By Juan Montoya
Despite its bid having been four places above the lowest bid, a majority of the board of the Brownsville Independent School District led by Cesar Lopez voted Tuesday to authorize superintendent Esperanza Zendejas to negotiate with Brownsville-based Ziwa Corporation to award a $4,045,000 contract to build the Porter Early College High School Band/Choir Building.
The item – which was voted on despite the fact that Zendejas had recommended be pulled from the agenda after some trustees objected to the district bypassing the other four vendors with lower bids – drew a threat from trustee Phil Cowen. Cowen said he had "grave doubts" about the procurement process followed in the bid and said he would call a press conference on Wednesday, the day after the meeting, to denounce the award.
The board had discussed Ziwa's bid during executive session although it was not listed among the items listed on the closed session agenda.
Earlier, the full board – minus Carlos Elizondo, who was absent – had approved another $429,845 as a partial payment to Ziwa for construction services work completed on the Pace ECHS Fine Arts Building.
Cowen did not make good on his threat, but it was obvious that he was troubled by the awarding of the contract to someone whose bid came in four places on top of the lowest bid. The board first opened discussion in open meeting, but voted to take the item into executive session when Cowen and Dr. Sylvia Atkinson had questions.
Kenneth Lieck, Facilities administrator, took umbrage at Cowen when the trustee told him in so many words, that he suspected someone had done something illegal to rig the bids and recommended Ziwa despite them not being close to the lowest. Cowen is said to have threatened to go to law enforcement on the issue.
After the board emerged from executive session, Lopez instructed board secretary Pat Perez to go back to the item. At the time, Perez noted for the record that trustee Atkinson had left the meeting. When the item first came up before the board went into executive session, trustee Joe Rodriguez had made the motion to approve and Cowen seconded it. As Lopez tried to rush the item, Cowen said he was recalling his second.
At that time, Lopez said he would second Rodriguez's motion to award the contract to Ziwa. At that time, Cowen asked Zendejas what her recommendation was.
"I made my recommendation in executive session," Zendejas responded. When Cowen pressed her to say what that recommendation was, Zendejas replied that she was recommending it get pulled from the agenda and considered at a later meeting.
"I made my recommendation to pull it so we can bring additional information to the board," she asserted.
Trustee Minerva Peña said she would vote against awarding the contract based on the recommendation of administration. Nonetheless, Lopez disregarded the objectors and said he was satisfied that Ziwa was a "fine company" and that they had done good work for the BISD in the past, a sentiment echoed by Rodriguez.
Rodriguez also said that despite Zendejas' recommendation to pull it, he was sure that it had not been her original recommendation and voted to award it.
At that point – as the vote was about to be taken over the objections of Cowen and Peña – Cowen stood and stormed out of the building and did not vote. The vote was three for and one against to award the contract to Ziwa with Laura Perez-Reyes joining Lopez and Rodriguez against Peña's lone "no" vote.
After the meeting, Atkinson was said to have told friends she had left the meeting because she was under the impression that the board would follow Zendejas' recommendation to pull the item. She later was reported to have told them the board had agreed to go along with Zendejas and pull the item in the open meeting, as the superintendent asserted after executive session.
"She though they weren't going to vote on it until Dr. Zendejas came back with more information at a later meeting," a source who is close to her said.
17 comments:
Cowen, you know there is BID RIGGING there has always been BID RIGGING!!
Seldom has the District Awarded it to the right VENDOR... Perfect Example
The Thief of Board Attorney Baltazar Salazar didn't even qualify for the Contract Services and yet Board Members Voted for the Lowest Score for the
Law Firm Baltazar Salazar...
Enough of the BULLSHIT AND START SINGING LIKE A CANARY!!!
PURO PINCHE RATA!!!
Cesar Lopez is in for the Money
Joe Rodriguez is in for the Money
Carlos Elizondo is in for the Money
La Bruja De Zendejas is in to play the game and keep her Votes to keep her CONTRACT.
This current BISD Board Is All for Money or Personal Agendas!!
Enough is Enough!!!
TO MUCH FUCKING CORRUPTION AT BISD !!
TAKING MY CHILDREN OUT OF BISD AND ENROLLING THEM IN A CHARTER SCHOOL.
It does not look good every where we go as a family to have dinner, all you here is how corrupt the board is with the over paid superintendent too.
Remember to go vote in November 2018 for new board!!
Man this shit reeaalllyyy stinks and bad.
Kenneth is always around when bids get moved up or even taken out for selection. Surely, he doesn’t do it because he has an agenda. He does it when his administration or board instructs him to. He has done it before. Remember When Pat 15% Lehman and Otis were on the board? Ken was giving them the bids they wanted to see. All bids go through his office, but do they all come out to play??
It is common practice to get a percentage off of all contracts. That’s what Pat said to the FBI, oh but wait, later he said he was only joking.
The Supt places it on agenda - it came from her
Cowen gets a mad- probably noble didn’t get the contract
She waffles because instead of standing with her recommendation she’s trying to figure out how to keep her job
Cowen is a lose canon -
And she is weak and lacks any kid of solutions to the District’s problems
Juan the problem isn’t ziwa or Cesar or joe - not this time anyway
Why can't the FBI be called in on this, as it smells of corruption at a high level.
Play close attention BND voters!
Say no to Cesar
It is not about the amount of the bid. It is about how much is kicked back to individuals in one way or another. When you have different biders with different puppets on their take, this kind of shit happens. You crooks get your shit together and select one crooked bidder. It looks bad when you are so disorganized.
Juan, El que no Transa NO avanza, this is the Golden rule at BISD, hey its only operates on a $550 million dollar annual budget folks, that's only half a billion, anyway a $$$ million here and a $$$ million there, no one will know or pays attention, es muncha feria $550,000,000.00. Hey by the way I did learn some arithmetic when I went to Victoria heights elementary, dude
There are so many thing wrong in how this was handled. All sorts of violations of the procurement process and Ch. 44 of the Education Code. More critical are what appear to be clear violations of the Open Meetings Act. This item is not excepted from discussion in open session under any of the exceptions noted in the Open Meetings Act. Here's the clincher. There are criminal penalties for knowingly discussing items in closed session that are not excepted by law. These idiots don't realize that their hero Baltazar is going to land them all in jail. Baltazar is clearly incompetent and I hope that everyone who participated in that closed session saved the couple of hundred dollars that Baltazar gave them because they are going to need it for thier criminal defense attorneys.
The FBI or other investigative agencies will not take action as long as the BISD community (faculty, employees, administrators, parents and taxpayers) fails to take action to oppose the corruption of the BISD Board. The public continues to sit with their thumps up their backsides, while this corruption steals their tax dollars. Only the voters and the public can change this. But, we must remember that in the political culture of Brownsville, "We don't just accept corruption, we demand corruption" in government.
Mr. Montoya, Millennial journalism kids, are looking at you and your skills on how to deal/approach catastrophies/corruption in communities as well as state/national occurrances..Guide us, you're a "Force". What will happen with this so called "BISD"? Where did the money go and to who? Mr. Montoya, this does not smell good but, you already know that. RIGHT !
Sources close to Atkinson? Is she suppose to be divulging what goes no behind closed doors in executive session? If she has proof or wrongdoing, why does she not bring it up in open session? I was at the meeting and can say that this report is what happened at the meeting, but we have no way of knowing what goes on behind closed doors unless Sylvia opens her mouth or Pena. Spill the beans or shut up!!!!!
La Bruja De Zendejas has done nothing for students or teachers at bisd.
we need her out out La Bruja De Zendejas
With all the exposure that this is getting, are you telling me that the law can't interfere in this scandal. How is it that the board Can get away with this, it stinks to high heaven surely something can be done to stop this or why ask for bids, just give the contract to your family member.
Those of you who have proof of all the finger pointing facts, why don't you take it upon yourself to report it to TEA or FBI or even file a police report.
TEA does not listen for I have reported things like what happened with the sealed indictment of one of the board members and they have done nothing. No one cares or there no evidence that can support the accusations. Some are so rough as to even label board members as murders. Where is DA Luis Saenz and where is the sealed indictment of one of the members. How can one not think twice about what is going on, unless someone has the required proof to stick it to all those you claim are cheating our students and teachers.
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