PENA, GONZALEZ RANKINGS OF SALAZAR ARE, WELL, RANK

(Ed.'s Note: In the last Brownsville Independent School District election held November 3, 2020, board member/candidate Minerva Peña was the recipient of two in-kind donations from board counsel Baltazar Salazar and one from his sister Liz Vera. Salazar paid for political advertising and mail outs to the tune of $6,950 and Vera chipped in another $300. Together, they contributed $7,250 of in-kind payments toward her campaign.

Likewise, in the two campaign reports filed for the period before the November 3, 2020 election by Jessica Gonzalez, there were no contributions to her campaign save for $100 by Roman Perez and personal loans. However, after she won, two delinquent tax collection firms each gave her $1,500. Just a few months later, the board chose one of them Linebarger Goggan Blair and Sampson despite the fact that that firm had lost the BISD $2.4 million for not filing value audits according to the State Comptroller 's Office. 

The only other campaign contribution was $2,500 from board counsel Baltazar Salazar. She learns fast. Right after she was elected using only her own money, this "homemaker" suddenly discovered the vendors well, one to which, a lot of commenters have said, she now goes to often. 

When Salazar was hired on April, 2013, he was selected even though he was vastly underqualified compared to the other 17 firms which submitted responses to the board's Request For Qualifications. His chief supporter on the board was Peña. At an average of $250,000 for the last eight years ($328,000 at last count), Salazar has collected more than $2 million in salary from the BISD.

In this year's ranking, Salazar tied with a distant fourth of seven firms who submitted RFQs. Notice that in the rankings above, Gonzalez gave Salazar a 100 and Peña gave him a 95.

Now, as the board is set to award the board counsel position to the second-ranked of seven legal firms, O'Hanlon, Demerath, & Castillo after number one ranked firm Walsh, Gallegos, Trevino Russo & Kyle, P.C. chose instead to withdraw its offer after Peña and Gonzalez sought to push for an award for Salazar to take over only the special education services, a service and which was not stipulated as a separate contract in the initial RFQ. They included this item on Tuesday's agenda.

IX.A.2. Discussion, consideration, and possible action to hire Baltazar Salazar, Attorney at Law, PLLC, as Special Education Legal Counsel at the same yearly rate as his current contract. (Board Member Request - Minerva Pena, Board Support Jessica Gonzalez)

Members Dr. Prisci Roca-Tipton, Daniella Lopez-Valdez and board president Eddie Garcia, however, placed an item on the agenda to award the contract, including special education services, to the second-ranked firm, O'Hanlon, Demerath, & Castillo without separating the special needs legal services.

Why did Peña and Gonzalez place that item on the agenda to award the special needs legal services to Salazar? 

The board will decide whether to award O'Hanlon, Demerath, & Castillo the contract including special needs legal services or whether to award a separate  special needs legal services contract to Salazar, without allowing anyone else to submit proposals for the services.

Will transparency prevail this Tuesday? Or will Peña and Gonzalez's efforts to do an end run around the procurement process allow Salazar to remain at the BISD feeding trough without competing for the services?)