La Joya board member resigns — then retracts — over $30k/month contract

Two La Joya school board members threatened to resign Tuesday over the renewal of a high-paying contract for the board’s attorney.

Joe Aguilar, a five-year member of the board who lost his majority in 2006 and then lost another ally in the 2007 elections, went so far as to submit his letter of resignation to Superintendent Alda Benavides on Tuesday morning.

Under pressure from political allies and supporters, however, he called and withdrew it Tuesday afternoon, he said. Another member, former board president Joel Garcia, said he had also considered resigning but was convinced to hold off for now.

Aguilar cited the board’s $30,000-per-month contract with Roberto Jackson Jr., which the majority renewed Monday night, among several examples of overspending by the district.

“No one’s listening,” Aguilar said early in the day Tuesday when explaining his departure. “I feel bad leaving the community alone, in a way — they’re the ones who put me there.

“I was trying to protect their monies, and it got to the point where I couldn’t anymore.”

Board president Rita Garza-Uresti defended Jackson’s contract, saying $30,000 per month also pays for some of the services provided by Jackson’s partner, Rene Ramirez.

In addition, the high cost of legal services in comparison to what other districts pay is due in part to the district’s construction boom, she said.

Jackson “has to go through all the contracts, all the grievances” from district employees and what Garza-Uresti called “frivolous lawsuits” against the district by former employees and others.

The flat fee covers contracts and oversight; for litigation, Jackson and Ramirez’s contract includes a $200-per-hour fee.

In December, a Monitor comparison of other districts’ legal fees found that the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district also pays a flat fee, of $23,000 a month, while attorneys for the Edinburg and McAllen districts generally bill about $25,000 per month.

Aguilar said Jackson, the board’s attorney since June 2006, has not been properly reviewing contracts.

Jackson, in turn, called Aguilar “disingenuous” and “hypocritical.”

“Every contract the school needs for me to review, I review,” Jackson said.

“He has no genuine concern for the district,” he said of Aguilar before the board member decided to remain on the board. “It’s politics. I am glad he’s out.”

Jackson said he wanted Garcia to resign as well, noting that they are the only two board members without college degrees.

“It is embarrassing,” Jackson said. “We can’t have a farmer with a hat running our school district.”

The retraction of a school board resignation is not without precedent. In 2005, PSJA board member Reymundo Gonzalez Jr. submitted his resignation over an insurance contract but later decided to keep his seat on the board.

While the La Joya school board will keep its two dissenting board members for now, it did lose a key employee this week.

The board accepted the resignation of district facilities director Charles Demeter at Monday’s meeting.

Aguilar credited Demeter with keeping watch over the pennies in the district’s many complex construction projects.

“This is one of our main guys resigning,” Aguilar said.

Demeter, 65, said that after 22 years with the district, he had gotten burned out.

“I was tired,” he said. “It was time for something new.”

Oversight of 10 new schools — five of which are in various stages of construction and five of which are still in the design process — will pass to Danny Garza, a facilities manager whom Demeter has been training for several years, Demeter said.

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Sara Perkins covers Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.