Harlingen school district fighting request to release finance boss’ resignation letter

Ramon Mendoza (Courtesy: Harlingen CISD)

HARLINGEN — School district officials are fighting to withhold the release of former Assistant Superintendent Ramon Mendoza’s resignation letter, requesting the Texas Attorney General’s office determine whether the information is confidential.

The Valley Morning Star filed a Texas Public Information Act request seeking the release of Mendoza’s resignation letter presented to officials in late August, when he suddenly resigned after they discovered the district’s fund balance had plunged.

”The district believes that the responsive information is confidential or otherwise prohibited from public disclosure,” officials wrote in a Dec. 17 letter to the Attorney General’s Office Open Records Division.

Officials are citing Texas Government Code Section 552.101, which protects “information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory or by judicial decision,” along with Government Code Section 825.507, which protects certain retirement records.

After Mendoza, the district’s assistant superintendent for business services, resigned, board President Greg Powers requested then-Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez ask him to rescind his resignation.

“At that time, I questioned that it wasn’t a good idea, and I had concerns with the superintendent’s motives in accepting the immediate resignation before the district had an opportunity to get the facts of what had actually occurred,” Powers said in a statement Monday.

Powers said he believed officials needed Mendoza’s help in conducting an internal investigation while completing the district’s annual financial audit.

“Had (Mendoza) no longer been employed while we conducted our investigation and completed our annual audit, we would not have had the opportunity to find out what happened,” he said.

Greg Powers (Courtesy: Harlingen CISD)

In his statement, Powers was responding to Gonzalez’s claim the school board president requested he ask Mendoza to rescind his resignation “as the optics could negatively impact the district.”

Powers denied Gonzalez’s claim.

“Optics was never the reason (Mendoza) was asked to rescind his resignation,” Powers said in his statement.

While officials argue Gonzalez’s administration pulled $23.2 million from the district’s fund balance without the school board’s knowledge, Gonzalez claims he didn’t know Mendoza was withdrawing the money.

The district’s fund balance currently stands at about $19.8 million.

On Friday, Mendoza retired after serving years as a top district finance official.

Around the time Mendoza resigned in late August, board members found out Gonzalez’s administration had pulled $23.2 million from the fund balance to cover unbudgeted expenses.

Until then, they didn’t know the administration was dipping into millions of dollars in cash reserves, overspending the budget.

“We were not told and did not know that these expenditures exceeded our approved budget, so there was a clear lack of communication by the superintendent,” Powers said in a statement last week. “It was his responsibility, and his responsibility alone, to report significant issues to the board, such as expenditures that exceed our budget and the affect that would have on our fund balance.”

J.A. Gonzalez

Meanwhile, Gonzalez said the school board approved “transactions” through consent agendas, which typically group routine matters into single items which board members can request be discussed.

“These transactions were approved by the HCISD board through the consent agenda, although the board was unaware that these funds were being used in this manner,” Gonzalez said in a statement.

In late August, board members set up the district’s new Finance and Planning Committee to review the district’s expenses.

Days later, Gonzalez, who had taken office a year before after serving as McAllen’s superintendent since 2016, suddenly resigned with two years left on his contract, five months after board members gave him a one-year contract extension along with a $10,000 pay increase, bumping his salary to $310,000.

After naming Deputy Superintendent Veronica Kortan to serve as interim superintendent, officials began developing the district’s new fiscal plan.

“Through our Finance and Planning Committee, we have implemented new internal controls to ensure that budget items and the approval process are done with a greater degree of scrutiny and communications between the board and the administration,” Powers said in his statement Monday.

Now, officials are working to build up the district’s fund balance, planning to cut millions of dollars in expenditures.

Last month, the certified public accounting firm of Carr, Riggs and Ingram gave the district a clean audit for the 2023-2024 school year.

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