NEWS Staff Report
In the wake of all the San Benito CISD budget controversy over the past few months, this election season had turned into one of the most heated this city had seen in quite some time. Well, it’s all over and now it’s time to see if the new candidates can help reform some of the major issues within the District.
After last night’s election, there are now two new SBCISD board members. Joe G. Gonzalez won in overwhelming fashion garnering 50% of the vote with 1,268 votes to be named the new trustee in place 3. His competitors Yliana Gonzalez and Fatima Huerta got 26% and 23%, respectively. For trustee place 2, Anna Cruz narrowly edged Orlando Lopez by 42 votes, 1,282 to 1,240. Michael Vargas also won in convincing fashion over Rene Salinas, picking up 1,515 votes, to only 982 for Salinas.
In city elections, Esteban Rodriguez pulled in 1,024 votes over J.D. Penny’s 844 to take over the seat as Commissioner Place 3.
Meanwhile, Joe D. Gonzalez brought in 1,072 votes over Ely Garcia’s 829 to keep his position as Commissioner Place 4.
City of Rio Hondo Elections
Mayor-
Gustavo Olivares – 232
Alonzo Garza Sr. – 151
Proposition 1 – Extend term in office
For – 115
Against – 64
Proposition 2 – Sales Tax
For- 134
Against – 45
Rio Hondo ISD
Trustee Place 5
Buck Rhyner – 239
Alonzo Garza – 379
Robert Lopez – 332
Trustee Place 6 –
Manuel Flores Jr. – 500
Carlos Garza Jr. – 422
Trustee Place 7 –
Elisa Zuniga – 244
Joseph Lopez – 203
Rene Alfaro – 498
As per the City of Los Indios, the following results have been listed:
Mayor
Ricardo “Rick” Cavazos 192
Salvador Mendoza 61
Alderman, Place 2
Herminia “Minnie” Quintanilla 162
Alderman, Place 4
Rick Bennett 129
17 comments
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Former Employee: Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. How dare you say that the people we elected are a joke.
Well look again. The two new board members won handily.
And yes, WE HAVE SPOKEN!
Old Man: You are soooo right. The SB People have spoken… move on
Newsflash,
You are correct, the district has been self funded for years and the employees were getting taken advantage of so the board members(joe, medrano, etc) would benefit.. Mud employees know to well the games these characters played with the insurance for their self gain.. Don’t worry newly elected super board we ( several professionals) will be leaving the district and your fund balance will be semi-healthy again. This school district is a total joke starting with the board members elected…!!!!
Oh my. Lies, lies lies. Tsk tsk tsk. Typical of you people to blame joe. He wasn’t even on the board when that hill guy was hired. And joes family needs to be held accountable? For what? Unlike some former board members’ family, they actually work and mind their own business. Just leave that family be. Quit being sore losers.
@ Do the Math
Everything was healthy when Limon was running the show; for example, great academic scores, healthily financial budget and staffed appropriately. Sure, it takes a newly hired super to let the cat out of the bag and contradict everything Limon said.. By the way, sloppy Joe hired the famous insurance agent Glin Hiller.. What need to happen is Sloppy Joe’s family members who work for the district should be held accountable like everyone else and not just there to collect a pay check..
If I remember correctly Superintendent Puig put out a report and a consultant from TEA agreed that the district had a very healthy fund balance for four years, but on the 5th year it went down 10 to 12 million. That was the year that the superintendent was suspended. Reality, if you want to blame anyone for Hiler, blame the t-shirt vendor/ board member wanna be that was the puppet master, and the past board president that wanted a certain insurance vendor at any cost.. Now that Reality does Bite……
Newsflash! SBCISD has been self-funded for many MANY years and NEVER did it cost the district 12 million dollars! We are in this situation because of selfish people like the infamous FOUR that insisted in that agent. Horrible!
@ Do The Math- seriously are you think that the agent and the company caused the bad fund balance, do your homework (self insurance) did it, and the insurance committee that still kept the managed care plan (committee – Lorenzo Sanchez, Emma McCall, Glenn Hiller, another consultant from Corpus and the famous purchasing guy, Adrian Garcia who of course continues to get all selected vendors to sponsor his purchasing seminar every year at the island. How convenient, this makes me go hmmm!
It’s funny you talked about homework. How about you do yours. Since Mr. Gonzalez is back, let’s go with him on this one. From 1998 until 2011, tell me how bad self insurance was for the district? How many times did self insurance deplete our fund balance? You seem to know everything “Just do it”, so again tell me.
Fact is none of this mess happened until we went from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to this Cracker Jack coverage.
You can name Emma McCall, Adrian Garcia, Glen Hillyer all you want they don’t have final say on these decisions. At the end of the day Yliana, Fatima, Julian, and June voted for this insurance. And then the very next year Yliana, Fatima, Angel and Arnold voted on this.
The only ones opposed to this insurance were Anna Cruz, Oscar Medrano, and Hector Leal.
And FYI, not every vendor sponsors Adrian Garcia’s seminar.
Only way out of this mess,is for the TEA to take it over,it should have been done long ago,In normal cities it would have been done long ago.They will run the school system the way it should be run,they will be from out of town,so the local influence will be stopped.
Pretty sad, these grown adults are suppose to be setting an example for the kids.
How interesting Joe G and his supporters continue to bring up Bob Trevino. Trust me, Bob Trevino will be pushed back on as the agent of record because he financed Joe G’s campaign. These guys are so predictable and the voters selected him back on the school board. Total joke, seriously.. Trust me this district will go down with this board at the helm..
Lets see….
Bob Trevino + BlueCross = healthy fund balance
Salazar Insurance + cracker jack company = bad fund balance, RIF, TEA taking over, community divided, people laid off, people not laid off wanting to leave the district anyway
I think it’s pretty simple here. Any questions?
Awaiting snarky remarks……..
Denny – lighten up! Click on the link. It is indeed a funny coincidence (for lack of a better word)
According to the results posted on the Cameron County web site:
http://www.co.cameron.tx.us/election/2015me/release_10.pdf
I couldn’t help but notice the total number of votes Yliana received. Coincidence? What are the odds?
Poetic justice. Nothing about that individual was positive, all the way down the her vote total that ended her tenure. Fitting.
The election is over…….Give it a break and focus on the future!
Yliana and her friends said the exact same thing just after the insurance letter wrongdoing came to light…