(Ed.'s Note: The Texas Government Code defines that for a seven-member board, the quorum is four. A quorum is an assembly whose membership can be determined is a majority of the entire membership.
So when one of our readers saw Brownsville Independent School District board member Dr. Prisci Roca-Tipton, Drue Brown, president Minerva Pena, and vice-president Dr. Sylvia P. Atkinson at a Denny's Restaurant a couple of weeks ago seating at the same table and discussing something with board counsel Baltazar Salazar who, if anyone, should know better than to allow quorum of the board to meet in violation of state law, he took a photo and emailed it to us.
The apparently illegal meeting took place before Atkinson was indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges in federal court. At $280,000 a year salary, Salazar should have dispersed the group, not facilitate the meet.
The Open Meetings Act’s definition of “meeting” to provide that “the attendance by a quorum of a governmental body at a candidate forum, appearance, or debate to inform the electorate” is not a meeting if formal action is not taken at the forum, appearance, or debate.
Is it any wonder that some trustee feel like anything goes?
However, we don't know whether the discussion taking place here was related to district business, but we have a suspicion that it probably was. We have also heard that state officials working with Gov. Greg Abbott's office had been in talks with the superintendent's office and with the federal prosecution for corruption at the BISD in full swing, it might be but a matter of time before the BISD could be taken over by the Texas Education Agency.
Given this apparently brazen flaunting of the law by the board and board counsel, that may be sooner than later.)