Want to get depressed?
Take a gander at today's agenda of the board of trustees of the Brownsville Independent School District. The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the BISD Administration Building,1900 Price Road
You will see that they will take under consideration and possible action an item regarding the Level III Grievance filed by former Veterans Memorial High School principal Acacia Ameel.
Ameel had wanted to apply for a Assistant Area Supervisor position. However, the position was advertised during a holiday and only a few applicants heard about it. Not only that, but after having advertised for only one AA position and placed the hiring for that single person on the board's agenda, the board actually hired two AAs instead, a possible violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
The two AAs hired were former Hanna High School principal Terry Alarcon and newly-returned native daughter Dora Sauceda, who got into hot water in Dallas after she turned in a bogus moving company expense invoice for reimbursement by the school district up there.
It gets better.
Also on the agenda is an item to discuss and consider a possible action to ratify a legal services Agreement with Aguilar & Zabarte, LLC, a law firm that was engaged without prior board approval by BISD general counsel Baltazar Salazar. Their job? To investigate an administrator to see if there had been any infractions of the BISD employee guidebook, a kind of putting the cart before the horse. As we understand, the employee has already been suspended. The district now needs to justify the disciplinary action. In a perfect district, the board would have approved of the hiring before the firm was engaged.
That little piece of handiwork is characteristic of Salazar. He did the same thing with the HealthSmart lawsuit, hiring a McAllen law firm and handing over confidential legal documents to them before the board had approved their hiring.
And speaking of hiring, Salazar, who told the trustees when they gave him the job that he would not allow the BISD legal department to become an ATM for law firms has allowed that very same thing to occur.
Aside from the law firm mentioned above, he is also asking the board to allow him to "enter into a Legal Services Retainer Agreement with Walsh, Anderson, Gallegos, Green and Trevino, P.C. to provide support for routine legal matters for the time period of April 8, 2015 to March 31, 2016."
Does the name sound familiar?
It should. It is the same law firm that was let go by a previous board after they questioned the burgeoning due-process cases in the Special Needs Department that resulted in a huge lawsuit settlement with its former director. Their local representative is a name familiar to us all. He is Mike Saldaña, a local attorney who was once a board trustee himself.
Salazar has become the master of doling out the goodies to promote good feelings among the local legal community at BISD expense. Aside from those law firms, he also hired the firm where trustee Joe Rodriguez's son works.
But not to worry, they'll have plenty of work. There is another item on the board's executive session agenda titled: "Discussion and consideration regarding the status of pending or anticipated gender discrimination claims."
This litigation which has been put on the backburner for the better part of a year includes some 28 women who filed grievances against the district because of unequal pay issues. The matter has escalated to the point where the BISD is faced with the choice of dong something, or entering into protracted litigation, something Salazar promised the district he would not allow.
When he made his pitch for the BISD gig in April 2013, he promised he would "tone down your legal expenses" and bring "stability, because you have chaos, and when there's chaos, lawyers make money."
The school district, he told them, had "become a cash cow" because the district did not follow procedure.
The cash cow, it appears, is back for more milking, this time by Farmer Salazar.
20 comments:
Ameel was a joke as principal of Stell. The staff ran the school not her.
And every board member ran on a platform of "for the kids" cesar lopez made an agenda of a law suit denying the kids,yet he and along with the majority four are the biggest Crooks. But its all for the kids hopefully some day we will see all four, one by one being escorted in handcuffs into a federal court .
How much longer before BISD turns out to be another San Benito CISD? You know, the dismissal of 200 or more employees. The only thing Board Members will do is resign their un paid post and leave while employees (from bus drivers to custodians to even principals) will cry for their job, demmand a raise and dont get it that you can only squeeze so much until it dries out. It's only a matter of time.
Dr Z said in a special mtg that the discrimination suit should be settled not go to trial. A suspension in education is done when there are possible problems. This is proper procedure for a school district.
Why don't they get rid of Salazar, he is a felon, he has felony convictions.If it were a misdemeanor, I can simpatize, we all have lapse in jugdement but, his a felon.
Caesar López is under the gun by the Feds. He has nowhere to turn. He has been a crook since being in office. The shyster lawyer should have been disbarred long ago.
It seems like it was not the lesser of the two evils that won in thos election cycle.
Cesar Lopez is the biggest crook ever, don't be surprise if he ends up like Escobedo.
It's crystal clear Minerva Pena, Joe Rodriguez, Cesar Lopez, Hector Chirinos, Otis Powers and Carlos Elizondo are a bunch of crooks and felons like Baltazar Salazar. This is Why they don't get rid of him.
Crap likes crap!
Shouldn't everyone, not just those 30-some women, get a raise? More lawsuits and more money payed off to settle what HR failed to control. Position control is a mess and everyone knows it in HR. Look at whats going on in San Benito folks, 200-300 job cuts. Bad HR mismanagement and lack of top leadership led San Benito District to sink. Guess who are gonna be cut off, not the HR Admin or and/or top admins, but teachers/staff. BISD has many deep-layers of problems, stemming from the TOP AAs. Dr. Zendejas may not be able to fix everything that the previous Superintendents left hanging. At least Dr. Zendejas is putting order in some HR areas.
Has anyone done the math on how much money the district may have lost on the insurance gate scandal?
Yes. The district pissed-away about $350,000 by giving the contract to the highest bidder who previously had sued the School district. The KlementAgency Commercial Insurace had submitted the lowest bid. Suspicion points to the element of bribery and extortion.
Why cry you voted for the Board Members? There is not a soul in BISD that stand up. Suck it up stop crying. Board and BISD motto: your fired or reassigned if you do the right thing and stand up for ethical practices.
I can cry about it! I didn't vote for any of them!
Why should the taxpayers have to take this loss? That is alot of money! Shouldn't the taxpayers be reimbursed?
Lopez drives a ford if he's stealing money he sure is hiding it well, some of you are morons. And wtf is that comment about Escobedo you are a piece of manure for referencing him mental health is a serious issue we need to help not hurt and talk crap about. Ignorant jackass
Good-Bye $350,000. The citizens , ahh, they don''t give a shit .
Hope the cash cow or atm aka bisd taxpayers dont run out of money to pay their taxes or we are going to be in trouble like san benito isd. Good day
Who is responsible for allowing the district to lose $350,000? Can the district get this money back? What soes our board have to say about this?
Isn't Mr. Lopez one of the good guys on the board?
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