County bills BISD for 2006 election

The Brownsville Independent School District will be getting a $59,315.18 bill from Cameron County for running the district's November 2006 election.

If BISD officials refuse to pay the bill, the county's legal division will contact the Secretary of State's office and request permission not to run this year's November trustee election, Precinct 3 County Commissioner David Garza said.

The issue was discussed in executive session at Tuesday's Commissioners Court meeting, and by unanimous vote, the court said BISD should be held responsible for paying the outstanding bill.

Commissioners added to the agreement that the county's legal division negotiate any further contracts with future entities regarding the running of elections and that County Judge Carlos H. Cascos not be involved as he was in the BISD negotiations.

The county and school district have been at odds regarding  the nearly $60,000 bill the district has refused to pay the county for running its elections.

Although adjustments were made to the the initial bill, the changes weren't enough to satisfy BISD officials who have withheld payment on the bill for 1 1/2 years.

School district officials signed a contract with the county to run its elections in late September 2006, giving the county about a month's preparation. In that contract, elections administrator Roger Ortiz said he estimated the cost of running the BISD trustees election at $110,000.

A May 2007 summary of charges to BISD is $125,240.18. The school district paid $65,925 of those charges and has an outstanding balance of $59,315.18.

 District officials sought arbitration from the Secretary of State's Office, which reviewed how the elections department handled the elections and agreed with the county's assessment.

Ortiz hopes the issue can be resolved because BISD officials want the county to run its November elections where four trustee positions - 3, 5, 6 and 7 - are all up for grabs. Should the county run the elections for BISD the charges would be similar, Ortiz said.

 If the issue is not resolved, it will be up to the Secretary of State's Office to decide whether or not the county should handle the school board elections.

 "The state can say, ‘County you don't have to do it'," Ortiz said.