MANY FACTIONS START TAKING SIDES IN BISD CAMPAIGNS

By Juan Montoya
With an annual $540 million budget to pay for contracts, a potential patronage of 7,000 jobs and almost 45,000 students to transport, feed, teach, and keep secure, the Brownsville Independent School District is the veritable goose that has laid the golden eggs.

Adventurers, retirees, professionals of every stripe and even political rethreads are crowding on the wagon as the August 22 deadline to file for a place on the ballot quickly approaches. Actually, it's 11 days from now, less than two weeks. So far, we have seen scores of would-be office seekers appoint their treasurers and at least nine have applied to be on the ballot.
There are four positions up for grabs. They are Position 3, Position 5, Position 6 and Position 7 held respectively by Herman Otis Powers, Caty Presas-Garcia, Minerva Peña, and Jose H. Chirinos.
Chirinos, who eked out a victory by a sliver of four votes four years ago in a recount with Linda Gill for Position 7, has three declared challengers with an unknown number sitting back and deciding what position they will seek.
Chirinos is facing Dr. Sylvia Perez Atkinson, Rigoberto Bocanegra, Orlando Carlos Treviño, and Roberto Uresti so far. He has not said he will be running nor has he appointed a treasurer.
In the other races, Powers in Position 3 faces Philip T. Cowen, and Argelia Miller.
Peña, in Position 6, is facing former BISD administrator Kent Wittenmore so far.
Presas-Garcia, in Position 5 is facing Erasmo Castro and Laura Perez-Reyes. Just today we learned that Presas-Garcia will announce she will run for reelction for the same position.
There are a number of factions in the Brownsville community who have a stake in this election. No, we're not talking about students or their parents. We're talking about interest groups out in the community who – for a myriad of reasons – want a particular candidate elected. It could be personal, political, visceral, or maybe they just can't stand some particular person.
Now, voters cast their ballot for particular reasons and it's but the one vote.
But when someone who is an elected official and has a constituency gets behind a candidate, it's a very different thing. Loyalties are called to the fore and the faithful are supposed to line up and follow the party line.
We know, for example, that of the core majority on the BISD board, Coach Joe Rodriguez, buy-board advocate Cesar Lopez, retired BISD administrator Jose Chirinos, and new fire chief Carlos Elizondo, only Chirinos occupies one of the seats up for grabs. Up until today, Chirinos had not announced whether he will run.
If he doesn't, Rodriguez and his crew only need to win one seat to maintain their majority unless someone at City Hall decides the city needs to follow its personnel policy manual and make Elizondo resign as trustee or lose his job as fire chief. Don't hold you breath.
But the Chirinos race, perhaps, is one that will pit the many factions out there vying for dominance.
Atkinson, who was an area superintendent at BISD until she

was pushed out by the Esperanza Zendejas administration will be a powerful challenger. There is no doubt that she knows about education and has been a superintendent in a handful of school districts. Allied with the Atkinson-Powers clan, she will unite both families and their supporters in teh coming months before the Nov. 8 election. And, before she changed treasurers, she had listed hers as

Ruben O'Bell and his wife Sylvia. O'Bell is the administrative assistant to State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, son and heir apparent to Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. So the relationships are there.
Orlando Trevino is Otis Power's uncle, and he wants to make sure that justice is done for what he perceived as a snub when Uncle Otis was removed as president by the Rodriguez majority when they took over the board two years ago.
This is where it gets interesting.
The other declared challenger for Chirinos' position is Bocanegra, a lieutenant in the Brownsville Fire Dept. under Elizondo. It is no secret that Bocanegra and his firefighter-union brothers and sisters have had a falling out with Elizondo despite the fact that they helped to get him elected to the BISD board. As the new chief, they feel that he will sell their union down the river for his personal gain. With union contract talks with the city stalled, it may be quite possible that if there is no contract with the city, the firefighters will have to work without the protection a contract provides.
Add the fact that Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz does not see a friend in Elizondo because of his union's endorsement for his opponent Carlos Masso in the last election, and that his brother Mario is openly saying he has his and his brother's support in the race, and the plot thickens.
In fact, Saenz made both Bocanegra and fellow retired firefighter Marco Longoria Sir Nobles in something called the Alva Caravan No. 1, an exclusive organization (only 30 members by invitation only) dedicated to help kids with special needs.
This race has all the signals of becoming a free for all. Elizondo, who is not running for office, has formed alliances with Masso and Cameron County Clerk Sylvia Garza-Perez, the nemesis of the Saenz brothers.
In Facebook posts (see graphics above) both Bocanegra and Saenz have come out openly in support of the firefighter's campaign to replace Chirinos. The Saenz brothers have a long memory and been known to play hardball with the 49 percent who did not endorse them against Masso. Elizondo was one of them. With them in his corner, Bocanegra and the rest of the candidates are in for a wild ride in this race!