THE CIRCLE TIGHTENS: RODRIGUEZ, ZENDEJAS GOT FREE RINGS. WHO ORDERED THE RINGS IN THE 1ST PLACE?

By Juan Montoya
Remember the controversy over the rings given to members of the Porter High School Soccer State Champs?

In April 16, 2016, Porter won the Class 5A Soccer championship with a victory over Wakeland in a game held in Georgetown.
The following September 1, there was a ceremony where 29 players were given a 10K Gold championship ring valued at $895. Eleven other rings valued at $995 were handed out to non-players such as coaches, teacher and even a principal.

The total value of the 40 rings was $31,025.

But there was only one problem. On June 9, 2016, an invoice had arrived at the desk of principal Hector Hernandez from the vendor (Herrf Jones, a subsidiary of Varsity Brands)  asking the school to pay a total of $31,025 for the 40 rings. The vendor said that the purchase was initiated at the Athletic Department level. Since Hernandez hadn't ordered them and the school did not have funds budgeted for their purchase, he wrote Brownsville Independent School District Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas Sept. 8 asking what he should do.

Zendejas wrote Hernandez back Dec. 1, 2016 that "the district nor the school purchased ...(any) rings. We could have purchased the senior players' rings but the school dis not formulate an appropriate purchase order. The adults purchased their own rings. The student rings were donated by the company to support the students and the school."

Zendejas did not tell Hernandez, as an audit performed later at the instigation of BISD board members said, that she had "negotiated with the supplier to donate the 29 rings to (valued in the invoice at $25,050) be given to the players and asked all non-players to pay for the ($995) rings they received from personal funds."

No one, the coaches, the principal, the Athletic Dept., or the administration could say who had ordered the rings from the vendor. What they did know is that the purchase of the rings "was initiated without going having funds appropriated for the purchase of these rings."

What Zendejas did not tell Hernandez was that Herrf Jones had also included two 10K Gold championship rings free as a discount. One went to BISD board member Joe Rodriguez and another to Zendejas herself. (See graphic, click to enlarge)

Why the company would give Zendejas and Rodriguez free deluxe rings is not explained. However, Varsity Brands has another subsidiary company under its umbrella. That is BSN Sports and its registered vendor with the BISD is none other than "Coach" Joe Rodriguez. No other board member received a ring.

After questions started to be asked following the presentation of the rings, the BISD ordered Co-Lead Internal Auditor Arvin Tucker to investigate how the rings came to be ordered and whether procurement policies had been followed. Tucker's investigations began in mid-September. Then, on Nov. 18, 2016, Luis J. Garza, Herrf Jones representative in Brownsville, wrote Zendejas a letter thanking her for "giving us the opportunity to become a sponsor of the PH Soccer Team and Brownsville ISD. As part of our sponsorship, we are donating the Championship rings to the players. It is our way of giving back to the community, the school, and the School District."

But there was a catch. As BISD general counsel Baltazar Salazar told board members at their January 17 meeting, board policy did not allow for the district to accept donations after the fact. The district has to approve the donation before it is made. The board would violate its own policies if it accepted the "donation" in January for a purchase that had been initiated in June 2016.

And there was another catch. Since the rings were not acquired by the district through its formal procurement process, the district could not pay for them since neither the school, the Athletic Department, or the administration, had ordered the rings.

What to do?

BISD member Minerva Peña, at the Tuesday (February 7) meeting, placed an item on the agenda. It read:
47. Discussion, consideration, and possible action to request assistance from TEA (Texas Education Agency) Governance Division regarding procurement procedures in the district as they relate to pending issues; i.e. tablets and rings. (Board Member Request - MP)

By a 4-3 vote, the board did not approve the proposal to seek assistance from the TEA. The "nays" were Joe Rodriguez, Carlos Elizondo, Cesar Lopez and Phil Cowen. The "yeas" were Dr. Sylvia Atkinson, Peña, and Laura Perez-Reyes.

Should Rodriguez – associated as he was with BSN, under the same umbrella of Varsity Brands, their parent company– have recused himself from even discussing, or worse, voting, on the issue?
And have the 11 non-players, Rodriguez and Zendejas included, paid Herrf Jones for the $995 rings they received?

And the main question – the $31,035 gorilla in the invoice – is who ordered the rings in the first place?

Say it ain't so, Joe.