Wednesday, March 29, 2017

VOTE TIE ON RINGS KEEPS TOXIC ISSUE ALIVE AT BISD


By Juan Montoya
For the third time, the trustees on the board of the Brownsville Independent School District cast a 3-3 vote with one abstention and decided not to accept after-the-fact donation of $25,060 in championship soccer rings by a ring maker associated with a company for whom trustee Joe Rodriguez is a vendor.

Board president Cesar Lopez said he wanted to put the toxic issue to rest saying it had cast an "awful dark cloud" over Porter. Appropriately, trustee Carlos Elizondo, the Brownsville Fire Dept. Fire Chief, had come to the meeting aboard the department's hazardous materials fire truck and parked outside in the front parking lot. (Someone also pointed out that Elizondo had parked the fire truck on a handicapped parking space and it appears from the picture sent to us that he might have. But closer inspection shows that it is merely a sign directing visitors to the handicapped ramp on the side of the main building. Closer scrutiny comes with the territory.)

The three voting against accepting the donation by Herrf Jones – Laura Perez-Reyes, Minerva Peña and Dr. Sylvia Atkinson – said they were worried about potentially negative consequences for the student'athletes and heeded the advice of legal counsel saying that accepting the donation would constitute a violation of the district's own policies.

Joe Rodriguez, who is registered as a vendor with BSN Sports, which merged with ring maker Herrf Jones in 2013, participated in the discussion but did not vote on the issue despite complaints by Peña that he shouldn't join the discussion. Rodriguez joined with BSN Sports as a "consultant" and that firm merged with Herrf Jones three years later under the Varsity Brands umbrella. http://www.bsnsports.com/press_releases/merger%20-%2006-25-13.pdf

As such, he is prevented from discussing or voting on any item dealing with those companies. However, since the issue first surfaced in the board's January 17 meeting, he has discussed and voted on the issue a number of times.

In one vote which ended in a 3-3 tie, the donation from the vendor was not accepted. In another the following month, he cast his vote that resulted in another tie that prevented the district from asking the Texas Education Agency for assistance to resolve the matter.

"There were two mistakes made here," he said over Peña's protests that he could not join in the discussion. "One I've already mentioned (procurement of goods without a purchase order) and the other is that in the business world you are not supposed to send anything down without a purchase order. If you do. you have to swallow the bill."

Rodriguez bristled when Atkinson commmented that she found his comments "very interesting."
I registered as a vendor with BSN," Rodriguez said hotly.

Even though the invoice sent by Herrf Jones to Porter indicated that two free rings were added as a "volume discount" for Rodriguez and superintendent Esperanza Zendejas, none of that was mentioned at the meeting. There was also no mention of the fact that Zendejas emailed Herrf Jones competitor Jim Ramirez, of Josten's, on June 21, five days after the Porter soccer team beat Frisco in Georgetown for the championship that she, Porter Principal Hector Hernandez and athletic coordinator Tom Campos had already decided to give the business to Herrf Jones.

An audit conducted by BISD Co-lead Auditor Arvin Tucker said Zerndejas had indicated there was no money budgeted for the rings and "negotiated" a donation of the 28 $885 student rings and that the non-players, would pay the $995 for theirs.

Peña said she was concerned that down the road students would become ineligible for athletic scholarships for college or lose their amateur status if it was known that they had accepted the expensive rings in recognition for their performance as students athletes.

Rodriguez tried to say that the UIL had changed the rules to allow students to receive gifts on August 1, 2016.

However, legal counsel Salazar Baltazar corrected him and said that the changes didn't apply to second parties making the gifts, but rather to gifts made by the school districts to students. The three voting to accept the "donation" were Rodriguez, Carlos Elizondo and Lopez. Peña said that in order to protect the students, she would rather have the district pay for the rings.

"I don't know how many times we've paid bills after the purchases had been made," she said. "We've done it before and I'd rather protect the students and pay for them."

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just allow Los Fresnos CISD to manage Brownsville ISD for a few years.

Anonymous said...

Nobody cares, juan. get that through your thick head, bro!

Anonymous said...

Elizondo took out of service an important piece of apparatus from the taxpayers safety to tell the world he was at a meeting "hey everybody look at me".

Anonymous said...

Juan, I am glad you were at the meeting and are a primary source to your article or do you have a direct line SA/MP instead of AC/DC.
The issue was not put to rest and a directive was issued by the President in order to shut up the board members who have an issue with it. Maybe Zendejas can let Minerva have her ring and shut her up not just on the ring matter, but to keep her mouth quite at all meetings.
Que vieja para hablar! Le dan cuerda! Pobre su Viejo, Lupe! Como la
aguanta?

Anonymous said...

Joe Rod is a smelly-ass Mexican who should resign! TODAY!

Anonymous said...

what was said about the tablets?

Anonymous said...

You're the only idiota interested in this, bro. Makes you a fool, cabron.

Anonymous said...

The saga of this misuse of tax dollars continues. Lots of bullshit and no real investigation that we can tell. Instead of "just paying" to make the issue go away, why not expand the investigation and find out how this happened and who is responsible. We should not allow this corruption from within BISD and make the guilty party pay....not cover up his/her corruption.

Cantinflas said...

Stop wasting taxpayers money with this and that study, lawyer fees etc etc etc, just pay the bill, its been done in the past for many many many years. We all know joe rodriguez is a crook but yet voters keep electing him. ni modo, if we don't want him in there next time vote for his opponent. And the band marches on.

Anonymous said...

Proud of Minerva? Yes, for the first time.

Anonymous said...

NO SHAME IN THEIR GAME.

Anonymous said...

Hey how can a city employee use his city vehicle for personal business. These are tax payers funds and the fire chief goes around town conducting personal business with his city vehicle. Guess that is what happens when you have the brownsville city mayor, brownsville city commissioners and brownsville city manager in you pocket. Shameful misuse of city equipment. Don't give us the BS that you need to be in it in case of an emergency. There are assists that can handle emergencies when fire chief is not available. Don't believe it, just look at all the times he is out on vacation. Who is in charge then???? His assistant fire chief, that's who!

Anonymous said...

This would not be happening had RIGO BOCANEGRA been elected. Rigo is a humble honest public servant.

Anonymous said...

To Post 8:29 PM. The meetings are air on live TV. All you have to do is turn on and watch your TV. Have a brain or do you just like to make accusations hoping they stick to the people you very apparently don't like???? Wonder if you are one of the superintendent's right hand soldiers. Keep playing with fire and you will get burned. Look at the history behind this superintendent, just google her name and make some calls to her former employees and former colleagues. You will be shocked! In time it will all be known. Some people just don't know when to quit. Guess they rather go to jail. Oh well, it's there call!

Anonymous said...

Hey Juan, since you mentioned Joe Rodriguez violated Texas Local Government Code "prohibiting his participation in the matters having to do with matters in which he had/has a personal interest", tell us why he isn't being charged???? Several people across Texas have been charged with violating that Texas Local Government Code, why is Joe Rodriguez the exception?????Could it be because his son is an attorney? Could it be because Luis Saenz is his good friend who has served with Joe Rodriguez on the BISD Board in the past? Could it be because he is 100 years old??? Can you find the answers to the questions and let us all know?

Anonymous said...

As for watching it on TV, you are right, as in this case, but where does he get the confidential information that should never leave the conference room when under closed meeting? Besides, it seems he did not understand the proceedings of this meeting well enough or he misinterpreted the results.

Anonymous said...

I helped campaigned against Mr. Elizondo. However, your story about the Emergency Fire Department truck did not make be think about Mr. Elizondo as a person who care less about his community. In fact, I have high respect for Mr. Elizondo for being committed to the position that this community elected him. I wonder what you would have written if he had shown up to the meeting in full fireman gear.

Anonymous said...

Our father, who art in heaven, please bring us a good district attorney. Bring us a DA that will prosecute crimes committed by elected officials. Please bring us a DA that will round up the ones who lie, cheat and steal instead of protect the public trust. Amen

Anonymous said...

The issue is not going away until Zendejas is gone.

Anonymous said...

To 12:53 blogger, I guess you and I are on different sides and it is quit obvious that you don't support the truth but rely on gossip. What you and I must do is persist that the culprit who is to blame step up and take the blame instead of running to a board member and asking for permission to leave town with the ring. La Minnie Winnie said this at an open meeting, so she can't deny she said it.

Anonymous said...

At 1:05pm. All of the above.

JOE MAMA said...

WE NEED HELP AT BISD.
OUR FACILITY AND MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT OUT OF CONTROL.
WHO SUPERVISEES THE FACILITY DEPARTMENT BECAUSE THEY ARE A BUNCH OF IDIOTS.

pete said...

Fire the whole board
Let's start from scratch
Pinches ratas

Anonymous said...

Then why did you campaign against him your saying two different things and if he would have shown up with his gear on we would have told him channel 5 just left.

CC Taxpayer! said...

Do I suspect a coup against the Joe Rodriguez regime? But when will you idiots from BISD have had enough and just boot this money mongrel out? I wonder if this money mongrel is in cahoots with that other money mongrel and fucking idiot in Eddie lucio jr about that merging school districts bullshit? Can you imagine the kind of money that Joe and Eddie would make since they both have business interests that sells or makes money from BISD.

Anonymous said...

DA Saenz who was previously on the board with Joe Rodriguez should recuse himself and appoint a prosecutor for Jo-Rod's violation of the Texas Local Government Code "prohibiting his participation in the matters having to do with matters in which he had/has a personal interest." Come on, Mr. Luis. Play fair. You too, Jo-rod.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of facilities, there is an opening for someone to take over in checking what building needs to be repaired, etc. Guess who one board member is recommending for the position at #300,000 salary. He is the fired from every job son of the once president of UT-Brownsville. They are suppose to be good friends. Te digo! Check this out to see if is a true or false fact and let me know.

rita