Hats Off in La Joya! Yeehaw!

The La Joya ISD School Board voted to renew the $360,000 salary for attorney Robert Jackson this week. In doing so, Jackson remains the highest paid school attorney in the valley.

When La Joya elected a new majority in May of 2006, the newly elected members, garnering a fourth vote in traitor Arturo Gonzalez,Jr., voted to axe long-time attorney Leo Montalvo and replace him with Jackson, a man with a small office in Palmview and zero experience in dealing with school law.

Board President Rita Uresti, who last year ran on the promise of"fiscal responsibility" among others, no doubt defended Jackson's salary stating that he “has to go through all the contracts, all the grievances and frivolous lawsuits.”
Some of those grievances and "frivolous lawsuits" were the result of unwarranted reassignments, which included the promotion of Uresti's husband from a middle school principal to Asst. Superintendant.

Interesting enough, two members who voted in favor of Jackson's frivolous salary-Fito Salinas and Arturo Gonzalez, Jr.- each have a daughter working in Mr. Jackson's law office. You gotta take care of your own.

Only two of the seven board members, Joel Garcia and Joe Aguilar, had enough sense to vote against the  raise. Aguilar went as far as submitting his letter of resignation. He later retracted his resignation after realizing he owed it to his supporters to stay on board and give the contra some grief. La Joya board member resigns — then retracts — over $30k/month contract

Jackson, not knowing of Aguilar's change of mind, did not pass up an opportunity to shine through the media. He expressed his relief on the resignation and stated that Aguilar “has no genuine concern for the district. It’s politics. I am glad he’s out.”
No shit it's politics! What a Genius! Politics afforded Jackson his plush salary! One must really wonder why these people would not only hire small-time lawyer but also pay him such a salary. A few guesses come to mind: Could it be to fund campaigns for the school board and other city elections? Or, perhaps to pay salaries for board members' family members?
Jackson also hoped for Garcia's resignation since he and Aguilar are the only two members without a college degree. The genius must have forgotten that the mum, non-sour grape picker Arturo Gonzalez, Jr., whom he of course supported and campaigned heavily for in this past election, also lacks a college degree.


But what does Jackson really think of Aguilar?

“It is embarrassing. We can’t have a farmer with a hat running our school district.”
But we can have an sloppy, ignorant attorney as counsel for a multi-million dollar district?

Keep your hat on Joe and stay off the bus!

And It Is On in La Joya

Some of us had our suspicions, but the media has confirmed it. We thought the battle for a new majority on the La Joya ISD School Board had ended with a victory for USA allies Arturo Gonzalez, Jr. and Esperanza Ochoa when they were declared the victors in the 2007 election, however, that "victory" may or may not be short-lived for those results have been challenged by opposing candidates Domingo Villarreal, Jr. and Elma Garza.

As I mentioned before, a few weeks ago a judge allowed former Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia to videotape depositions of election judges and others who may have witnessed election no-no's. Well, I guess the gang found enough reason to go before the courts and challenge this election. Let us examine some of the allegations brought forth.

• More than 400 votes were improperly counted
• People registered outside LJISD were allowed to vote and their votes were allowed to be counted (confirmed by the Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro)
• LJISD election employees prevented eligible voters from voting.
• UNAUTHORIZED people were allowed to work as clerks or judges
• A voting location was moved the night before the May 12 election

Wow, these are some some accusations! Ochoa and Gonzalez won the election by a little over 400 votes. It was close.

What do the USAGO camp have to say about this?

Arturo Gonzalez, Jr. called the contestants "Sour Grapes."

Funny, there is speculation surrounding Mr. Gonzalez's knowledge on migrant scholarships that may have been given to undeserving people. I guess the thought of a sour grape makes the man think about the "torment" these particualr receipients may have endured picking them grapes.

Esperanza Ochoa says “It saddens me that this has brought so much negative attention to the district.”

I have to agree with Ochoa. If a judge orders a new election because of the evidence brought forth than the powers that be at LJISD should be ashamed of themselves and will hopefully think of showing some competency in the next election- assuming the district handles the next election.

And the Hits Keep Coming. Vroom, Vroom!

News channel 5 reported last night that election officials have found more, si, mas evidence that people outside the La Joya I.S.D. voted in the 2007 school board election. dum, dum, dum, dum.....

Could it be that this election was rigged? Unfortunately, we will have to wait until officials wrap up this investigation, which may be a few more weeks.

Meanwhile, as I mentioned in a previous post, a judge has allowed Ramon Garcia, a lawyer for opposing candidates Domingo Villarreal, Jr. and Elma Garza, to videotape depositions from 15 people who may have misbehaved during this fracked-up election. It remains to be seen whether the candidates will file a lawsuit for a new election. Guess it depends on the outcome of the depositions.

It's summertime and the sun is a shining throughout. However, in the small town of La Joya, there seem to be a few dark clouds forming above the La Joya I.S.D. central office. Will these folks jump into the bus for cover?

VroomVroom! Next Bus Stop: Palmview I.S.D.

I was at friend's place this evening and got into watching Days of Our Lives on the Soap channel. It has been many years since I watched this whacky show so I had to get my friend to explain to me who the characters were and what their relation was to everything and everyone. Two main families, the Bradys and the Hortons, dominate the show. In one family we have a cop named Bo Brady married to woman named Hope, a member of la familia Horton. Bo, although adopted by Sean Brady, is actually biological son of Victor Kiriakis (in typical soap fashion, Bo's mom had an affair). Bo and Hope have a son Sean, who had a child with Belle Black. Belle was once married to Phillip, Bo's younger half bro and Sean's uncle. Belle's half sister, Sami Brady, is married to Lucas, el half brother de Phillip, and the step-son to Victor. Lucas is  biological son of one of the Hortons, making him a cousin to Sean and Hope. Follow? Sounds pretty incestuous don't it? - almost like the City of Palmview and La Joya I.S.D.

Per the LJISD website: The La Joya Independent School District, located in the western portion of Hidalgo County consist of more than 226 square miles stretching west of Mission to Sullivan City, including the smaller communities of La Joya, Palmview and Peñitas. Boundaries extend from the United States border formed by the Rio Grande River to the 13 mile line near McCook. La Joya ISD is one of the fastest growing school districts in Texas with an estimated increase of 1,400 students per year.
A lot of growth means a lot of construction (contracts, contracts!) and naturally, the need for a newer, larger Central Office. A main office that may just be moved and built in Palmview, Tx. Ok, La Joya I.S.D. main quarters in Palmview. Make sense? I will tell you who this makes sense to.

Of the seven members, six reside in greater Palmview. Board VP Fito "I hate liars" Salinas and his wife Mary, an alderwoman in La Joya, reside in La Joya, Tx. I'm sure La Joya is proud to have them.

As I mentioned in a previous post, current Board President Rita Uresti's husband Antonio Uresti- the principal who went uncertified for years, was later given a second chance to redeem himself when he renewed his certificate and did so by producing a TEA academically unacceptable school- Remember how Tony U was conveniently promoted to Asst. Sup. of Human Resources? Antonio Uresti, husband to la Rita U., is an alderman in Palmview.
Johnn (emphasis on the second "n") Alaniz, LJISD School Board Secretary, is the city manager in Palmview.
Jerry Perez, recently promoted to Director of Transportation, is also an alderman in Palmview.
Jorge Garcia, mayor of Palmview, is married to Irene Garcia, a politiquera currently being questioned for questionable acts performed during the 2007 LJISD School Board election.
Aida Rivas, the city secretary in Palmview, was appointed as a judge during this same election.
Aleida Saldana, another Palmview city employee joins Secretary Rivas and Politiquera Irene Garcia on the list of the deposed.

Mayor Garcia is also the proud father in-law of State Representative Ismael "Kino" Flores. Kino sabe was the political operative behind the infamous Uresti, Salinas, and Alaniz campaign in 2006, and he also put lots of money and effort into backing the 2007 Arturo Gonzalez and Esperanza Ochoa campaign. Whew!

"The wheels on the bus go round and round."

Word is that 2 weeks ago, paychecks made out to Palmview city employees-this includes custodians and police officers- were bounced around like a ping-pong ball. Whoa! What? Bounced?

** Earth to The Monitor , Univision, South Texas Paper, where are you? Great news here.**

This city needs some saving. I guess building the LJISD main office in this city would help the cash-flow in Palmview, eh?

Paris in the Valley

Big news, big news! News I am sure you have not heard.

Paris Hilton, a distinguished hotel heiress made famous for her sex tapes and endless partying, has been ordered to STAY in jail. You know the deal.

"Mommy, NO," cried the poor Paris.

Paris, Paris, I'm sure this is a frightening situation for you, but it's a reality you must face.

Some may argue that the media and others alike are being too hard on this poor girl, after all, she made an honest mistake, was "unaware" she broke the law, and has since promised to abide by all rules from now on. While a part of me does feel some pity for the brat, I believe the sentence was fair enough. The girl was caught not once, but twice, driving with a suspended license. The second stupid mistake is what landed her in jail.

Paris almost got away with a slap on her ankle and the luxury of finishing her sentence in her Hollywood mansion. She claimed to have some serious medical ailment that could seriously worsen in jail. Wow! Hollywood mansion a jail? How many truly ill people have been offered this option?

In the valley, we got our own Paris Hilton: We call 'em ELECTED officials and they range in rank from state representatives and city council members, to school board members.

We also have our share of lenient judges. They come in the form of registered voters who continuously ignore all warnings and either return to re-elect the same candidates and their counterparts, or worse, don't vote at all.

These are people who walk around with a grand, sickening sense of entitlement and use their positions to fill their pockets and egos. They do this because people allow them to do so. What gives? An individual only holds as much power as he/she is allowed by us. WE, the voters, are what make these people and WE, the voters can easily break them. How? By Voting! Duh....

One judge in Hollywood finally got tired of celebrities' blatant disrespect of the law and our courts, what will it take for Valley judges to do the same?

Sex, Lies, and Cher?

As I mentioned in my previous post, PSJA Board member Vangie De Leon was picked up by the boys in blue on Monday night....Well come one come more.. The latest in a list of lineups include:

• Rogelio “Little Roy” Rodriguez, 43, Alamo PSJA School board trustee, 1995-Present

• Raul “Big Roy” Navarro, 58, San Juan PJSA school board trustee, 1995-Present

• Evangelina “Vangie” Garcia De Leon, 46, Alamo PSJA School board trustee, 2002-Present

• Richard De Leon, 44, Alamo Husband of Vangie De Leon

• Arturo Guajardo, born 1947, 59, San Juan PSJA former superintendent, 2001-Present

• Arnie Olivarez, 57, Rancho Viejo Insurance contractor Insurance Associates of the Valley

• George Hernandez, 50, Donna Donna ISD School board president

These poor souls face a 22 count federal indictment for accepting $600,000 in gifts and cash, including: multiple trips to Las Vegas, South Padre Island, private family parties, tickets to the Final 4 NCAA Basketball tourney (a package worth $14,000), tickets to an Oscar de la Hoya fight, and tickets to a Cher concert. Could these officials now be singing "If I could Turn Back time?"

Wow! Must be nice to be a member of the School Board! Why, who could resist tickets to Cher? That is the ultimate dream come true!

Did I mention the prostitutes? Seems that the luxurious vacations, cash, and event tickets didn't satisfy enough, so "what the Heck," said the contractors, "let us win them over with sex." One word for these PUBLIC OFFICIALS: Ewwwwwwww

It is my hope that this saddening incident serves as a wake-up a call for other corrupt officials. Could this be the beginning of a valley meltdown? I have a few guesses as to who may be next.

*View the pdf indictment at:
http://multimedia.themonitor.com/multimedia/media/060607indictment.pdf

In Other Schools

Two weeks after the arrests of PSJA School Board member Roy Rodriguez, architect Joe Lopez and contractor Pedro Gutierrez , PSJA School Board member Vangie Garcia-De Leon has now been arrested.

The details of the arrests have yet to be revealed, but it will only be a matter of time before more arrests are to be made in the PSJA district.

According to The Monitor, "In January 2005, the FBI raided school district offices and the homes and/or personal offices of school board members Rodriguez, Jaime Santa Maria, Vangie Garcia-De Leon and Roy Navarro, as well as Superintendent Arturo Guajardo. Santa Maria was arrested six months after the raids and later pleaded guilty to corruption charges. "

Rodriguez is accused of accepting bribes in exchange for votes on construction jobs.

Oh the temptations elected officials are faced with. Do people not remember what happened when Eve lured Adam into biting the apple?

La Joya, What the Whack?

I sometimes wonder what life be like if world peace were to actually erupt. I'm sure we'd all be be pleasantly peachy. People would sing along to peppy songs, turn an orange into an apple, drink lemonade and sail into the sunset. A nice and ideal concept this would be, a nice and ideal reality it isn't, especially at La Joya Independent School District.

As many of you may have heard, the valley has a string of election investigations happening here and there,and the most intriguing one is that of the election drama in the 2007 La Joya ISD School Board election.

According to local news, The Monitor, upon investigating ballots from the 2007 election, County Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro and her staff discovered a number of people who voted in the LJISD election were actually registered outside the district. Which means...... people may have voted illegally!!! Whoa.

”Although administrators have already discovered a few ballots from people not registered in the La Joya school district boundaries, some of these voters may simply have forgotten to register their new addresses after moving within the district’s borders, Navarro said. In such cases, poll workers should provide these voters with provisional ballots, which can be checked and counted in the event of a tight election. Both Gonzalez and Ochoa won their races by a margin of more than 300 votes. Navarro’s staff has already found a few cases where this procedure was not followed but has not finished checking all of the dubious votes against the provisional voter lists."

This came after all election materials were impounded just days after the May 12, 2007 election. Check out the News Channel 4 Story.

A judge has allowed Ramon Garcia, a lawyer for opposing candidates Domingo Villarreal, Jr. and Elma Garza, to videotape depositions from 15 people who may have had knowledge of or witnessed election misconduct. Some of those deposed include:
LJISD School Board member Rita Uresti;candidate Arturo Gonzalez, Jr.; Aida Rivas, an election judge at the Palmview site and Palmview city secretary,Aleida Saldana, Gloria Amador and Linda Tijerina, election clerks at the Palmview site; Irene Garcia a politiquera who actively supported Gonzalez and Esperanza Ochoa, and many others. Robert Jackson, the $360,000 LJISD attorney, is representing the deposed.

State impoundments? Procedures not followed? Out-of- town ballots? Videotaped depositions? What the H? Shocked and dismayed I am for sure.

Are you really surprised? After all, this is the same Board who took office one year ago to wreak havoc on La Joya I.S.D.

They began with the suspension of Superintendent Filomena Leo in July 2006, not two months after the "U.S.A" majority was sworn in, and continued with various reassignments of those believed to be “allied” with Leo. The reassigned were later replaced with close friends and family of the U.S.A. click, one of whom includes Antonio Uresti, an alderman in Palmview and husband of current Board President Rita Uresti. In Aug. 2006 Mr. Uresti was moved from Principal of one of two TEA academically unacceptable schools int he 27-campus LJISD to Asst. Superintendent of Human Resources. That's right folks, screw up your school and you get a damn good promotion!

Also from the city of Palmview, we have Alderman Jerry Perez who was given the position of Transportation Director. Incidentally folks, La Joya School Board member Johnn Alaniz (The A of U.S.A) is the city manager in Palmview. Palmview's in the house! Palmview's actually crowding the house.

I have not been able to retrieve the Monitor article which reported on these reassignments but a Greek Coyote can provide more in-depth info about this fiasco. See Alethia in La Joya Politics.

Ok, my bus driver took a small detour there for a bit. Back to bus stop: 2007 election chaos in La Joya...

The LJISD School Board had the option of possibly avoiding this whole mess at their meeting on April 25, 2007, by voting to allow Hidalgo County to run the election as many other cities and schools had opted to do. Story: La Joya school district to run its own elections. Considering the fact that 2 members were up for re-election, (each on separate tickets) and the chaos from the year before, one would think this to be the logical decision, right? Nope, nope, nope.. Shut down 4-3, because as board member Fito Salinas so eloquently stated “Do you think the county’s really honest, too? I don’t.” For those of you who don't know, about a year ago Fito Salinas also told The Monitor "I hate liars."

It’s been a rough and busy year for LJISD. Reassignments, extravagant pay raises, talks of hostile work environment, Rita Uresti's (the U of U.S.A.) shady behavior at the April 25, 2007 LJISD Board meeting, mail-in ballots not being mailed on time, etc, etc.... I certainly would not be surprised if the “criminal, fraudulent conduct, and tortuous conduct,” allegations were proven to be true.

The bus is still going folks. Stay tuned, there's gotta be a lot more to come. Hopefully, soon.


*The Monitor has theposted a copy of the petition online. To view a copy of the petition in pdf format visit: http://multimedia.themonitor.com/multimedia/media/051707lajoya.pdf