DRUE BROWN'S HUBBY AND SON VENDORS AT BISD FOR 10 YEARS; LAST YEARS (2018-2020) WHEN SHE WAS TRUSTEE

By Juan Montoya

During the March 3, 2022, Brownsville Independent School District board meeting, member Drue Brown – reacting to what she said were questions about the district continuing making payments to her husband and son for two years after she became a trustee –  said  that she believed their employment and payments after she became a board member in 2018 were "legal and proper."

Allowed to read a prepared statement after the last item on the board agenda and before the announcements at the end of Tuesday's board meeting, Brown said that during the last two years until February 2020, district financial printouts showed that her husband Dave had been paid $200 for broadcasting swim meets at the Margaret Clark Aquatic Center and son Jeff another $700 for "rendering services" as a swim meet official.

She did not indicate whether the money would be returned.

She said that her husband Dave Brown had started broadcasting the swim meets at the aquatic center since 2009 when her son Jeff was in the Hanna High School varsity swim team and that both continued working and getting paid until February 2020.

She said she had "self-disclosed" the alleged Conflict Of Interest (COI) violations on August 2020 and that she had also filed the appropriate CIS disclosure forms with the district. She also said that she had contacted board counsel O'Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo on the matter.

She said that they had worked or gotten paid by the district in the last two years, but that she was making the statement today after she heard that the issue was being brought up "in the last few days."

Although she did not mention who had questioned the propriety of a board member's family doing business with the district, this blog filed an information request February 22 on payments made to her husband Dave and another request that included information on BISD payments to her son Jeff on March 1.

This blog has just received the response that had to be made available after 10 working days.

Now that the BISD has responded to the Rrun-Rrun's information request, it appears that both her husband and son received much more than the $200 and $700 figures she quoted dating back to 2009, nine years after she became the Public Information officer under former Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas. 

BISD finance records indicate that Dave Brown – her husband and a former sports broadcaster – started receiving the first of 23 checks back in April 24, 2009,  and received the last one February 13, 2020. The total of all checks was $1,790. His employment consisted of narrating swim meets at the Margaret Clark Aquatic Center.

Jeff Brown – her son and now a member of the U.S. Coast Guard – started receiving the fist of 10 BISD checks back in January 2019 and the last in February 13, 2020 that eventually totaled $1,040.

Could Brown's personal 30-year relationship and influence with the former superintendent and the administration have had any impact on them being chosen to provide that service? Nah, you think?

And although she was as trustee since 2018 and employment of immediate family members goes against the district's nepotism policies, both men's employment ended on February 13, 2020, two years after she took the oath of office, she claimed that she believed that her husband and her son's employment and payments were "proper and legal" and that their employment had been "grandfathered in" because it was a continuation of their previous services. 

This is disingenuous at best. Brown has worked for the BISD all her professional life and retired from the BISD after holding the position of Public Information Officer since 1992 in the first Zendejas administration. Brown held the PIO position for 25 years before her retirement in June 2017. She ran for the board the next year and was elected.

Zendejas appointed Brown to the position after snagging her from her post as Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) director, a position that encompasses all data requested and received by the Texas Education Agency about public education, including student demographic and academic performance, personnel, financial, and organizational information.

You'd think that after seeing numerous cases involving COI cases during the three decades of serving as the PIO at the BISD she'd have some idea that close relatives of board members could not be employed by the district. 

But Brown said that if anything had been done wrong she would take full responsibility for the "oversight."

"At no time was it called to my attention that (having them serve the district) was unacceptable," she told the board. "I apologize for being a distraction and distress (to the board)...At no time was it disclosed to me that their services were not allowed. However, when it was brought to my attention in the last few days that (it) was not acceptable, I immediately contacted our board legal counsel for his opinion. I know now that my husband and son should not have served..." 

Brown said she will be handing her prepared statement to the board secretary for inclusion in the record  and thanked President Eddie Garcia and the board members for allowing her the time to make her statement on the issues.

But it's not over. 

Garcia directed the board secretary that a copy of the statement also be given to attorneys O'Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo and that the board attorneys issue and opinion and advice the board on how to proceed on the issue.

The board is still awaiting the report from the board attorneys.