The legacy of laissez-faire supervision that former Brownsville Independent School District director of Transportation Jose Hector Chirinos left in his wake has come back to haunt the bus barn.
Not only did the forensic audit uncover gross abuse of overtime by the administration of the bus drivers, but a more recent audit has uncovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary spare parts were stockpiled over the past few years, a boon to vendors and totally uselss to the day-to-day operations of the department.
Add an entitlement attitude by bus drivers and their union – Choferes Unidos – and you have the makings of open revolt against the new Transportation Administration.This has become more and more evident as employees there get suspended or outright terminated for demanding what they had seen as a right and privilege by Chirinos while he was there.
In the latest incident, a bus driver got into an administrator's face and told him in no uncertain terms that the district would have to pay the drivers overtime whether the administrators wanted or not. The incident escalated to the point where the driver was poking his finger at the assistant Transportation administrator while a female driver screamed at him that the group around him wouldn't let him go until he acquiesced.
Before that, Choferes Unidos leader Petra Ramirez (La Doctora) was suspended recently with pay for organizing an impromptu demonstration to confront BISD Superintendent Carl Montoya during a pep rally for the beginning of school at Rivera High School.
In the case of the belligerent bus driver, he was terminated from his employment after he was written up for insubordination and for initiating physical contact with the supervisor.
But that wasn't all. After administrators asked around and looked up his work record, they discovered that he had been the subject of at least 17 previous complaints, including some by parents of students.
Chirinos was one of those administrators who got shuffled here and there after he wore out his welcome at one work site after another. First he was a principal at Porter High School. Then he got shunted off to Transportation, then to as an interim administrator at Veterans Memorial High School, then to administration at the Glass Palace on Price.
At his latest gigs he was commanding a six-figure salary without as much as a clear responsibility of duties. In time, he got the message and retired.
Now, after he got the bus drivers addicted to easy money in the form of unjustified overtime and the district seeks to clean up the mess he left behind, he has announced that he wants to be on the BISD board of trustee and is a candidate in November.
"While he was a principal at Porter he surrounded himself with a group of female assistants that everyone called his harem," recalled a Porter High School student parent. "Everywhere he went they were always with him."
The forensic audit performed by the district lists a laundry list of mismanagement areas under Chirinos.
Overtime Issue: Transportation Department Administrator Jose Hector Chirinos:
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
In interview, Chirinos stated the overtime abuse was there within the Transportation Department when he took over in 2005. He indicated his efforts to curb the abuse were thwarted by the unions and the board. Chirinos blamed the lack of supervisory assistance yet he himself failed to take a hard line on the issue. Based on the interviews of the drivers and monitors, they took full advantage of the ineffectiveness and complacency displayed by then administrator Chirinos.
Not only did Chirinos conceal (and) fail to disclose, but also took measures, in the form of termination and demotion, in an effort to prevent employees within Transportation Department from 1) revealing the truth about overtime abuse; 2) furnishing information ; and 3) confronting the abusers. Starting with Viola Currier in 2006 and continuing to date with Terry Spellane, Chirinos subtly and effectively suppressed disclosure and evidence of abuse through firing and demotion.
First, Ms. Currier, with 19 years of experience in Transportation Department was terminated by Chirinos after she questioned employees about their riding the clock. Then, five years later, Ms. Spellane, an experienced accountant, was demoted and removed from payroll by Chirinos after she continued to identify abuse and waste taking place within Transportation.
Ms. Spellane estimated the loss due to the abuse at $600,000 a year. If conservatively only 70 percent were abusing the system by riding the clock one hour per day, the Forensic Audit Staff would put the loss at $420,000 a year, or roughly $2.5 million over the six years in which Chirinos was administrator.
It is highly recommended that strong administrative action with the possibility of termination be taken against Jose Hector Chirinos (and that BISD) hire professional business people with experience in running a transportation department...Of all the violators and abusers, the average number of years with the district was 17 years seniority.
13 comments:
I am glad that Cata put Rendon at Transportation. Rendon will take care of the department just like he did with Special Services. I am also glad that Rendon has his staff from Special Services working with him now at Transportation. Guerrero and Lerma will certainly be there with Rendon to correct all the problems at Transportation.
Fire the bus drivers.
FYI Juan, all overtime requests have to be pre-approved and signed by the AA and the Superintendent. On the request, a reason must be given for the overtime and how many hours are being requested. So I guess Zolkoski and Gonzales were allowing this wasteful managment or was it really wasteful?
Yet, he has the audacity to run for a school board seat. If you can't beat them, join them, verdad, Chirinos? What was the purpose of doing the audit and paying instructional money for it, when nobody was intending to do anything about the wrongdoings? In this case, all who knew about this and the latest find of stored overstocked materials should have stood their ground and ask for an FBI investigation. We might as well not even have any board members and let the district run itself with their guidance. Para que sirven sino para llenarse las propias bolsas. Ahora andan todos con Mercedes o Cadillacs, se figaron?
If my memory serves me right, the reason Currier wasn't allowed to stay at her job at transportation was due to her inability to perform her duties at a professional level. In other words she was a dumb ass. She was part of the union and had someone come in to represent her and save her job. She was then transferred instead of terminated. She uses her union as a way to guarantee her employment. As for the overtime issue, I agree that some transportation employees do milk the clock but then again take a look at the maintenance dept and all the hourly employees trying to make an extra buck at bisd's epxpense. By the way what the hell is Rendon doing at transportation. Surely he isn't qualified to be making the money he is and running the department he knows nothing about. Wait a minute, he screwed up the special ed dept too didn't he? So if nothing changes, nothing changes. It's sosdd at bisd!
An attitude of "entitlement" exists at every level in BISD...not just the bus drivers and the maintenance personnel. Teachers in BISD and Administrators have a belief that "seniority" trumps everything in terms of job security and pay. They believe that 'seniority" canels stupidits, unprofessiionalism and corruption. The payouts seem to verify that sense of "entitlement". BISD seems to be the place some local politicians start their political careers....I guess to learn all the rules of corruptuon and develop their keen sense of superiority.
Cata and her groupies going through the audit "hit list" and feeding you BS? You seem to overlook her association with the hand picked auditors that she LIED about! Why don't you write about her and the Aquatic Center missing $$$$??? Sooooo obvious Juanito.
First of all, it is hard to curb the costs at Transportation when you add 3 elementary schools, a new middle school & a new high school. That means new routes with no new buses or bus drivers. Then add the fact that the middle school & the high school have athletic programs and UIL academic programs that the must compete in. This means more after school travel. Add these to the 5 existing high schools & 10 existing middle schools. Plus you add the cost of rising fuel costs. Wow? Isn't the finance department in charge of figuring rising costs & expansion? Don't place the blame on Chirinos. He is a good man.
As long as BISD uses educators to run departments that they know nothing about, this is going to happen. BISD should have long ago developed a single motor pool mgmt. structure. In other words, you don't go out and spend millions to build a new facility for the motor pool. You let each department house its current operation. You develop a single office that will control and supervise all the of the parts purchases, maintenance work, and mechanics working for transportation, maintenance, and food services. Currently each department does its own thing and this has cost the district dearly. But will anybody do this? Maybe somebody that cares reads this and starts the process.
Did the audit check on the money it takes to pay the bisd police dept. One security guard bragged about making more in over time than his regualr salary. What a joke that is! It is disgusting having these mall cops walking around these campuses high fiving the kids and oggling the girls at the high schools. I remember when the security dept consisted of a few guards posted at the high schools. Now they walk around like they are a swat team! Who decides to pay them all this overtime? That usually comes from the AA in charge of that program right? So then if such is the cse, aren't the AA's to blame for this whole mess? Maybe we need to get rid of the fluff at the top and let the rest of the dedicated personnel do their job. All these administrators are so full of themselves they are always trying to outdo their fellow aadministrators and set up their own kingdoms at the taxpayers expense. Shame on all those moochers! It's easy to spend money that you didin't earn. It was a sad day for teachers and students the day BISD went to site based management and the whole thing has gone to hell in a hand basket! You have principals hiring pretty young techers who don't know a thing and trowing good experienced teachers in the pool. Who would have ever thought it was possible that one of the best teachers in BISD (Carol Lutsinger) would be in the pool! How dare they! That's the price veteran employees pay after dedicating their whole lives to our children and BISD. Personally I live to see the day when I get my gold plated cheap ass watch and tell them where to put it!
I think that someone needs to inform the bus drivers that the supposed Union that they support has really no collective bargining agreement with BISD of for that matter with the State of Texas as well.
Public Service Employees may be terminated for simply having a walk-out, work stoppage or strike in the State of Texas.
This is not Chicago, we do not allow Union thugs to strong arm Public Schools.
These Bus Drivers are a dime a dozen and can be easily replaced.
Talk to some of the new drivers that have been around only a couple of years, they will tell you it's a great job and they are making good money, and they are afraid the union is going to screw things up for them.
I hope that Art does well at transportation and cleans it up. But if history rules he'll screw it up like he did at all the other positions he's held.
Leave Art alone, we got your IP pendejo anonymous.
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