Groves council mulls ousting longtime city manager

In a special meeting of the Groves City Council set for Dec. 22, officials have scheduled a bevy of agenda items revolving around whether to take an “adverse employment action” against the longtime city manager.

Listed as the sixth item on the agenda, councilors set a discussion to “consider adverse employment action and take a record vote as to the Office of City Manager,” according to the meeting document in reference to D.E. Sosa, who announced his impending retirement in a Dec. 19 meeting. Sosa’s LinkedIn profile states that he’s worked as Groves City Manager since 2003.

When reached by phone Dec. 21, Sosa declined to comment, citing advice from his attorney.

Likewise, Mayor Chris Borne declined to opine Wednesday on any agenda items listed for discussion on Dec. 22, saying he couldn’t comment on the executive session chat set “to discuss personnel (City Manager)” – even though Sosa has requested a public hearing on the matter.

Calls to other city council members were not returned by press time.

Groves resident Barbara Edington, a regular observer at city council meetings, told The Examiner that Groves officials planned to fire Sosa for misusing his power to wantonly award financial breaks to his friends and those of city council members – all to the detriment of the city’s water fund.

“Consistently, our water/sewer (fund) is ‘off.’ A year or so ago, it was ‘off’ by $1.6 million. Sosa stated he underestimated the usage, when asked by then-Council Member Chris Borne,” Edington said.

Explaining that audit results would be made public in April 2023, Edington highlighted a few issues she says will arise from the review.

“There are some concerns that several city employees/family (members) do not have a complete water meter, or the batteries are bad, at their house; therefore, (they) do not receive a water bill or, if they do, it’s minimal. It’s no secret that the city of Groves is spending a lot of money replacing these water meters because the batteries are failing. Due to this, there are incorrect readings or no readings at all.”

“I, personally, know of a citizen that was allowed to keep their water on – although they had a past due water bill up to $1,000. It was mentioned to me that a resident of Groves had their water cut off due to non-payment,” she said. “The person mentioned to me what street this citizen lived on. Then, they were told to turn the water back on because the citizen was a relative to a city councilperson. I verified that a family member of a city councilperson lived on said street, to corroborate the information I received.”

According to Edington, once the audit is released, Groves residents will learn that there is now a $2 million discrepancy in the water fund.

“If found to be true, I wonder how the city manager and finance director will explain this one away,” Edington pondered. “Underestimated again? Failing meters? Blame it on an employee? A $2 million discrepancy is no small potatoes, especially to a city the size of Groves.”