THE JOE RODRIGUEZ DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: IT'S CHAVEZ BACK AS A.D., SANCHEZ AS CFO AND ZENDEJAS AS SUPER

By Juan Montoya
Remember when the board majority on the Brownsville Independent School District made a big issue of naming rethread Esperanza Zendejas as interim superintendent?
The majority of the board under the guidance of "Coach" Joe Rodriguez then went on for the better part of half an hour promising that there would be a consultant hired, a nationwide search launched, and a committee composed of residents from the community to advise the board on the potential candidates to the superintendency.
Rodriguez even argued against the size of the advisory committee, saying he wanted to keep it small so that if people had trouble attending meetings, business could still go on. He even recommended the hiring of a former Harlingen superintendent as a consultant to advice the board.
Well, we didn't know ow small. In the end it came to a vote of four trustees to install former super Zendejas as an "interim" superintendent pending the selection search process.
Then we found out that all Zendejas sent in for consideration of her candidacy was bare-bones resume with little, if any, detail of her tenure at the different school district where she worked.
The same thing that happened with Zendejas happened with former CEO Lorenzo Sanchez, a former CFO of the Raymondville ISD who had been BISD CFO during Rodriguez's former stint as district trustee.
First he was brought in as a consultant to assist former CFO Lucio Mendoza on compensation issues, the consultant contract was extended, and finally, Sanchez was placed as "interim" CFO pending a ...you got it, a nationwide search for a permanent CFO.
Little was said about the fact that he was ousted of the RISD under Johnny Pineda when a new board majority was elected there.
Now different sources tell us that the same Rodriguez-interim-this-interim-that scheme is being put into play to place Tom Chavez as BISD Athletic Director, interim, of course. The Sendejas administration announced that upon the retirement of Rene Medrano at  Hanna High School, former BISD athletic director Mark Guess will take over as interim football coach/athletic coordinator there. Chavez will assume the interim BISD athletic director role while keeping up his duties for Rivera.
These type of half-measures are about par for the course in the Rodriguez-Zendejas era.
Chavez looks at Rodriguez as his mentor and has said as much time and time again. He was also his co-litigant in a lawsuit both men brought against the BISD and Defenbaugh and Associates who performed a forensic audit and reported that Chavez had given preferential treatment to BNS, a sports equipment middle-man vendor which represented sports companies offering equipment to the BISD. It's representative in Brownsville? Coach Joe, of course.
Both men sued Deffenbaugh and Associates and the BISD for defamation.
The lawsuit said that the audit specifically states “that no doubt the Athletic Department in general and Tom Chavez in particular exercised undue influence and misuse of authority in choosing BSN Sports, through their sales rep. Joe Rodriguez” in purchasing uniforms and other sports supplies for Manzano Middle School and Veterans Memorial High School for the 2010-2011 school year.
The audit, according to the lawsuit,went on to say that Chavez allowed his and Rodriguez’s friendship to interfere with what should have been a business decision, causing a potential loss of revenue to the district.
Eventually, and despite Deffenbaugh's protests, a majority of the board opted to offer both men a combined $180,000 settlement.
BISD's attorney Baltazar Salazar convinced the BISD insurance companies' lawyers to close the deal.
Former trustee Rick Zayas represented Rodriguez in the lawsuit.
Initial allegations were that Rodriguez used undue influence and coercive tactics to pressure BISD coaches, athletic coordinators, and athletic personnel to purchase sports uniforms and equipment from BNS Sports. Rodriguez became their sales representative after he left BISD in Dec. 31, 2009.

In addition, Rodriguez was said to have made a telephone call to district Lead Auditor Margarita Pizano-Flores in Sept. 2011 where he had threatened to sue BISD because the Purchasing Department had changed and approved the Catalog/Co-op procurement process. This change provided more internal control and was the apparent reason for Rodriguez's telephone call to Pizano-Flores after the realization that BNS would have to be more competitive in terms of price.

Investigation and analysis subsequently revealed that a substantial amount of payments of uniforms and equipment totaling $497,117 in fiscal year 2010-2011 were made compared to the previous fiscal years (2009-2010) total of $175,715; an increase of 283 percent.

Interviews identified most of the purchasing was made by the athletic department, in general, and by Chavez, in particular. Chavez, an admitted close friend with Rodriguez for over 30 years who succeeded Rodriguez after he left BISD.

Record reviews of purchase orders also supported the fact that the athletic department fulfilled most of those purchases, predominantly for Manzano Middle School and Veterans Memorial High School, both newly constructed schools with no prior uniforms or equipment. Although Chavez denied giving preferential treatment to BNS and/or Joe Rodriguez in the purchasing process for both schools, the auditors found that Chavez never gave any due consideration to at least three other approved vendors sports distributors.

Shortly thereafter the other sales representative at BNS informed the Purchasing Department that a 10 percent discount would be rendered on BNS catalog items.

The report stated:
"It is the opinion of the Forensic Audit Staff that no doubt the Athletic Department in general and Tom Chavez in particular exercised undue influence and misuse of authority in choosing BNS Sports, through their sales rep. Joe Rodriguez, particularly in the purchasing of uniforms and other sports supplies for Manzano Middle School and Veterans Memorial High School in school year 2010-2011.

(This) resulted in close to $500,000 of purchases being given to Chavez's close friend and former A.D. Joe Rodriguez. Chavez allowed he and Joe Rodriguez's personal relationship to interfere with what should have been a business decision causing a potential loss of revenue to be sustained by the district."

The Forensic Audit Staff recommended that a no-solicitation clause be included in future employment contracts and that BISD make a determination with respect to a (vendor such as BNS) whose representative (Joe Rodriguez) issued a threat over the telephone to file a lawsuit against the district.

It is the opinion of the (auditors) that Chavez and his AD staff afforded BNS preferential treatment to the detriment of the district. Consideration should be given to administrative action disciplining Tom Chavez with termination as a consideration."
Coach Joe, who has a penchant for leaning back on his chair and bellowing about the district not paying settlements to anyone for anything, didn't think twice about pocketing the $90,000. Now, with Chavez back as A.D., Team Rodriguez is back in the saddle.
Our Fearless Prediction of Past Events: Chavez will be "interim" for a while and then, after a decent interval, will remain as A.D. a la Zendejas and Sanchez. And forget about the "nationwide search."