ELIZONDO, ORTIZ, SWORN IN; NEW BOARD OFFICERS PICKED

Unable to find a local judge willing to administer him the oath,  Elizondo asked Texas District 38 Rep. Erin Gamez – a criminal defense attorney – to swear him in to the Place 1 seat. 

Port Isabel Municipal Judge Luis Hernandez swore in Frank Ortiz to the Place 4 seat.

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

With two new members sworn in, a new majority on the board of the Brownsville Independent School District quickly realigned the pecking order and – with two sitting members joining the two new ones – quickly reorganized and stripped the old majority of their positions as officers of the board.

New members Carlos Elizondo and Frank Ortiz were joined by sitting members Jessica Gonzalez and Minerva Peña to cast the 4-3 votes to elect Gonzalez as president, Elizondo as vice president, and Minerva Peña, secretary. Ortiz was elected asst. secretary by a 7-0 vote.

The swearing in, however, didn't go as neatly as planned. 

Elizondo could not find a local judge willing to swear him and his mother-in-law, at the last moment, asked District 38 Texas Representative Erin Gamez to swear him in as a personal favor. Gamez barely made it to the ceremony in time to administer the oath. Perhaps the fact that Elizondo has two felony theft cases pending in district court gave the judges room to  pause. 

Ortiz picked Port Isabel Municipal Judge Luis Hernandez to administer his oath of office.

Brown thanked the district, parents, staff and students for a lifetime of working there as a teacher and then as Public Information Officer.  "Thank you for the opportunity to serve," she said. "It was truly an honor and a privilege."

 

Outgoing Place 4 board member Prisci Roca-Tipton did not attend.

Elizondo, for his part, said he was glad to be back as a board member. "I am blessed to be back...and to be back to be a servant...I will be a fighter in the forefront...I am here to be a team member."

Ortiz, on the other hand, said that "the best is yet to come...I'm ready to go work (and) am here to serve you." 

And observers said that when both men took the oath where they swore that they had not promised anything to anybody for their vote, neither Elizondo nor Ortiz raised their right hand to make the pledge. From a distance, audience members couldn't tell whether either one had crossed their fingers. 

During the comment period, several teacher unions representatives (BEST, AOBE, TSTA, NEA, etc...) pointedly reminded the new members that they had promised them during the campaign that they would have a "seat at the table" and that "our voices would be heard" as the district came under the direction of the new board majority. 

"You give us so much hope," said one. "We are hopeful that you will give us the respect that everybody needs...because before we were not allowed to have one (a seat at the table.)"

The new board members were told by the BISD-hired independent auditors that the old board had left them with more than three times the necessary budget to run the district day to day for a month, a clean audit of federal grants, and a healthy fund balance.

After conciliatory words by several members, Peña – who else? – reminded everyone of her 20 years as a state trooper, the advice of her Korean War veteran father, and said that because of the teachers in the district this was the greatest country in the world, by God. "Let's pray for unity."