Mission employees resign over drug tests

MISSION — Around 15 city employees have resigned after failing a mandatory drug test.

City Manager Julio Cerda would not confirm the exact number of employees who were found to have alcohol or illegal drugs in their systems or exactly when the test was administered, but said that "more than a couple" have resigned this month before facing formal discipline and near-certain termination.

Mission has one of the strictest drug-use policies among Rio Grande Valley cities, testing every employee who works in a "safety-sensitive" position at least once a year and showing zero tolerance for illicit substance use.

"The testing is to make sure you have a clean slate of employees that are working at 100 percent," Cerda said. "I need to make sure we have zero tolerance of any drug whatsoever, including alcohol."

In this case, Cerda said, he sent one whole city department to be tested at once - as many as 150 people.

He confirmed that the department was neither police nor fire, leaving public works as the most likely group, since most other city departments are much smaller.

Mayor Norberto "Beto" Salinas confirmed that he had heard the number of people whose drug screens were positive was around 15 - as many as 10 percent of the employees of the department in question.

The effect of the personnel losses was spread over several sub-departments, Cerda said. City services are not expected to be negatively impacted.

But the high-volume firing raised eyebrows around town.

Resident Maria Flores said she was disappointed so many city employees had tested positive for drugs.

"I'm sad as a long-time citizen to see (these) embarrassing actions by our employees," she wrote in an e-mail.

Cerda said he did not find the number of fired employees alarming and was not worried the tested department might have internal problems.

Rather, the result "makes me want to continue more," he said. "This is something that we need to follow through with."

Mission made headlines in 2005 when it fired two parks department employees for drug use. Then-city manager Isauro Treviño tested five employees while investigating allegations that someone in the department was dealing cocaine - a claim he said could not be substantiated.

Since 2000, cities and school districts across the Valley have tightened their drug policies for employees whose jobs require the use of heavy or dangerous equipment or who drive while on duty.

Only a few test clerical and custodial workers who don't handle dangerous equipment or guns, unless specific complaints about a worker's performance or behavior indicate drug use.

Civil rights advocates have complained about the alcohol screen used by many employers, arguing that it tests for a legal substance and could unfairly target people who may have alcohol lingering in their systems but who are not impaired.

But Cerda said that for alcohol to show up in the city's screening process, a person would have to have been drinking all night or while at work, compromising public safety.

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Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.