BISD releases legal fees
The Brownsville Independent School District spent at least $298,447 prosecuting its case against former superintendent Hector Gonzales, according to records released last week by the district.
BISD’s internal auditing department compiled the records at the request of Trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia, who chairs the board’s internal audit committee. Internal auditor Margarita Pizana Flores presented them to the BISD Board of Trustees at its meeting Tuesday. BISD released the records to The Brownsville Herald at the newspaper’s request.
BISD’s legal bill for the Gonzales matter includes $60,000 billed in 2008-2009 by the Harlingen law firm of Denton, Navarro, Rocha & Bernal PC and $229,637 billed in 2009-2010. Harlingen attorney Ricardo Navarro, of the firm, prosecuted the case for BISD.
Also, the law office of McAllen attorney Victoria Guerra billed the district $8,811. Guerra, a certified Texas Education Agency hearing examiner, presided at a hearing Aug. 3-5 at which BISD built its case to fire Gonzales for good cause.
The Texas Education Code required BISD to pay Guerra’s fee, district sources said. She had been recommended by Gonzales, a choice agreed to by the district, but BISD would have had to pay her fee even if Commissioner of Education Robert Scott had appointed her. In such cases school districts always have to pay for hearing officers.
Guerra eventually found for the district in every one of its allegations against Gonzales and the Board of Trustees terminated its contract with him effective Sept. 18.
Internal auditing compiled a report on spending for attorney fees for fiscal years 2003-2004 through Feb. 2 of the current 2009-2010 fiscal year.
According to the report, BISD’s legal fees peaked at $876,318 for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. That year, the district incurred $582,797 in general legal fees and $293,521 in special education legal fees.
During the year, a new Board of Trustees took office after the November 2008 elections amid concerns about special education in BISD. The board moved to suspend Gonzales with pay on Jan. 18, 2009, and ordered an investigation of the district’s Special Services Department.
Special education legal fees had increased from $86,407 in 2006-07 to $150,292 in 2007-08 and spiked to the $293,521 figure the following year. Due process hearings for special education students were largely responsible, BISD sources have said.
So far this year, special education legal fees have fallen to $62,540, while general legal fees have been $490,585, for a total of $553,125.
"As much as this subject seems to be walked around, half-a-million bucks is half-a-million bucks. That’s still a lot of money," Trustee Minerva Peña said during discussion of the matter Tuesday night.
Presas-Garcia then said the district needs to act on hiring an in-house attorney, as has been suggested previously. She said the Corpus Christi school district was able to hire such an attorney for about $150,000 a year.
Board president Rolando Aguilar said the fact BISD had to defend against numerous lawsuits during the Gonzales matter — including one from Gonzales himself — helped drive up legal costs. He said the potential for lawsuits makes it prudent for the district to retain outside legal counsel.
Superintendent Brett Springston said he interviewed candidates for in-house counsel this past November and December but that most had wanted to retain their private practice and work for BISD part time. Springston said he regards the BISD job as full time.
Trustee Dr. Enrique Escobedo suggested reopening the interview process and widening the search for potential candidates.
The San Antonio law firm of Walsh, Anderson, Brown, Aldridge & Gallegos, P.C. and its local counsel Mike Saldaña represent the district as outside counsel. The firm specializes in special education law. Walsh Anderson has billed the district $259,039 in the current fiscal year and $741,263 for 2008-09.
Saldaña said the amounts billed reflect the cost of defending actions filed against BISD over the past 1 ½ -2 years.
Saldaña, a former member of the Board of Trustees, affiliated with Walsh Anderson during the 2007-2008 fiscal year. That year, he billed the district $49,620 and Walsh Anderson billed $477,070.
In 2006-2007, when Saldaña represented the district as the Law Office of Mike Saldaña, he billed BISD $195,372. That same year, Walsh Anderson billed $243,368. Today, Saldaña no longer represents the district as the Law Office of Mike Saldaña but continues to represent BISD at times via his affiliation with Walsh Anderson.
