating her more closely, some of them said Firth’s legal department is suddenly working more efficiently.

“I think it’s unfortunate that we have to throw temper tantrums such as the ones that we’ve thrown in the last three weeks just to get our projects out of this particular department,” City Rep. Cortney Niland said during Tuesday’s meeting.

That’s why ultimately the item was deleted on Tuesday.

Council is going to stick to evaluating Firth next month, according to the terms of her contract but the City Representatives seemed to be split on the issue. Some thought Firth was unfairly targeted while others said it wasn’t personal and were just concerned about her department’s performance.

“It seems what we have done is we have mixed personalities with the business aspect of this. It’s disappointing to me that this charade has gone on as long as it has,” said City Rep. Carl Robinson.

City Rep. Michiel Noe responded to the comment sternly. “I refuse to turn a blind eye with our government. And so if there’s a charade right now its anyone of us who’s standing up here and publicly announcing that there’s not a problem. I refuse to turn a blind eye. If it hurts me politically, then so be it,” he said.

Some City Representatives have expressed confusion or frustration with Firth in the last few months. Council was initially confused about her legal advice when they voted behind closed doors to offer Tommy Gonzalez the position of City Manager.

Last month, Niland publicly rebuked Firth, saying she sometimes doesn’t communicate well with Council and oversteps her bounds, referring to an example in which Firth had not earlier informed Council that developer River Oaks had asked for concessions in exchange for annexing a piece of East El Paso land to the City.

That issue, which City Representatives said had been stuck in the legal department for weeks, came up for resolution on Tuesday.

“This is not something that has to do with a personal vendetta. For me this is nothing more than I have serious concerns that we have a legal department that has severe performance issues,” said Niland.

City Rep. Lily Limon seemed to disagree with Niland. “This has created a hostile work environment for her (Firth) and that is unlawful… If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck – then it’s a duck. So all those words about it not being retaliatory, or hostile or vendettas, if it looks like it to the public, that’s exactly what it is,” she said.

The Council also plans to receive monthly reports from Firth on the status of issues pending in the legal department.