Corruption in Brownsville ISD? – “Insurance contracts, employee voluntary group insurance, insurance consultant………….”

escebeto  By Sergio Chapa

Brownsville ISD is the Rio Grande Valley’s largest school district but according to a new federal lawsuit, it may also be the most troubled. A 29-page page lawsuit filed at Brownsville’s federal courthouse on Tuesday outlines at least three year’s worth of corruption: http://www.valleycentral.com/uploadedfiles/kgbt/news/stories/catylawsuit.pdf

The “tell-all” lawsuit alleges acts of favoritism and corruption at Brownsville ISD. Among the allegations are favoritism with school district contracts and retaliation against those who asked questions. BISD school board members Luci Longoria and Caty Presas are suing the school district they were elected to represent. The two are also suing Superintendent Carl Montoya, school district attorney Baltazar Salazar and their fellow board members.

Presas and Longoria claim late school board president Enrique Escobedo ( http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/local_news/article_14138370-6900-11e3-b3d9-0019bb30f31a.html) acted as a ringleader of the corruption. They claim Escobedo had a personal relationship with Joe Salazar, a person whose company got a contract for insurance at the district ( http://salazarinsurancegroup.com/about/). The lawsuit also alleges that Escobedo gave his own brother school district work. Presas and Longoria claim Port of Brownsville board member Martin Arambula gave escobedo’s brother a $3 million dollar contract.

A short time later, Arambula got a raise at his job at BISD while his sister got a school district contract awarded to her company.

Presas and longoria claim school board members retaliated against them for asking questions. The two said claim they were shut out of committees and other school board activities.

Action 4 News tried to speak to both sides of the lawsuit but neither wanted to commented due to the pending litigation.

A court date for the lawsuit has been set before U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville on April 29th.