Policy violations alleged at board meetings

By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com

San Benito CISD Board President Yliana G. Rodriguez said the public hearing and special board meeting held Tuesday evening to discuss and approve the budget was held in violation of district policies.

Specifically, at the onset of the meetings Rodriguez cited policies BE (Local), which states that the superintendent shall prepare the agenda for all board meetings in consultation with the board president, and BDAA (Legal), which reads that the board president calls a meeting of the board, giving public notice not earlier than the 30th day or later than the 10th day before the meeting, to discuss and adopt the budget and the proposed tax rate.

According to Rodriguez, San Benito CISD Superintendent Antonio G. Limón did not seek such consultation as cited in the aforementioned policies. Regardless, Rodriguez received the go-ahead to conduct the meetings as per Gus Acevedo, the attorney who represents the district.

“The policies entailed are that the superintendent does not have the authority to develop or post agendas without approval of the board president. It has to be in conjunction, and those agendas were never run by me and they were posted,” Rodriguez said.

Limón, however, contended that all legal requirements of the meetings were met, which consisted of posting the agenda and advertising it in the newspaper. On the preparations for the public hearing and special board meeting, Limón said, “The only statement that I have is for the last eight years, under five different board presidents, that’s the procedure we follow. If (Rodriguez) wanted more involvement, a simple phone call would have taken care of that.”

Fellow board member Oscar Medrano concurred with the superintendent’s comments, adding that Rodriguez’s statement as to the policy violations raised eyebrows.

“It just seems very strange to me that our president would call it an illegal meeting when we met with the board to discuss the budget twice in two separate budget workshops,” Medrano said. “So I find it very interesting that our president would call it an illegal board meeting when she knows we needed to have it at the end of the month. It raised concerns for my part. In my opinion it was not an illegal meeting.”

But Rodriguez said she referred to the meetings being in violation of the policies in question and not necessarily illegal. She added, “Coming from policy, that (approving, preparing agendas) is one of my duties and responsibilities of board president. He (superintendent) can’t be taking over my duties.”

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