By Juan Montoya
A request for the communications between the Brownsville Independent School District financial consultants and the Brett Springston administration has prompted the district to seek a Texas Attorney general opinion on whether the documents involved can be shared with the public.
The Freedom Of Information request was made Jan. 21 by Carlos Quinta
nilla, president of Accion America, on behalf of "citizens and taxpayers of Brownsville, Texas" and was handed to BISD Public Information director Drue Brown.
On previous occasions, Quintanilla through the blog http://www.carebrownsville.com/ has charged that the BISD administration and its financial advisors and counsel may have misled the trustees on the facts regrading the issuance of $25 million in Construction Bonds through a joint federal and state funding formula.
Specifically, the group was "spending money on the Construction Bond Program before it was approved on December 7, 2010," and of "buying land for the Construction Bond Program way before December 7, 2010.
In the FOI request the group requests that BISD hand over documents, emails, and correspondence as follows:
1. Copies of any and all canceled checks related to The Construction Bond Program approved on December 7, 2010.
2. Copies of bank statements, general ledger and corporate tax returns for period ending December 31, 2010 for Public Facilities Corporation of which Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez were members of the Board Of Directors.
3. Copy of any legal authority of which allows BISD to create this corporation.
4. Copies of any and all contracts issued pursuant to the issuance of the December 7, Construction Bond Program.
5. Copies of RFQ related to the Construction Bond Program approved on December 7, 2010.
6. Copies of any and all correspondence related to the issuance of Construction Bond Program from Hinojosa Estrada et al.
7. Copies of any and all internal memos not currently subject to litigation receive from Hinojosa Estrada, Texas Education Association (TEA) and or other federal entities.
8. Copies of any and all correspondence, inter office memorandums and other documents by and between Brett Sprinsgton and Hinojosa Estrada and TEA, et al.
9. Copies of any and all correspondence that is not considered attorney/client privilege documents and a summary of itemized documents that BISD considers falls under this category.
In response, the BISD released what teh group calls a "limited and unsatisfactory" number of documents related to the request" stating that the communications should remain private between the parties.
At the heart of the requests is the need to know what Springston and Hinojosa knew about the eventual rejection of the BISD's application for state funds that, coupled with the federal Recovery Act grants, would result in the BISD getting "free money."
Instead, after having sold the bonds, hired architects and awarded contracts for construction of various projects, Hinojosa and the administration told the board that instead of getting free money, the district was stuck with paying $690,000 a year for the next 18 years.
Springston's performance has come under scrutiny by the current board and at the urging of Longoria has ordered that an audit be performed on the process by which the district was indebted by the issuance of bonds for construction of several projects at district schools.
Following the recommendation of Hinojosa, president and chief executive officer of Estrada-Hinojosa, and the administration trustees voted to pay a $9.13 million local share for $25.8 million in new school construction approved by the district in December.
Principal and debt service on the four projects total $44.94 million, $27.77 million in principal and $19.17 million in interest, Hinojosa told the board when the issuance was approved.
The four projects are the Brownsville Early College High School and the Brownsville Academic Center, a new performance auditorium for Hanna High School and a new instructional wing at Porter High School.
BISD submitted the bond package in a “subsidy based on gross total debt service” calculation in which the federal subsidy totals $17.875 million, or 40 percent, and the state share totals $27.069, million or 60 percent.
A request for the communications between the Brownsville Independent School District financial consultants and the Brett Springston administration has prompted the district to seek a Texas Attorney general opinion on whether the documents involved can be shared with the public.
The Freedom Of Information request was made Jan. 21 by Carlos Quinta
nilla, president of Accion America, on behalf of "citizens and taxpayers of Brownsville, Texas" and was handed to BISD Public Information director Drue Brown.On previous occasions, Quintanilla through the blog http://www.carebrownsville.com/ has charged that the BISD administration and its financial advisors and counsel may have misled the trustees on the facts regrading the issuance of $25 million in Construction Bonds through a joint federal and state funding formula.
Specifically, the group was "spending money on the Construction Bond Program before it was approved on December 7, 2010," and of "buying land for the Construction Bond Program way before December 7, 2010.
In the FOI request the group requests that BISD hand over documents, emails, and correspondence as follows:
1. Copies of any and all canceled checks related to The Construction Bond Program approved on December 7, 2010.
2. Copies of bank statements, general ledger and corporate tax returns for period ending December 31, 2010 for Public Facilities Corporation of which Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez were members of the Board Of Directors.
3. Copy of any legal authority of which allows BISD to create this corporation.
4. Copies of any and all contracts issued pursuant to the issuance of the December 7, Construction Bond Program.
5. Copies of RFQ related to the Construction Bond Program approved on December 7, 2010.
6. Copies of any and all correspondence related to the issuance of Construction Bond Program from Hinojosa Estrada et al.
7. Copies of any and all internal memos not currently subject to litigation receive from Hinojosa Estrada, Texas Education Association (TEA) and or other federal entities.
8. Copies of any and all correspondence, inter office memorandums and other documents by and between Brett Sprinsgton and Hinojosa Estrada and TEA, et al.
9. Copies of any and all correspondence that is not considered attorney/client privilege documents and a summary of itemized documents that BISD considers falls under this category.
In response, the BISD released what teh group calls a "limited and unsatisfactory" number of documents related to the request" stating that the communications should remain private between the parties.
At the heart of the requests is the need to know what Springston and Hinojosa knew about the eventual rejection of the BISD's application for state funds that, coupled with the federal Recovery Act grants, would result in the BISD getting "free money."
Instead, after having sold the bonds, hired architects and awarded contracts for construction of various projects, Hinojosa and the administration told the board that instead of getting free money, the district was stuck with paying $690,000 a year for the next 18 years.
Springston's performance has come under scrutiny by the current board and at the urging of Longoria has ordered that an audit be performed on the process by which the district was indebted by the issuance of bonds for construction of several projects at district schools.
Following the recommendation of Hinojosa, president and chief executive officer of Estrada-Hinojosa, and the administration trustees voted to pay a $9.13 million local share for $25.8 million in new school construction approved by the district in December.
Principal and debt service on the four projects total $44.94 million, $27.77 million in principal and $19.17 million in interest, Hinojosa told the board when the issuance was approved.
The four projects are the Brownsville Early College High School and the Brownsville Academic Center, a new performance auditorium for Hanna High School and a new instructional wing at Porter High School.
BISD submitted the bond package in a “subsidy based on gross total debt service” calculation in which the federal subsidy totals $17.875 million, or 40 percent, and the state share totals $27.069, million or 60 percent.
A decision by the TEA require s that BISD pay a $9.13 million local share in a “subsidy based on net of federal subsidy” calculation that results in the state share being $17.942 million. The federal subsidy would remain the same at $17.875 million, with state and federal funding totaling 40 percent each and BISD’s share 20 percent.
The key clause here is that the BISD package was based on a "gross" debt service and not on "net" of federal subsidy. Ideally, the BISD could have received funds from both the state and federal government and even made some money on the deal.
Now board members are asking whether Hinojosa, Sprinsgston, and BID Chief Financial Officer Tony Fuller kept pertinent information from them before they made the decision to go ahead with the spending of the money.
"The district was already issuing payments for the projects before we found out if the state was going to give the district the money," said one. "When did the administration and Hinojosa know that we weren't going to get it."
In a Jan. 24 letter to Commissioner of Education Robert Scott , Springston argued that the TEA changed the rules for the funding after the fact and after BISD had already sold the bonds.
Could the answer be in the emails and correspondence that the BISD is not willing to share on its own and instead is hoping to stave off the inquiry of the citizens by going to the AG, as it did during its fight to keep the two incriminating audits performed on the former AD Joe Rodriguez before his retirement?
The key clause here is that the BISD package was based on a "gross" debt service and not on "net" of federal subsidy. Ideally, the BISD could have received funds from both the state and federal government and even made some money on the deal.
Now board members are asking whether Hinojosa, Sprinsgston, and BID Chief Financial Officer Tony Fuller kept pertinent information from them before they made the decision to go ahead with the spending of the money.
"The district was already issuing payments for the projects before we found out if the state was going to give the district the money," said one. "When did the administration and Hinojosa know that we weren't going to get it."
In a Jan. 24 letter to Commissioner of Education Robert Scott , Springston argued that the TEA changed the rules for the funding after the fact and after BISD had already sold the bonds.
Could the answer be in the emails and correspondence that the BISD is not willing to share on its own and instead is hoping to stave off the inquiry of the citizens by going to the AG, as it did during its fight to keep the two incriminating audits performed on the former AD Joe Rodriguez before his retirement?
2 comments:
Hey Juan, do not forget I am here too
Who is I, good report, Mr. Montoya. Very detailed. If you got nothing to hide you got nothing to worry about.
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