San Benito school board hold back push to fire attorney

3 weeks ago 75

SAN BENITO — A school board majority has held back a push to fire a special attorney overseeing construction of a $40 million bond-funded project.

During a meeting, board members Orlando Lopez, Israel Villarreal and Rudy Corona voted to terminate attorney Baltazar Salazar’s contract before four trustees declined to vote, holding off the push.

Salazar, a Houston-based attorney who once worked as a district teacher, is standing behind a plan to file lawsuits against companies involved in failed construction plans costing the district about $12 million, for which a former contractor’s insurance company compensated the district.

In November, board members entered into a new contract with Salazar, boosting his flat monthly fee from $5,000 to $12,500.

The contract, which followed the district’s first agreement signed under a previous school board in 2023, does not specify terms.

During Wednesday’s meeting’s public comment period, a resident spoke in support of Salazar’s work while another criticized his new contract’s increased fees.

Among board members, discussion broke out as they considered an agenda item calling for “possible action regarding the special counsel legal services agreement.”

Opening the discussion, board member Alex Reyna said he didn’t expect an issue surrounding Salazar’s contract to end up on the agenda.

“I thought we had discussed this, all of us together, and when I saw this agenda item, I was surprised,” he told the audience. “For the past, I would say, three months, there’s been a discussion about this. Obviously, we got to a point that we all agreed to continue with Mr. Salazar.”

When Reyna called on board members to retain Salazar’s services, they declined support.

For about two months, trustees had discussed some concerns surrounding Salazar’s work, board member Crystal Hernandez said.

“There have been some concerns, questions that we’ve had,” she told the audience. “We were disappointed a couple of times with the lack of responses, I guess misinformation or not clarifying information. It is something that we have been discussing quite often for the past couple of months. It is something that’s been going back and forth, and like Mr. Reyna said, we had come to an agreement and a conclusion, but things came up again.”

When Villarreal called on trustees to terminate Salazar’s contract, Lopez and Corona cast their votes.

But other board members declined to vote, holding off the push.

After Reyna requested he speak before the board, Salazar told trustees he believed they were standing behind his work overseeing the construction project.

“The last time I met with this board — and I’m not going to discuss the discussion about my tactics or my plan going forward — but my understanding was that everybody was OK,” he told board members, recalling his old job as a Berta Cabaza Middle School teacher.

“I have my promise. My motto on my emails is ‘loyal, faithful and aggressive representation.’ I stick to it,” Salazar told board members.

“I do support and I will support — my goal is try to get as many responsible parties to pay for the damages,” he said, referring to the project’s failed construction. “This is my commitment to you from day 1 and I have not changed on that.”

Last year, the school board authorized Salazar to file lawsuits against companies behind the project’s failed construction plans.

For nearly two years, Salazar’s overseen the construction project.

In March 2023, former Superintendent Theresa Servellon halted the project after architect Mike Allex, with the McAllen firm ROFA Architects, reported finding some geopiers, or deeply anchored 2-foot-wide rock columns, misaligned with the buildings’ foundation targets.

A month earlier, in February 2023, the school board had broken off with the project manager, the Edinburg-based Brighton Group, terminating the company’s contract without cause, with the construction project about halfway completed, officials said at the time.

As part of a contract, the district paid the Brighton Group a $1.25 million fee to serve as project manager based on estimated $30 million costs in the construction of a $21.3 million performing arts theater, an $8.8 million aquatics center and a $5.7 million indoor practice field, which was completed in 2021.

Amid the construction shutdown, Allex was working with Davila Construction, the project’s San Antonio-based contractor, to determine repair plans aimed at jump-starting construction.

Then in April 2023, Servellon hired Salazar to serve as a mediator as Davila Construction and ROFA Architects worked to determine plans aimed at fixing construction flaws under two buildings’ foundations.

Nearly a year later, in January 2024, Superintendent Fred Perez’s office reported the construction team had “concluded that the remediation is not prudent or feasible based on the number and the extent of construction discrepancies.”

At that time, the school board found Davila Construction, which had launched the project in late 2021, in default of its contract.

Last October, the board entered into a settlement with Davila Construction’s insurance company paying $13.3 million to help jump-start the project.

The $13.3 million settlement with the Berkley insurance and surety company covered the district’s payments to Davila Construction, Lopez said at the time.

Now, the district has a total of about $29.3 million to fund construction of the project whose originally estimated $30 million cost was calculated around 2019.

Late last year, after about three years of construction, officials decided to move the project to a new site, blaming building foundation flaws while leaving behind two rising structures built for about $12 million at the old site sitting on district property near Dr. Raul Garza Elementary School.

In December, board members decided to build the performing arts theater at a site near Veterans Memorial Academy while considering “options” for the construction of the aquatics center.

Facing escalated materials’ prices as they restart the project, district officials have offered no estimated overall construction cost while giving no timetable.

The post San Benito school board hold back push to fire attorney appeared first on MyRGV.com.

Read Entire Article