LUCIOS GETTING FAT PEDDLING INFLUENCE OF PUBLIC OFFICE

By Juan Montoya
Whether it's local water districts, private corrections facilities, sheltering migrant kids, advising local ports or even introducing vendors to the various districts in their elected districts, Eddie Lucio Jr. and his son Eddie Lucio III have constituted a father-and-son tag team reaping huge amount of compensation for "consulting" in their spare time.

The list of vendors who have paid these two to look out for their interest range from the port of Brownsville (Lucio Jr.) to International Educational Services (Lucio III). In both these cases taxpayers took a hit while the duo danced away with $100,000s and narrowly escaped prosecution.

In the father's case, he was instrumental in removing Brown and Root from doing the engineering work and introduced them to Dannenbaum Engineering which resulted in nearly $15 million of the $21 million spent on the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere."

More recently using middle men Ruben O'Bell (the III's admin. asst.) and the alleged services of Brownsville Independent School District board member Dr. Sylvia Atkinson, AGM Food LLC, a Mexican-based food vendor, was bilked out of $1,000s its principals paid to get an "introduction" to offer cafeteria services to the Eddie Lucio Jr. Middle School.

It wasn't until they got there that they realized that they had been invited to the Eddie Lucio Jr. Appreciation Day and all they got was the senator introducing them to the staff and cafeteria managers.

No one had told them that the correct process was for them to register as vendors with Region 1, a prerequisite to doing business with the BISD. No business was done, but the vendors were out of their "introduction" money, allegedly totaling around $25,000 to the various "facilitators."

Alarmed, some of the school's administrators reported the matter to the FBI and the pay-to-play scheme fell apart as the various principals distanced themselves from the scam. The AGM food principals were cleared.

The most recent scandal around the Lucios is the ongoing investigation into the operations of IES, which was run by another father-and-son team, Dr. Ruben Gallegos and Ruben Gallegos Jr.

As far back as 2014, Lucio III told the Brownsville Herald that the since IES didn't do business with the state he was not bound by the state
standard that says, “no state officer or state employee should accept other employment or compensation which could reasonably be expected to impair his independence of judgment in the performance of his official duties.”

Insofar as IES, Lucio said, “it doesn’t have any issues in front of the state. It is federally funded and regulated. They haven’t had any issues in the time I have been there.” “They really have zero issues with the state. I have never had to recuse myself.”

He said his work with IES involves typical contract law, human resource matters, leases and “meat and potato issues.” Although at the time he identified himself as vice president of external affairs  of  he declined to say how much IES paid him. However, the statement for IES's IRS report as a non-profit identifies him as its legal counsel at $125,000 a year.

The letter reveals that five employees at IES earned more than the $183,300 salary limit set by the grant, with the two highest paid individuals earning $400,000 more than that amount. The Office of Refugee Resettlement Administration for Children & Families to International Educational Services informing the nonprofit that its grant funding was coming to an end listed several reasons why it was putting it out of business.

The nonprofit, which was formed in 1985, aimed to provide physical and educational care for unaccompanied migrant children entrusted to its care by immigration officials who detained the children.

IES closed on March 31 and terminated the jobs of hundreds of employees.

As legal counsel for the IES, Lucio III, a lawyer, should ave known that the salaried for both Gallegos were excessive and should have never been paid. If he didn't provide them with legal advice to keep them out of trouble, what exactly was LUCIO III getting paid for?

Lucio III's relationship with Gallegos Jr. goes way back to 2010 when the Brownsville Herald reported that he was contracted by the Regional Mobility Authority. Ruben Gallegos is a director on the CCRMA.

It's not really the legislative acumen of either Lucio that has made them rich, is it?More and more it has become evident that it is the selling of influence from the public offices they hold that they have used to fill their pockets.

Gallegos and Gallegos Jr. (and perhaps Lucio III) are not out of the woods yet. Many more shoes have yet to fall.