City of Edinburg ordered to pay legal fees in Ground Game lawsuit

Organizations push for wage increase 

U.S. District Judge Randy Crane has ordered the City of Edinburg to pay $27,870 in legal fees and $402 in filing costs to Ground Game Texas after losing a lawsuit in March.

The Aug. 17 order came days after the Edinburg City Hall meeting on Aug. 15 where members of La Union del Pueblo Entero and Ground Game Texas gathered to demand councilmembers approve their petition to raise the minimum wage for city employees and contractors.

Among the members who spoke during the public comment period of the City Council meeting was LUPE Executive Director Tania A. Chavez Camacho.

“In January 2022 [along with Ground Game Texas], we started collecting signatures for the city to honor a $15 living wage for all employees of the city,” Chavez Camacho said. “And we did. We did do this by signatures, which we subsequently turned in to the city secretary, and they were refused. … And this was against our constitutional right to petition by signatures. Therefore, we took the matter to court.”

The nonprofit organization Ground Game Texas submitted the petition last year, but it was rejected by Edinburg Interim City Secretary Elizabeth Rodriguez. They later sued the City of Edinburg for rejecting the petition on the grounds that it did not meet requirements in the city charter, according to documents filed in the U.S. Southern District Court of Texas.

The City of Edinburg prohibits signature-gathering by anyone other than a five-person committee of registered voters, according to the documents.

In March, Crane ruled in favor of Ground Game Texas, stating that the city’s requirement that petitions in Edinburg be circulated by no more than five registered voters is unconstitutional under the First Amendment. 

Crane ordered the city secretary to certify the “Living Wage” petition and submit the initiated ordinance to the Edinburg City Council, according to the documents.

The Rider tried to contact City Attorney Omar Ochoa, but as of today, he has not returned calls. 

In May, Edinburg City Secretary Clarice Y. Balderas received the petition submitted by the group, but since the ruling by Judge Crane, councilmembers have not given it to the proper committee to review before going to a vote, Michael Mireles, director of civic engagement for LUPE, told The Rider before the meeting.

 “At this moment, we believe that you are violating the constitutional rights of the community members that we represent,” Chavez Camacho told the council Aug. 15.

 The Rider asked Mireles if LUPE was notified whether Rodriguez had presented the petition to the councilmembers.

“That we are aware of, no,” he replied.

The Rider tried to contact City Secretary Balderas but as of today, she had not returned calls.

On Thursday, the newspaper submitted a public information request to verify the petition had been reviewed by the councilmembers.

Mireles said the organizations are asking the City Council to “do right by the judge and the residents of the city in putting this to a vote.”

Also during public comment, resident Joaquin Garcia presented data from a living wage calculator developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which estimated that the living wage in the city of Edinburg for an individual without dependents is $14.98 per hour.

 The minimum wage in Edinburg is $7.25 per hour and has not gone up since 2009, according to the Ground Game Texas website. 

The Rider contacted Ground Game of Texas to clarify if the hourly wage was for city employees or all residents in Edinburg, but as of today, they had not replied.

The newspaper also submitted a public information request to the City of Edinburg on Aug. 17 to obtain confirmation on the current minimum hourly wage for city employees. 

“We cannot ignore the reality that the current minimum wage often falls short of providing a decent standard of living,” Garcia said. “People should not have to choose between paying their rent or putting food on their table or seeking medical care.”

The Rider asked Mireles if he thought the proposed “living wage policy” would put pressure on other employers to increase their wages.

“We think it really does set the trend if the city is showing that they are in favor of a living wage for their residents,” he said. “We’ve seen that other cities in the Rio Grande Valley have already taken interest. For example, the City of Alton is already working towards getting a $15 minimum wage for their city employees and contractors. So knowing the resources that Edinburg has and influence, we really do think that this is one of a larger domino effect of folks getting a redeemable wage.

”The goal is to put the petition up for a vote; however, if it is rejected, Mireles said they will conduct another campaign to gather more signatures and have their “living wage policy” placed on the ballot, if not this fall, then on the next ballot, leaving the final vote up to the people.