A legal opinion from Brownsville Independent School District general counsel Baltazar Salazar that hiring a new public information officer without going through the hiring process was no legal will now see the district advertise for the replacement of Ernie Garrido.
The administration had recommended that the board approve the hiring of former Herald and UTB staffer Ronnie Zamora, said to be pushed by trustee Joe Rodriguez. The administration had tried to argue that wince Zamora had been one of the top applicants when Garrido was hired eight months ago, he should just be inserted in Garrido's place.
The action came during a board special meeting Monday. The board decided to wait until Salazar could give them a firm endorsement (or rejection) on the legality of the hiring process used by the administration's on its recommendation to hire Zamora.
Rodriguez fared better in his push to hire San Benito High School football offensive coordination Gilbert Leal despite arguments from some board members that the district had many qualified and capable personnel and should look in-house and give current employees a chance at advancement.
"We have many more than capable candidates among our employees and we should give them an opportunity," said trustee Dr. Sylvia Atkinson. "It's a shame, that we are not. It's a travesty that we don't give a chance to our internal applicants."
And even though trustee Phil Cowen aldo said he "had expressed some concerns," he said that the administration's explanations had resolved them. Likewise, trustee Minerva Peña also said she had unresolved issues and said she could not support Leal's hiring as AD to replace Tom Chavez, the current AD who is also River High School's football coach.
Rodriguez spoke out for Leal's hiring saying that he had been vetted "by at least 18 people," and not by one or two as other applicants. Leal is seen to have been hand-picked by Rodriguez to replace Chavez, his longtime protege.
Leal, formerly a Harlingen High School South coach, and currently offensive coordinator with San Benito, has had several embarrassments along the way.
Among those was a DWI he picked up in 2011 when he was removed as head coach and moved to a lesser administrative position in the sports department. After Harlingen he moved on to the Hidalgo ISD as a member of the football staff.
While with the Harlingen South Hawks, he racked up an equally unimpressive 2-23 W-L record. Before, in Mercedes, he had a better 25-18 record. Still, Rodriguez's motion to approve barely survived on a 4-3 vote.
"Coach Joe lost on Zamora, but he prevailed on Leal," said a BISD administrator. "He's used to winning most of the time."
A non-action item to reconsider the purchase of the $1.4 million LED scoreboard for Sams Stadium placed on the agenda by Atkinson got nowhere when the purchasing department staff assured the board members that the sound system included with the LED scoreboard would include a sound system for the entire stadium.
Although some of the items considered in executive sessions included grievances and potential litigation, the item concerning Hugh Emerson drew some pointed remarks by Atkinson and Peña.
Although the specifics of the Emerson complaint were not revealed, it is common knowledge in the district that Emerson felt that a remark made to him by Rodriguez after he did not support his candidate in a recent district election might result in retaliation against him or his wife, who works form the district.
"We want to encourage participation in the elective process," Atkinson said.
"I second that," Rodriguez interjected.
"We should make sure that our employees fell free to participate in the process with the election season coming up again this November," she continued.
"I feel the same way," Peña said after Atkinson finished her remarks. "We should encourage participation.
"I second that, too," quipped Rodriguez.
20 comments:
Joe Rodriguez needs to go!!!! He's a self serving asshole and belongs in jail along with his cronies!
This gringoes keep bringing their stupid cronies into the board
Everyone missed the big item of the hiring of the Lopez AC that was blocked by the entire board except Joe Rodriguez. IT was the hiring of ousted PSJA coach Marroquin who was hand picked by Joe because he is a BSN loyalist. The board united against Joe Rod who did not get a second motion to hire Marroquin. This item was pulled by Zendejas two times in the past because she couldnt get support. This time she thought Joe had the votes but they were wrong. 6-1 to have this item tabled. They sent a message tonight that Joe isn't as strong as he thinks. There is outrage by the LOBO tribe that they want Offensive Coordinator Albeto Leal to take over the reigns. He is a proven winner with 6 district titles at Lopez as a Baseball coach. He knows these kids and the establishment there don't want an outsider screwing up what they got going there. Joe Rod feels Leal is too close to Minerva Pena so he used his influence to block Leal. Principal Aguilar, at the direction of Zendejas, rigged the interview process by putting people in the hiring committee that knew nothing about Athletics. NOt one coach was in the interview process. For those of you readers who don't know, Principals manipulate the process when they know who they want or DONT want. Joe Rod left with EGG on his face thinking he had the votes to get his boy in. Marroquin would be a puppet for Joe Rod just like Carlos Uresti, (a well immature and inexperienced coach), is at Porter High School. Porter just got a new GYM floor and guess what board member is connected to that? Yup Joe Rod and his cronies. Texas Rangers need to do an investigation on the behind the scene dealings of Joe Rod, Carlos Elizondo, Cesar Lopez, and dumbwitted Laura Perez. Cant wait for Election day. These people need to be voted out ASAP.
For the sake of ALL the children, for the sake of the community, for the sake of morality "JUST DO THE RIGHT THING" vote the whole BISD board OUT!!!
You people are going to have to come to the realization that Coach Joe is never going anywhere. He has to be the J. Edgar Hoover of BISD. He must have pictures of everybody playing golf with Satan, and he must certainly know where all the bodies are buried.
Those of you who are saying the Texas Rangers should come in and investigate may not know this, but for all the good it will do, you might as well ask the Texas Rangers baseball team to come and investigate, because Coach Joe was investigated by the FBI and nothing came of that investigation. It is well known that BISD is now a Nike school district and everything that is purchased has to go through ONE vendor, and one vendor only. Some coaches are forced to spend hundreds of dollars on these razzle-dazzle Nike uniforms, often times limiting them to purchasing one set of uniforms when they used to be able to purchase multiple sets from other non-Nike manufacturers. How much money do you think goes into Coach Joe's pocket? How big is the mordida he takes out of that?
When Coach Joe was the AD, it is said he used to control all the purchasing of equipment. One year, some coaches got a hold of the purchase order and noticed that there were "high school" uniforms purchased in purple and "high school" uniforms purchased in orange. No Brownsville schools use purple or orange as their school colors. It turns out Coach Joe was purchasing these uniforms with the leftover monies our high schools had, then turning around and selling those uniforms to schools in Matamoros, with Coach Joe pocketing all that money. Was anything ever done to him? No.
He is as close to a mob boss as you'll ever find. I'm sure he has his fingers in many different pies. But again, what is done to him? Nothing. He has coerced, cajoled, and manipulated Brownsville Athletics for years and years, and there's no sign of him stopping anytime soon, come hell, high water, the Texas Rangers, the FBI, or Christ come down off the cross himself.
A real life untouchable, indeed. The Teflon Coach.
Laura Perez-Reyes is not a dumbwitted person. She is a snake in the grass,, who is the most despised ugly female at the courthouse. Laura is sneaky, corrupt, mean spirited little b***h! She is an Esperanza Zendejas in the making. Look at her, she already has the same ugly airhead thinking as her idol Esperanza Zendejas. Horrible women! They use their body to get what they want and they hold it over the men, who were dumb enough to go into them, for the rest of their existence. So sad for brownsville. To thing that Laura thing is only in her 30’s. BROWNSVILLE wake up and vote her out!
Don't worry Joe B. is coming/Doing the right thing....Yes sir/yes ma'am, Hope we get your support for dramatic change. God bless,Have a good day.
Beto Leal is the only one that deserves the position of head coach at Lopez.
He has worked for Lopez for many, many years and has shown the faculty and staff that he is a respectable young man. He has show his athletes what it means to be a real coach interested in developing young man to grow up to be fine citizens. The kids love him at Lopez because he is for real, and he addresses his athletes with respect, honor and love. Let the kids go to the board and tell them who they want as a coach and tell Coach Joe to go sit on a rocking chair in his back yard and drink his Coors with Chavez holding his hand. Chavez also needs to go! I almost never agree with some of the thought Atkinson and Pena express, but I do believe that we should be looking within the organization for those who have dedicated themselves to the district for so many years and worked their way up. Who the hell is this Marroquin guy? Beto Leal's name is known thoughout our community as a fine, respectable young man from a fine respectable Brownsville family.
What constitutes a fine respectable brownsville family?
That in itself sounds like an oxymoron.
Fuck throw them all out before the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater.
And just who is the Supplier of the scoreboard?
For blogger at 5:07 - you mean to tell me you don't recognize what a fine respectable Brownsville family is? Are you from Brownsville? How do you refer to your family? That is what may be wrong and certainly not an oxymoron like the moron that wrote at 5:07. If more of these families would get involved in our community, we would not have the mess we live in now all over the US.
Well said... we need new board members.. vote out Cesar Lopez, Carlos Elizondo Joe Rodriguez out!!! We need new board members, not former board members that have been elected..
The problem is everybody keeps saying we need to vote out the current board members, but come election day, everybody stays home. It's pathetic that in a city of almost 200,000 people, it takes a few thousand to gain political power.
We sit here and comment on these blogs, and on social media pages, but at the end of the day, we sit on our collective fat asses and make every excuse possible when we talk about not going to the polls.
We are the epitome of recycling. We recycle politicians who do relatively little for our fair city, then the peanut gallery chines in, calling us mojados and the like. Those people making those comments don't realize they're the ones making this city the way it is.
We say we need change, but the same people are voted in to the school board. We say we want change, but the same people are voted into city and county office. The fact of the matter is the body politic wants to work Monday through Friday, get shitfaced over the weekend, get barbacoa and sleep it off on Sunday, then go to work on Monday to do it all over again. As long as they have their job, their cerveza, and their vieja, they don't want anything disturbed. We can't be bothered to try to make things better, we just want to sit on the sidelines and bitch and moan about how things are rather than do anything about it.
People don't demand answers from their politicians. This has to be one of the only places where you can be a politician and not have to do anything for the community you serve. I don't even think politicians around here bother to think up of a platform. They just run for the sake of running. The people should ask politicians why they're running, ask them what they plan to do, then hold them accountable and vote them out if they don't deliver on their promises.
But that doesn't happen in Brownsville. As long as you pay a handful of politiqueras who can deliver the adult day care vote, you don't have to promise the people anything. You can just go along and take, take, take without having to deliver on anything.
Get off your asses and vote rather than just sitting there and complaining about how bad things are.
Is Ronnie Zamora out of Los Fresnos already? Did he take his two weeks and now must rescind until further notice?
For the record, Porter did not get a new floor for the gym. The gym floor was repaired in sections that had dead spots. The rest was sanded down and repainted.
To 5:07,
It not an oxymoron, it's a regular moron...nuk,nuk nuk!!
El Curly
"We have many more than capable candidates among our employees and we should give them an opportunity," said trustee Dr. Sylvia Atkinson. "It's a shame, that we are not, it's a travesty that we don't give a chance to our internal applicants."
Perhaps, it can be interpreted as, "my sister a candidate for the job should be given an opportunity, it's a travesty that we don't give her a chance as an internal applicant."
I think there was a principal or two that should also be considered
Same goes with head coaches- we have a few ready
But Supt won’t hire a women- she despises them and treats them badly - board accepts this Behavior and that is why all will go in November and next election
If I had a daughter - she would never work for this woman-
Nor will I recommend that any woman or those with daughters to support this majority
She was bad first time - bad in every state she worked in- bad now
Time to end the chaos - change in November
What? adult day care vote? Only mojados go to day cares centers pendejo...
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