Mercedes ISD nixes move to hire special counsel

MERCEDES — School trustees here opted not to engage law firm O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo as special counsel in regards to special education Monday evening.

A popular choice in representation for educational entities, O’Hanlon represents several school districts across the state.

Board President Oscar Hernandez, who approached the firm and asked for the item to be put on the agenda, characterized engaging O’Hanlon as a move that would give the district backup counsel if needed.

O’Hanlon is a “pretty darn good law firm,” Hernandez said, particularly characterizing it as strong in areas of special education and civil rights.

Two trustees, however, indicated the need for special counsel may have been prompted by some more specific incident, although it’s not clear what that incident was.

Trustee Pete Martinez III — the only one to support the engagement other than Hernandez — said the discussion was triggered by some sort of allegations.

“I just feel our kids need to come first, and if we have an investigation, we need to do an independent investigation,” he said. “I was for it last time when we had other allegations with other employees and staff, and if there’s things that we need to check to make sure that we are doing everything right, I really feel that we should do that. Our kids deserve it.”

Martinez was apparently referencing a push to hire an outside firm to investigate administrative actions taken in the light of sexual assault allegations last year that resulted in the arrest of a middle school coach.

That push — spearheaded by Martinez and Hernandez — ultimately failed.

Trustee Lucy Delgado, also indicated the special counsel discussion was spurred by something more specific, saying “items are coming up that need to be looked into.”

“It’s a delicate situation,” she said. “We do need to protect our students. We need to protect our staff. We need to protect our district. And I don’t want to be out there where we get negative attention — more negative than good.”

Nevertheless, Delgado voted against engaging the firm. She said the board needs more time to consider.

“The last time we talked about a special counsel or investigation, I know the feedback that we received was quite a bit…” she said. “We need a little bit of time to look into other law firms.”

The rest of the board voted against the item as well, save for Eddie Howell Jr., who attended virtually, experienced connectivity issues and abstained.

Needing more time to consider the proposal was a frequent theme among trustees who opposed the engagement.

“I think that the board should be engaged in this,” Trustee Brian Acosta said. “We are a team of eight, we’re not an individual that takes the bull by the horns and says ‘This is what we’re gonna do.’ There’s a process that we can utilize which is to go out for requests for qualifications, that way we can get a pool of attorneys and take a look and see which is the best suited for our district.”

Acosta pointed out that the district already has firms on retainer — among them Walsh Gallegos Treviño Kyle & Robinson P.C. and Richards Lindsay & Martín, LLP.

“There’s a lot of questions to this, and that was my concern,” he said. “I think that we need to be a little more transparent to the public. We need to be able to go out for qualifications, just to show that we have done our due diligence, evaluated different attorneys and selected the one that’s going to be best suited to represent us. And if we are going to use them, it should be representing a certain particular item that we need.”

The board faced a handful of public comments alleging some sort of cronyism may be at play. Trustee Rachel Treviño, who criticized how fast the board had been approached with the engagement, called it “fishy.”

The firm’s representative, Nick Maddox, said that he disagreed with Treviño’s characterization.

“As a firm, we’re very, very proud of our professionalism,” he said. “We have 14-plus attorneys in the law firm across our four locations and dozens of staff, and there hasn’t been a single bar complaint filed against any of us. We’re very proud of that record, we like to act very professionally, even in the face of controversy.”

Criticism of the potential hire also earned a strong rebuke from Hernandez, the board president.

“There’s no hidden agendas, for the love of God…” he said. “I’m the one that has been taking a lot of heat. From the previous administration to the present one. I look out for the best interests for the students.”

RESIGNATION ACCEPTED

Things have been tumultuous at Mercedes ISD.

After nixing the special counsel proposal, trustees accepted the resignation of Superintendent Carolyn Mendiola.

Mendiola announced last week that she intends to step down by September, saying it was simply the right time in her career to retire and that the decision had nothing to do with board decisions or politics.

That announcement was preceded by the board’s decision to go forward with a controversial campus move and sexual misconduct allegations about another employee this month.

Trustee Treviño previously said she feels Mendiola is exiting the district because of board micromanagement, an opinion she reiterated Monday. She said she was disappointed to see the superintendent going.

“Although I know that you requested this, in my heart — because I witnessed it — I know it had to do with a lot of micromanaging that was going on…” she said. “You were talked down to. I don’t think it has anything to do with the fact that you just want to sit by the beach. I’m very disappointed because we had a job to do, and now we have to worry about finding another leader.”

Trustee Brian Acosta also spoke favorably about Mendiola, particularly about her community involvement.

Support was not unanimous, however.

Although Lucy Delgado thanked Mendiola and complimented her personally, she said she felt the job at Mercedes ISD proved too much for the superintendent.

“Accountability was definitely an issue,” she said. “And you really tried, you tried to do well by everyone and it just — you were overwhelmed.”