BISD WORKS OVERTIME TO PREVENT IT: WILL CHIRINOS?

By Juan Montoya
A major part of the forensic audit performed on several departments of the Brownsville Independent School District was one performed on the district's Transportation Department.
At the time, the department was managed by none other than current trustee Hector Chirinos. During his tenure there, Chirinos was the darling of the department's employees, most notably the bus drivers who supported him through their union when questions were raised about the overtime overruns showing up at payroll and finance.
To his credit, Chirinos owned up to the overruns and admitted that he was helpless to address the issue because his hands were tied.

"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...
(The district)  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."
Fast forward to the 2013-2014 budget hearings.
The budget is scheduled for passage by June 18. By edict of BISD board president Enrique Escobedo, Chirinos will head the budget committee.
In the administration's proposed budget, it calls for some 790 positions ranging from coaches, teachers aides, teachers, nurses, etc., and the creation of several high-priced positions including three positions for executive directors of elementary, middle and high schools at $115,798 each. And it also calls for a $18,000 salary increase for Record Management-Policy Department director Martin Arambula to $92,000.
How to achieve these raises and high-end administrative positions?
Perhaps the administration is looking at the overtime savings achieved so far districtwide.
At the request of trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia, the administration included a department by department overtime costs summary in their proposed budget. The district's overtime procedure indicate that no longer can a department head on his own approve overtime to his favorite employees – a la Chirinos– bu that "overtime must be approved in advance by the superintendent or his designee" and that a "work approval form" must accompany each overtime work session.
 Among those racking up the biggest savings annually in overtime are the Transportation Department headed by Art Rendon ($646,079) and Police and Police and Security Services ($166,665) for a total of $812,744.   In total, the savings in overtime charged in all the departments total $809,001, the difference being the increase in other departments and district sites such as increases of $14,000 in athletics, $16,810 at Hanna, $15,517 at Porter, $10,00 at Cummings Middle School.
In the case of Transportation, the overtime charged this year is $808,897 compared to the $1,454,977 charged in the 2011-2012 budget year.
But the kicker in this mixed overtime scenario is that now the man in charge of the budget committee is Chirinos, whose six years as transportation chief totaled more then $2.5 million in overtime for his employees. Will Chirinos bite the bullet and clip the wings of his former loyal employees and wean them from the overtime gravy?