(Ed.'s Note: A tied 3-3 vote to award the delinquent tax collection contract by the board of the Brownsville Independent School District means that Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP will remain as the district's collector despite documentation that they failed to file taxable value audits with the Texas Comptroller's Office for the years 2011-2014 that resulted in the loss of some $2.1 million to the district.
During Tuesday's meeting, even the administration staff confirmed that the audits had cost the district money, to no avail.
The votes on a motion before the board to award the contract to Linebarger competitor Perdue, Brandon, Fielder, Collins and Mott LLP broke down this way:
Yes: Drue Brown, Prisci Roca-Tipton and Minerva Pena
(Brown made the motion and Roca-Tipton provided the second.)
Nay: Phil Cowen, Laura Reyes-Perez and Eddie Garcia
The agenda item read: 6. Recommend approval of RFQ #20-127 for Delinquent Ad Valorem Tax Attorney Services. Contract will be for one year beginning June 16, 2020, with the option to renew.
That means Linebarger will work on a month-to-month basis because they were not chosen to get the contract.
Several people present at the meeting say they overheard Linebarger representative John Guevara met Perez-Reyes at the foot of the administration building's elevator and was giving her talking points on how to argue against changing firms. She did.
(By the way, there's always some Cowen running for some office that could use some campaign contributions in the future just as Perez-Reyes has a Republican challenger in the November general election. And of course, Garcia's sister Gabby Garcia is in a runoff race with Helen Delgadillo for the 138th District Court.)
With the tie at 3-3, Linebarger stays on the contract by default.
And despite admitting that their "complete" company had failed to file the necessary audits and admitting they had lost money for the district, the three trustees who voted against changing firms had different reasons for their votes.
Perez-Reyes said it wasn't their fault that they had not filed the audits and blamed the previous administrations and boards for not asking the firm to perform and submit them to the Texas Comptroller's Office. Before her change of heart, it was Perez-Reyes who had the item tabled so the board could look into the lost $2.1 million.
Eddie Garcia said that it was "not the right" time to change firms, but did not explain when the right time might be. Perhaps losing another $2.1 million?
But the most disingenuous argument was from Cowen who in the past has stated that he would only vote against Linebarger if they messed up royally.
With $2.1 million lost, one would think that would be enough for anyone to live like a king for a while, if that's what he meant by "royally."