DUKE, TARGETED BY CAMPIRANO, REED, RECEIVES AWARD

By Juan Montoya
And they wanted to get rid of Debby Duke?
On the heels of the announcement that the Brownsville Navigation District of Cameron County was awarded a certificate of achievement for excellence in finance by the  Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA), port ad
ministrators must be gnashing their teeth.
After all, the port's CEO Eddie Campirano initiated an evaluation of the Port's Accounting Department under Duke with an eye for replacing her. In fact, the recommendations of the report include one to replace Ms. Duke with someone else and limit her duties.
None other than the prestigious awarded the certificate for the port's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. It is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting and represents an accomplishment by a government and its management.
And what did Campirano, a kind of jack of all trades (and master of none) at local governing entities have to say about accounting whiz Duke: Would you believe he ate crow?
 “It is an honor to be the recipients of this prestigious award," he said, including himself among the awardees. "This has been one of our goals and I am especially proud of Debby Duke and the Finance staff for securing this first-ever recognition for the Port.”
Campirano ordered the $8,975 report titled "An Evaluation of Operations of the Accounting Department (Suggestions for Improving Efficiency and Effectiveness) performed by Hales-Bradford LLP (HB). Those who read it immediately discerned that the very thing discussed (and recommended) by its authors deals first and foremost with specific recommendations of transfers, promotion and displacement of the port's personnel in that department. The report was presented to the board at a meeting but as to who ordered it, who approved it, and why it was done in the first place,  falls under the shield of "personnel matters" and no comments was forthcoming.
The report's authors – Hales-Bradford  – list only two people on it staff, Bill Bradford and his son Billy Jr. There is no Hales mentioned anywhere and we can only surmise that that person is either no longer with the firm or died a long time ago. Of the two remaining "partners," only Jr. is listed as a certified public accountant. There is only one office, on Price Road in Brownsville, listed as its main business site.

In contrast, the port's auditors are Long and Chilton,  LLP, the largest locally owned accounting firm in the Rio Grande Valley that "ranks with the largest independent firms in Texas. Established in 1951, Long Chilton started with small separate offices in Brownsville, Harlingen and McAllen. The firm now has 11 partners and over 85 employees and professional staff, among them Carlos Barrera and Nacho Garza, the former mayor of Brownsville.

Barrera was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry as chairman of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy in  2011. That board regulates public accountants and administers the certified public accountant (CPA) exam in Texas. In addition, Barrera is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, Texas Society of CPAs, Rio Grande Valley Chapter of the Texas Society of CPAs, Governmental Finance Officers Association, and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners."

Now, why would the port, whose assets easily top $1 billion, chose such a small firm to perform an "evaluation" of its multimillion operations?
A clue to that is stated in its very first paragraph of the report that "Hales-Bradford (HB) was engaged by Mr. Eduardo Campirano, port director and CEO of the BND to evaluate the operations of the accounting department and provide suggestions for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the department's operations."

Apart from Chairman John Reed, apparently, no other member of the board was included in ordering the report, sources tell us. Campirano was an assistant manager at the Brownsville Public Utilities Board when Bradford Jr. was a member of that board. And it appears that Bradford does the personal bookkeeping for Chairman Reed and Mark Hoskins, his brother-in-law and director of the Gulf Stream Marine stevedoring company. 

Now, it is common knowledge that Hoskins, the director of the Gulf Stream Marine, has been at odds in the past concerning the payment of cleanup and storage fees with the accounting department, specifically its supervisor Debbie Duke.  In fact, among the factors leading to the firing of past Port CEO Bernard List was his refusal to charge Gulf Stream Marine for cost arrears it owed the port. This led Duke to become the lightning rod and catch the heat for the payment disputes.

In fact, after a few backhand compliments on the accounting department's operations, the report singles out Duke for removal as supervisor of the department after a cursory listing of check receipts, receiving, billing, payroll and other mundane subjects germane to the issues of day-to-day operations, etc.,

For a report (and an administration) that seeks to remain "personnel matters" neutral, the Hales-Bradford 11-page missive has no such compunctions about naming port employees it wants banished from the department. It reads on page six:

"3. Change of Debby Duke's Duties.

a. Currently Ms. Duke performs multiple duties not directly related to the accounting department such as Risk Management and supervisor of elections. Her depth of knowledge and experience make her a valuable asset to the BND, and we believe she would be evne more effective is she did not have responsibility for supervising the accounting department.

b. Accordingly, we recommend that the BND reassign Ms. Duke to allow her to focus on other duties, and hire a new Director of Finance to oversee the accounting department. We believe that such a person would bring a fresh perspective to the department's operations which would be beneficial to both the department and the BND's overall operations."

A final telling point about the Hales-Bradfor report is the list of people interviewed for its preparation. Besides Campirano and BND counsel Dan Rentfro, the entire personnel in the accounting department is listed as is assistant harbormaster Keri Dann, three stevedores including Nico and Ken Shaefer, Lee Ostos, and Mark Hoskins. (Nico, by the way, is said to be eyeing a candidacy for a vacancy on the BND board.)

It's interesting that while this report was being prepared, the preparers neglected to interview Tommy Alvarez, the harbormaster with more than 40 years experience in port operations while they did interview Dann, a 25-year-old who had just been employed less than six month before after a brief stint with the Coast Guard.

Alvarez was still on board when the report was being prepared. Still more troubling is why Long and Chilton weren't interviewed at all for the report. If anyone knows the ins and outs of the port, wouldn't it be the firm that prepares its yearly audits?

And was Hales-Bradford told that Duke is one of those rare port employees who doesn't think twice about spending 50 to 60 hours and burning the midnight oil above and beyond the call of duty and pouring over her number when it's necessary?
Well, it appears all those hours burning the midnight oil paid off for Duke and for the Port. Now who will the port listen to; the johnny-come-lately "evaluators" Bradford and Hale? Or to the top-notch accounting assessing organization in the United States and Canada?