How Linebarger Unlevels the Playing Field to Procure Collection Contracts at County and BISD

 

by Jim Barton on Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 12:46pm

      The huge law firm of Linebarger, Heard, Goggan, Blair, Graham & Sampson L.L.P has its longreaching tentacles in every aspect of delinquent tax collection in Cameron County, enjoying lucrative contracts with the county and now again with BISD. Blogger Bobby Wightman-Cervantes has documented the extensive political contributions to the majority 4 BISD trustees. Simply go to his blog BROWNSVILLE VOICE and type in the name Linebarger and it will come up. Recently, Linebarger et al joined two other firms giving sales presentations before a portion of the BISD board.

       Here is my coverage of that budget meeting held 1/16/12:

  http://meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot.com/2012/01/presas-garcia-unable-to-hide-favoritism.html


      While the trustees on the budget committee put on a pretense of fairness by carefully asking each firm the same highschoolish questions with the exact same enunciation, cadence and wording, their body language during the non-Linebarger presentations gave them away. The decision had already been made.

  




     At the county level, Tax Collector/Assessor Tony Yzaguire sits on the committee that recommends a legal tax collection firm to the county. Linebarger did not leave the issuance of that contract to mere chance or actual merit either. I received information that, just before or after the county contract was awarded, Tony Yzaguire's step daughter Ashley was given a job with the Linebarger firm. If that is true, Tony Yzaguire certainly knows that it is not ethical for him to sit on a recommendation committee while his daughter accepts a job with one of the firms competing for that contract. It is grossly unfair to those companies working in good faith to secure the contract. It is also unfair to the sons and daughters who could fill that spot at Linebarger if only their daddy was tax assessor and a committee member.