Presas-Garcia Unable to Hide Favoritism At Budget Meeting

 

by Jim Barton on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:35am

     

     Oh, the irony! On a nationwide celebratory day honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a school board whose president is a fake, phony, fraudulent "doctor" holds a budget meeting with the audience largely populated by lawyers in suits representing three companies salivating over the bountiful commissions associated with collecting delinquent property taxes owed the district.


     Before we start to doubt all of those claiming doctorates, Martin L. King did enter Morehouse College at the precocious age of 15, actually earning his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 1948, later his Bachelor in Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951, and finally, his Doctorate in Philosophy from Boston University in 1955. Enrique Escobedo, on the other hand, claimed a doctorate from Universidad de Noreste in Tampico, Tamaulipas which he never received. He simply lied about it. The school welcomes him back as a "student" in pursuit of his degree. Unabashed, the dishonest Escobedo printed up campaign materials in his run for school board naming himself Dr. Escobedo even after the Brownsville Herald exposed him as a fraud. As shown in the picture, to this day Escobedo falsely claims to be a doctor. Following his example, the 50,000 students in BISD should quit school and simply claim to be high school graduates.

      Nena and I got there late for the meeting and could only stay two hours. During that time perhaps three of the ten agenda points were covered. We did get to see the three 17 minute presentations by the firms wanting to collect back taxes for the school district. Interestingly, the times were originally designated as 15 minutes, but after the first presentation by the Perdue firm, a couple of questions were asked extending the time by 2 minutes. Catalina Presas-Garcia, super protective of her favorite firm, Linebarger, extended each subsequent firm's time by 2 minutes. The competing firms were not allowed in the room during their competitor's sales pitch.

      The Perdue firm representative gave a very self-assured presentation, documenting superior collection to Linebarger when they replaced them in Hidalgo County. Linebarger followed, emphasizing consistent collections and the size of their company's presence in Texas. Enrique Pena and company gave the last presentation. Presas-Garcia asked Mr. Pena if he was the one they call "Ricky", a not-so-subtle condescension. During Pena's presentation, Presas-Garcia looked bored, then left for a rest room break with a very strident walk with her clogs pounding the wooden ramp to the exit door. By the time she returned Enrique Pena had turned the presentation over to Julio Lozano, a poised presenter. Lozano paused noticeably until Presas-Garcia made it back to her seat. "Continue your presentation" admonished Escobedo. "I will when Mrs. Presas-Garcia makes it back in. Thank you for joining us, Ms. Presas-Garcia" he stated with more than a little sarcasm.

      Numbers lie. Each firm had charts proving their collection superiority. Each firm used some form of the phrase "comparing apples to oranges" then did exactly that. All emphasized that their staffs were bilingual and professed a need to hire more from Brownsville if selected as the district's tax collection firm. Perdue compared their collections with those made by Linebarger who they replaced in several accounts. The Linebarger charts did not show comparisons, only steady tax collection. The Pena firm chose to compare their collections at BISD with the percentages collected in the Edinburg School District. After each presentation, Escobedo, Presas-Garcia and Pena carefully asked the same question of each firm. Presas-Garcia wanted to know how many other accounts each firm had in the valley. That question is heavily weighted in favor of Linebarger, the oldest, most prominent collection firm in Texas. Escobedo wanted to know why their company should be selected, which permitted each speaker to rehash their sales presentation. Pena's question was about the homestead exemption, something she seems to have only recently discovered.

      As we hurried to our truck to make another appointment, I asked someone on the Pena team about the obvious disrespect from Catalina Presas-Garcia. "She always treats our company that way because she gets paid by Linebarger."