EPISD board member, and my parent's neighbor, David Dodge - who once compared wearing a military uniform to a formal event to wearing a clown costume - proved just how stupid he is yesterday. Read the article HERE.
So, he comes out weeks later after approving a contract increase for a vendor claiming he now understands what he was voting for. Are you kidding me? Only now does he understand what he voted for last month.
And as someone who has done business with the district from a construction and engineering standpoint - it doesn't work like that in that department. You don't just request a 30 percent increase in your contract and then it magically appears in front of the board to be approved. You have to prove to the staff first that there's a need and then you go from there. Everyone understands exactly why your contract amount is being increased.
For Dodge to come out later to declare what everyone pretty much already know, is indicative of just the type of morons you've had sleeping at the wheel at EPISD. Remember that District 2 candidate Mike Apodaca counts the woman who is head of the EPISD board debacle has his second biggest supporter (Norma Chavez being his biggest - both in size and in effort).
Not sure how many times I have to repeat myself. Garcia wasn't doing something new - he just pissed off the wrong people who outed him. This stuff goes on everyday in every single school district. It's the primary reason every tax payer should always oppose increases in school district budgets. The fact of the matter is that there is too much money in education.
Posted by: dot | February 14, 2013 at 09:54 AM
Could not agree more Dot. Totally not acceptable that the board approved an additional $200k without even understanding what they were doing. You have to question the intelligence of the Conservator and Butler - can they be that dumb about fee based contracts?
But as with any big contract for services in El Paso - be it county, city, school district or TxDOT - if you are an out of town firm you somehow must be smarter than the locals and therefore you deserve the big bucks.
Posted by: Lslsls | February 14, 2013 at 10:38 AM
I can tell you that EPCC hired a certain contract all the time. Their work was shoddy and instead of making them fix the problems under the warranty (or whatever builders call it), they would pay them to fix THEIR mistakes. This was allowed because Rhodes, Haggerty, Quintanilla, Uxer, Icard, etc. were getting something in return. The physical plant manager was fired because she tried to fix things.
Posted by: Josie | February 14, 2013 at 01:43 PM
Josie: doesn't surprise me one bit. If you are an honest contractor or consultant - once certain employees of public entities figure that out you cease to get any more work. Can't have honest people contracting with government - keeps the employees from collecting their reward.
Posted by: Lslsls | February 14, 2013 at 03:09 PM
I made the mistake of voting Yes on the last EPISD bond issue, the one in which Strelzin tried to do a shake down on EPISD vendors to support the PAC. I even asked Dodge why I should vote Yes after Strelzin did that (with help from EPISD later denied). Dodge answered because we should trust them - the board - and not Strelzin!
Big mistake on my part and one not to be repeated. Another reason why I think the AAA is a similar scam and that CC is being paid or otherwise rewarded for it. It just smells that way to me, given the history of this place.
Posted by: Rotten Peppers | February 14, 2013 at 05:17 PM