By Juan Montoya
Remember this item from the Dec. 12 meeting of the board of trustees of the Brownsville Independent School District?
At the time the item was brought up the first time more than a year ago, trustee Joe Rodriguez argued that the $600,000 quoted by the vendor – Jeff Henderson, of VCRNOW, of Red Oak, Texas – was a bargain. Then, when the item appeared on the Dec. 8 Facilities meeting and the vendor got up to explain the $800,000 increase in price, the board members were told the increase had come about because "they had been asked" for additional features on their system.
Well, guess what?
When the item appeared on the Dec. 12 meeting the following Tuesday, trustees complained that they had not been told of the additional features – a new stadium sound system with broadcast capabilities, new infrastructures, and an increase in size from 21 feet tall and 28 feet wide to 33 feet tall to 68 feet wide – even though the vendor had been in communications with the BISD administration for more than a year.
Now, as the administration continues to negotiate with the vendor, it seems like the price has increased a bit more to $1.8 million. On Dec. 12, a majority of the board said "nyet" to Rodriguez's advocacy of the "state-of-the-art" scoreboard for the aging Sams Stadium.
And just as trustee Minerva Peña objected to the purchase of the more expensive board when walkways in the schools were missing awnings and trustee Phil Cowen said music students at Faulk Middle School were crowed 60 to a classroom while the board considered the scoreboard purchase, other trustees objected to the costly expenditure and turned it down.
Rodriguez has attempted for over a year to get a majority of the board to make the outlay for the scoreboard, but the sudden hike in the price of the board from $600,000 to $1.4 million prompted Cowen to say that the project had not been properly vetted by the committee or the board.
Rodriguez had tried to get the school board to put out the $600,000 to update the scoreboard, but since the board voted to increase property taxes by 11.25 cents, it made $120 million more available to spend over the next five years, $15 million of which have been set aside for improvements for Sams Stadium and the scoreboard.
As trustee Peña commented on the unexpected increase of the agenda item, Rodriguez taunted her by waving a sheet of paper as she spoke.
Even Cowen said that the $800,000 increase from the original price was a bit too much even for him to accept, telling Rodriguez the board could bring the item back in 2018. Board president Cesar Lopez, facing reelection, also favored further study.
And Cowen let it out of the bag that the vendor, Henderson, of VCR, who he did not identify at the time, had contacted him and they had spoken at length about perhaps combining the new board with a refurbishing of the old board to be placed in the field at Veterans Memorial High School.
"Well, this guy asked me, I don't remember his name, what it would take to (get the vote)," Cowen disclosed.
(In a previous facilities committee meeting, Rodriguez told Peña that superintendent Dr. Esperanza Zendejas had already been in "negotiations" with the vendor of the scoreboards, insinuating that it was a done deal.)Dr. Sylvia Atkinson made the motion to table and Peña seconded before Rodriguez or his fellows on the board could make a motion to approve.
"One point four million is a lot of money," Atkinson said. "I'll help you spend the $15 million Coach, but I'd rather spend the money on our pre-k program..."
When the vote to table the item was taken after discussion, only Rodriguez and Carlos Elizondo voted against it.
As Cowen pointed out, since VCR Now is a member of the the TASB (Texas Association of School Boards) Buy Board, the administration could skip the bidding process and negotiate directly with the vendor.
However, since Lopez is a TASB representative, he could not get involved in discussing or voting for the purchase of the item.
Will "Coach" Joe and the Esperanza Zendejas administration continue the underground campaign to ram the $1.4 million scoreboard down the BISD taxpayer throats? Some administrators remember that the artificial turf vendor Paragon – which has done more than $6 million in business with the district – also is a Buy Board member who did not have to go through eh BISD procurement or bidding process.
Zendejas told a past purchasing director that she chose Paragon after she heard about them "over coffee" with other district superintendents. Rodriguez has been a constant proponent of the scoreboard purchase.
"Joe wants his payday, too," said a former BISD trustee. "And he won't quit."