QUID PRO QUO? OR JUST ONE HAND WASHING THE OTHER?

By Juan Montoya
The recent appointment of the purchasing agent from the Mercedes school district as a Brownsville Independent School District trustee and the selection of the new Chief Financial Officer from the Mission ISD is raising some questions about whether board chairman Enrique Escobedo should have abstained from voting or even discussing their selection.
The reason for the raised eyebrows on Escobedo's role in the appointments stem from the fact that both these men played key roles in awarding security contracts to American Surveillance owned by his brother Jaime Escobedo, and where Enrique keeps his personal office. That firm has landed lucrative contracts with the Port of Brownsville, the City of Brownsville Police Department, and is now geared to bid on a BISD security contract as well.
Minutes of the Aug. 2, 2012 meeting of the MISD board indicate that Cesar Lopez, the purchasing agent with the MISD, recommended that American Surveillance be awarded the contract for the installation of some 60 cameras that the district purchased to deter break ins at Mercedes High School and throughout the district's facilities.
At that meeting, board president Daniel R. Salinas queried Jaime Escobedo about whether the cameras would be able to determine the identity of persons involved in the break ins. Escobedo said that although the cameras (60 in all) did not have infrared capability, they "infrared filters could be added to the cameras proposed if at a later time the district feels more lighting is needed."
In other words, no.
Nonetheless, even though the equipment apparently did not meet the needs that the board wanted, the motion to award American Surveillance, backed by Lopez and the administration, was approved.
In the case of Lucio Mendoza, the new BISD CFO, Enrique Escobedo voted to hire him despite the fact that other vendors claim that Escobedo himself was said to have represented American Surveillance to prepare the bid and even showed up at MISD to inspect the job.
According to the McAllen Monitor's Jaqueline Armendariz in a story published June 17, American Surveillance was awarded a $$801,319 contract to install 384 hundreds of cameras throughout the district.
According to Armendariz, "After a May bidding process, American Surveillance was chosen by the school board Wednesday night. The board approved the purchase of cameras and software from the Brownsville-based company at a price tag of $801,319 to come from the general fund.
The sum, less than the original amount of $848,111.78 first proposed by the company, landed in the middle among the bids submitted by three companies, according to school board documents."
In other words, American Surveillance's bid was not the lowest, but was recommended to the board nonetheless. By whom? How about Lucio Mendoza, the very same man chosen to become BISD's new CFO.
Representatives for the company that had submitted the lowest bid have claimed that Mendoza changed the rules in midstream to allow American Surveillance to lower their offer. They also claim that even though Mendoza had said that unless all the company representatives attended a walk-though conducted by the district, they would not be allowed to submit a bid.
"American Surveillance was not at the walk-through but Mendoza said he was going to allow them to bid because he said they could," said the representative of the company that was elbowed out of the contract.
In the story, Mendoza,said that cable network at MISD's Bryan Elementary was installed in 1998 out of federal E-Rate 1 funding.
"It is outdated at this point...the high score was American Surveillance. The bid came in a little higher than we had projected; it came in at $185,000, but we are still making the recommendation so we can get this done during the summer so it won't interfere with classroom instruction."
The company's apparent ease in submitting bids that are not the lowest and still getting recommended for contract awards also extended to the San Benito School District's 2013 E-rate award for the upgrade of cabling infrastructure.
In that bidding, two other companies were ranked above American Surveillance, but a last minute motion by SBISD board president Yliana Rodriguez to divide the contract among the top three bidders was approved by a majority.
The top ranked company, Pathway, had bid $854,325. The second-ranked company, Insight, came in at $1,271,944. American Surveillance's bid, ranked third, came in at $1,216,300.
"Board president Y Rodriguez took advantage (of the absence of two board members) when it came to changing the erate bid that was recommended," wrote a SBISD staffer. "She changed the cabling part nor erate, about $1 milion, from the low bidder Pathway Solutions, to all the top three bidders. She made the motion to change it from the recommended company and that the low bid be honored by the other two companies (no discussion). One company said no, but the other company went down on their bid to match the low bid. Guess what, the company that she got is is owned by (Jaime Escobedo) the brother of the Brownsville school board president. Rumor has it that Y Rodriguez is working to become an asst. superintendent in Brownsville...
"This was something the board president did without the knowledge of the administration and announced it at the meeting."
Rodriguez, as far as we know, has not been hired by the BISD yet. But it is clear that board president Escobedo may have crossed the line of propriety when he discussed and voted on the appointment of Lopez for BISD trustee and Mendoza as the new CFO given the personal role he played in the acquisition of contracts for American Surveillance.
Now, with at least two votes on the board that recommended his brother's American Surveillance for contracts at their respective districts, Escobedo can abstain from discussion and voting on any bid  American Surveillance may submit for this district's security contract and he will still get it.