BISD'S ARAMBULA FILES GRIEVANCE: RECYCLING CONTRACT

By Juan Montoya
Martin Arambula, the Policy-Records Management director for the Brownsville Independent School District has filed a grievance against Assistant Superintendent Carlos Guerra, and the BISD administration claiming a hostile working environment after he was given a warning letter over botched bids for a recycling contract.

The details of the grievance have not been disclosed and neither Arambula nor his attorney Ben Neece would comment on the case. However, the BISD is like a sieve and some general facts have emerged.

If you will recall, Arambula, formerly a Brownsville Navigation District commissioner and currently a Brownsville Public Utility Board member, was placed in charge of the BISD's recycling efforts and given a $15,00 pay increase for the additional duties. Arambula's salary before the raise was $75, 940 before the raise, and $90,061 after the raise. The BISD administration figured that if Arambula's efforts were successful, the increase would be more than offset by the income from the recycled paper and metals.

Arambula has always liked to focus on The Big Picture. At the navigation district, he liked to wax about how the explosion in the China trade that he said was coming from Manzanillo would propel the port's business and that the expansion of the Panama Canal would favor the port if it was dredged to 52 feet to accommodate those vessels. Likewise, he spoke of the $10,000s that the BISD's recycling efforts would bring the BISD.

There were some departments in the district that Arambula focused on, including his own department where paperwork is generated while keeping the records of the 48,000 students who enroll annually in the district. Others include Food Service and Nutrition, Maintenance, Transportation, etc.
Before Arambula was given the task of streamlining the district's efforts into one process, the collection, sale, and the intake of the receipts from the materials depended on the individual departments. This resulted in gross mismanagement and loss of income for the district.

In some cases, the collectors of the materials were put on the honor system. Inside BISD sources say that sometimes a collector would take a full truck of material to sell at the recyclers and come back with $3,000. Others would take the same truck full of the same materials and pay the district only $400.

In the case of metals, for example, some sources say that the son of a former BISD trustee was allowed to have first pick and take them for himself before the others collectors would have a chance to take the materials.

Arambula's grievance focuses on bids that were let out for recycling that were sent out by the district. Three firms responded and the award was given to Redfish Recycling. Unlike the bids on other products where the lowest bidder is awarded the contract, in recycling it is the bidder who gives the BISD the highest return for the materials that gets the job.

But something happened on the way to the bid and award of the recycling contract. One of the firms complained that they had been given short shrift in the selection process and complained to the Purchasing Dept. over the alleged mistreatment. Pressured by the administration to rebid, the contract was let out again and the other firms bid higher than Redfish. Since that company's bid was already known, the others bid higher (remember, it's who gives the district the highest dollar). In the furor that followed, Guerra and the administration stepped in and tried to give Arambula the written warning.

After refusing to sign the warning, Armabula had 10 days to answer, but surprised the district and filed the grievance instead. No doubt that his attorney will demand to see the system's oversight measures from before and how the bidding process was influenced by the other bidders.

One thing that has become obvious out of all this is that there is big cash in trash and someone has been raking it in Big Time.