Opinion ID: 780595
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Events Leading Up to Camacho's Termination

Text: 8 To understand the events giving rise to the termination of Camacho's employment, it is necessary to examine the political machinations taking place in the Yonkers City Council during the first half of 1998. When the newly elected City Council began its legislative session in January 1998, Camacho was a Senior Legislative Aide in the City Council Minority Leader's Office. He had been hired by Minority Leader Brandon, pursuant to her hiring authority, on the basis of Fuentes' recommendation and was assigned by her to Fuentes at the latter's request. Camacho had been closely associated with Fuentes since Camacho came to the United States in 1981. Camacho had worked on all of Fuentes' political campaigns from 1986 until Fuentes left the area in 1999, serving in various capacities, including treasurer, consultant, and eventually campaign manager. Indeed, Camacho was the best man at Fuentes' wedding. In serving as Fuentes' legislative aide, Camacho was intimately involved with all the functions of Fuentes' office, including answering the telephones, constituent service, and developing legislative policies. Indeed, Camacho was the only legislative aide who attended and participated in Minority Coalition caucus meetings where strategies were devised for responding to policy initiatives made by the Mayor and backed by the Majority Coalition. 9 During the period January 1998 until at least the date when Camacho was fired, the Majority Coalition maintained a strong political alliance with Mayor Spencer. Thus, the Majority Coalition always supported Mayor Spencer's legislative proposals without modification, while the Minority Coalition generally opposed those proposals. With rare exceptions, the Minority Coalition voted together as a block of three. Consequently, almost all City Council votes were four to three in favor of the Mayor's policies. 10 As time went on, relationships between these two political factions deteriorated. Majority Leader Burrows accused the members of the Minority Coalition of being obstructionists for opposing virtually all of the Mayor's policy initiatives. Burrows even lobbied Camacho to persuade Fuentes to end his affiliation with the Minority Coalition. Indeed, Camacho testified at trial that, in February 1998, he had a conversation with Burrows during which Burrows told him that the Mayor, as well as the members of the Majority Coalition, wanted Camacho to be fired because they were not happy about the fact that Fuentes was associating himself with Carlo Calvi. According to Camacho, Burrows was saddened that [Fuentes] was aligning himself with Calvi, who the Mayor and his political allies considered to be evil, and they considered him to be the enemy; and they didn't like this fact that [Fuentes] was aligning himself with the Minority Coalition. Burrows intimated that Fuentes' political affiliation might affect Camacho by put[ting] [his] job in jeopardy. 11 By the time the City Council scheduled a vote on the Mayor's proposed capital budget in June 1998, the Majority Coalition was unable to muster the votes necessary to adopt the Mayor's proposal. As noted above, approval of the capital budget required five votes. The Mayor's allies on the Majority Coalition could — and did — provide four of those five needed votes. The Minority Coalition, however, once again voted as a block against the budget, which failed to pass by a coalition-line vote of four to three. Representatives of both coalitions read the vote as yet another successful attempt by the Minority Coalition to flex its political muscle. According to Majority Leader Burrows, [b]y reason of the [M]inority [C]oalition voting as a group, they were able to defeat the capital budget that year. Fuentes agreed, testifying that we had to vote down the total project, and explained that we referred to the Minority Coalition. 12 The Majority Coalition responded quickly. The day after the capital budget was defeated, Camacho was terminated in a letter handed to him by Minority Leader Brandon, and Fuentes lost his trusted and loyal legislative aide. Fuentes and Camacho were not the only victims of the Majority Coalition's ire, however. Shortly after Camacho was terminated, Calvi also lost his legislative aide, and the office desks belonging to Calvi and Balancio were relocated to less desirable places in the City Council office area.