Former city manager files suit in state district court, City countersues

By DINA ARÉVALO
Port Isabel-South Padre Press
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com

Former Port Isabel City Manager Edward Meza has filed a lawsuit in State District Court against the City of Port Isabel. In a response delivered to the court just last week, the City has filed a countersuit of its own.

Meza’s suit, filed in the 444th State District Court presided over by Judge David Sanchez, comes approximately three months after a federal judge approved the recommendation of a magistrate to dismiss portions of a federal lawsuit Meza filed against the City last year.

Meza filed the federal suit in June 2016 alleging the City had wrongfully terminated him and denied his severance package as an act of retaliation for attempting to bring to light corruption within the City’s leadership.

He further claimed the alleged retaliation was a violation of his First Amendment rights. That claim, along with a claim of a violation of the Employee Retirement Security Income Act (ERISA), as matters of federal law, gave the U.S. District Court presiding jurisdiction, but in December a magistrate recommended the two claims be dismissed. The magistrate also recommended Meza’s other two claims, as matters of state law, be dismissed without prejudice, allowing for suit to be brought in State District Court.

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