By Juan Montoya
From the coffee klatsch department: Brownsville Independent School District trustee (and now board president) Cesar Lopez will run for commissioner of the Brownsville Navigation District.
We sometimes sit next to tables at local coffee shops and restaurants and just happened to be sitting next to a bunch of political old timers when we overheard that Cesar Lopez had invited BND commissioner John Wood to coffee and talk.
Apparently, Lopez was feeling Wood out to see whether he was going to see reelection at the end of his four-year term in May.
Granted, Cesar has already held a fundraiser at $40 a pop for his reelection for the BISD, but it appears the heat in that kitchen is getting a mite warm for his comfort. What with all that hullabaloo over the spoiled barbacoa contracts, the continuing debacle over the 11-cent tax increase without going to the voters, with his buddy Joe Rodriguez hogging all the money for his sports palaces to relive his glory days, and the low morale of the teachers ans support staff there, we can hardly blame him.
So the fact that the port raised taxes for the first time in decades might probably not be a good issue for him, to raise against Wood.
But we digress.
There are already about four other candidates for the seat held by Carlos Masso, whose term also expires in May. The names of Esteban Guerra, Ernesto de Leon, Ernie Hernandez, and a woman named Priscilla Roca have been thrown around going for that spot.
So Lopez thinks that Wood may be vulnerable in some way.
From what we heard, Cesar was probing to see whether Wood had committed to run and told him that he was considering leaving the BISD to run for the port. When Wood gave some indication that he was, Lopez told him that he hoped it would be a a clean race.
Now Wood, who has been around the block once or twice in his political career as city and county commissioner (and even ran for county judge) before he ran for the port could not promise that.
"You know politics," he told Lopez. "If you have any skeletons in your closet, they will be brought out. And even if you don't, they'll make something up."
Lopez was appointed to fill the spot left vacant by Christina Saavedra in 2013 by the late Enrique Escobedo. Before that, he was a purchasing agent for the Mercedes ISD, having gone there after working in a similar position at the BISD. He the ran for office in 2014 against three candidates and – since it's a non-partisan, majority vote – won with 40 percent of the vote.
Now what is Lopez going to tell those supporters who gave him money at his fundraiser for reelection as a BISD trustee? And what would he bring to the table? He is also a representative of the TASBE Buy Board. Since his coming to the BISD, the district has leaned toward that more of procurement for its services, preferring to go without the benefit of bidding.
Valco, the company who sold $100,000s of barbacoa meat and Paragon, the company that has installed artificial turf in district schools to the tune of nearly $6 million were both members of the By Board, also called a cooperative purchasing pool. Is he eyeing the port's purchases as well?
