School board trustees in Weslaco will discuss terminating contracts with two district employees whose activities over the past five years raised concerns in a forensic audit released earlier this month.
Next Tuesday the board will discuss mid-contract terminations for Transportation Director Jose Guadalupe “Lupe” Garcia and former human resources director Melva Segura.
The forensic audit described Segura as an active volunteer in local politics who was selected by the board as human resources director despite lacking a required master’s degree.
Once in that post, Segura sometimes acted as a gatekeeper for candidates who came before her, influencing recommendations from interviewing committees, the audit said.
Segura also submitted personnel recommendations to the superintendent requesting the district hire family members, “potentially in violation of the district’s nepotism policy,” the report said. Those recommendations included her son and daughter, who were ultimately hired.
Segura was reassigned from human resources director to grant writer earlier this year, a position she still retained as of Sept. 21.
Lupe Garcia’s name was also popular in the audit.
The report describes his relationship with the owner of Mid Valley Trailer Repair — a literal relationship, by marriage.
Money spent on bus repairs at Mid Valley skyrocketed under Garcia’s leadership. Occasionally, the district spent thousands on buses that appeared to have only been sparsely used in the five-year period the audit examined.
The audit report also says the owner of Mid Valley offered an unnamed employee Dallas Cowboys tickets in exchange for future work, that Garcia and that owner would frequently have lunch together and that the district frequently did not obtain quotes from other vendors on bus repairs while Garcia advocated — sometimes combatively — for Mid Valley.
The board will discuss Segura and Garcia in closed session before possibly taking action on a hearing and mid-contract terminations.
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