RODRIGUEZ'S PRINTS LINKED TO $25,000 RING "DONATION"

By Juan Montoya
Remeber we were telling you about the proposed "donation" by ring-maker Herff Jones, a subsidiary of Varsity Brands, of 28 rings to coaches and athletes of  Porter Early College High School's 5A state championship team?

Someone – nobody is saying who – had ordered the rings without going through the purchasing process with the school or the district. In short, "they" ordered the rings without authorization and without a purchase order.

The rings were given to the student athletes in September 2016, and after people started asking questions, an investigation was launched at the request of board members, specifically, trustee Minerva Peña. During the January 17 meeting, Peña said a coach had contacted her and asked her if there would be any problem if he could keep the ring since so many people were asking about how they were acquired.

About two months after the district launched the investigation headed by lead auditor Arvin Tucker, Herff Jones, the ring maker, chose instead to make them a "donation" and forego the $25,060 cost of the 28 rings.

We thought this merited some scrutiny, as did the trustees other than Joe Rodriguez who said that it wasn't often that a BISD high school sports team won a state title and told the board that he had been there at the presentation and remembered how happy all the "kids" were on receiving the rings.

What no one said – not even the auditor's report – was that Rodriguez has long been a vendor for BNS Sports, a subsiduary of Varsity Brands, just as Herff Jones is. Since Rodriguez is the ambassador representative for

BSN Sports, he is personally linked to the ring maker as well.
A commenter at the time we published the original article said:

"It's called double dipping for Joe Ratriguez, he is an ambassador associate for BSN Sports, (he makes a commission on everything that is bought from his (company). Also, Herff Jones is owned by BSN Sports, HELLO, more commission for Ratriguez. Joe is not only pushing a prefferred vendor. That vendor Herff Jones again is owned by BSN Sports."

In fact, it was one of BSN sales to the BISD for athletic equipment that was pointed out in a forensic audit that resulted in litigation between the auditor and Rodriguez and then-AD Tom Chavez, now at Rivera High School.

During a recent Level 3 grievance hearing for Mary Solis, the principal at Veterans Memorial High School who was demoted to a middle school, one of the issues was that she had felt pressured by Rodriguez to purchase graduation products from Herrf Jones.

"Forcing VMHS principal Solis to contract with Joe Rodriguez's preferred vendors for graduation products (rings)."

Sources say that Solis felt Rodriguez was pushing for the school to purchase graduation products (rings) from Herff Jones (the same vendor on the agenda who wants to donate 28 rings to Porter High School.) The same sources say that Rodriguez told Solis that "You need to give business to these people. They take care of us."

We are in the process of acquiring Tucker's audit report. He recommended that the BISD board approve the donation, a move that was not advised by BISD legal counsel Baltazar Salazar, who said that the district's local policies clearly stated that the acceptance (or non-acceptance) of donations had to take place before the donations were made.

Now, by not accepting the rings "donation." the BISD will probably have to shell, out the $25,000 the district never wanted or ordered. Does Joe get a commission on this, too?

We'll keep you posted.