By a 6-1 vote, the Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees has awarded a competitive bid for board legal services to Walsh, Gallegos, Trevino, Russell & Kyle and authorized negotiation of a contract.
Board President Eddie Garcia and Trustees Daniella Lopez Valdez, Prisci Roca Tipton, Drue Brown, Denise Garza and Jessica Gonzalez voted in favor, with Minerva Pena voting against.
The decision came at the conclusion of a special-called board meeting Tuesday night where four law firms and two individual lawyers presented their qualifications to handle district legal matters. Each also answered a series of 12 questions posed by the board and was ranked based on their answers and presentations. The board agreed to the criteria for ranking and the questions earlier in the selection process.
Walsh Gallegos ranked first, followed by the Austin-based law firm O’Hanlon, Dermath & Castillo that specializes in school law, and the Rio Grande Valley-based law firm Jones, Galligan, Key & Lozano. After that came Baltazar Salazar, the current BISD attorney, tied with the Brownsville firm Farah Law, and Brownsville attorney Gerardo “Gerry” Linan.
Leandra Costilla Ortiz, a former in-house counsel for BISD and a shareholder in the firm, led the presentation for Walsh Gallegos, which has a Valley office in Harlingen, others throughout the state, and is one of the largest school-law firms in Texas.
Ortiz said the firm has more than 500 clients in Texas and New Mexico, does only school law and employs 65 attorneys throughout the state. Mike Saldana, a former counsel to BISD and onetime member of the board of trustees, is an associate in the firm, as is Priscilla De La Garza, who presented at the meeting. Saldana did not.
BISD staff attorney Miguel Salinas posed the series of 12 questions to each candidate, who received from one to four points for each answer, with four being the most possible.
Among the questions, first on the list was one asking whether the person or firm favored or would tolerate making financial contributions to a school board member or candidate in their campaign for office. Most, including Walsh Gallegos, said they did not make such contributions. Some expressed disapproval of the practice, which is legal in Texas.
Salazar, who has been the BISD counsel since 2013, has been criticized for his contributions to board candidates in election cycles during the eight years he has been board attorney.
Other questions had to do with contracts, whether they would outsource legal work, the number and size of districts they represent and their years of experience.
Two final questions asked the candidates to describe themselves as a person and to name a character shortcoming.
