La Joya Independent School District leadership missed the deadline to call for a special election this May and will have to appoint trustees to two vacant seats before the next opportunity to hold a special election in November.
Those seats were left empty when trustees Oscar “Coach” Salinas and Armin Garza resigned their posts after copping to federal crimes earlier this year.
The prospect of appointing rather than electing trustees to those seats sparked criticism from elected officials and community members and prompted an online petition calling for a special election.
Two sitting trustees — Alejandro “Alex” Cantu and Nereyda Cantu — signaled support for a special election during a talk on corrective action at the district last month, describing it as a democratic necessity.
Those trustees were not pleased to be told during Monday’s meeting that the deadline to call that election sailed by quietly on March 22.
“It’s very hard to understand why this information was given to us this past Friday at five o’clock…because my understanding was this information was shared with other board members and not all of us,” Alex Cantu said. “That’s the disappointment that I have, because we’ve been asking for a special election.”
Cantu said trustees deserved that information sooner, especially because the community is looking for transparency at the beleaguered district.
Nereyda Cantu too criticized the communication lapse.
“I’m just a little confused, because in the last meeting we had, we publicly stated that we were looking into having a special election — or that’s what at least I was looking for, and I believe others mentioned the same,” she said. “And nothing was said that we had passed a deadline. I mean, this is the first time I hear of any deadline that we’ve missed.”
Attorney Jerry Muñoz said an agenda item for the board’s March 9 meeting would have given trustees the opportunity to call for a special election as well as appointments. That meeting never happened, because two trustees could not attend and the board couldn’t make a quorum.
“That meeting never took place and that agenda item never made it back to the agenda,” Muñoz said.
He told trustees those empty seats must be filled within 180 days. With a May election off the table, that deadline dictates trustees must be assigned to those seats in July and September based on the timing of their resignations.
That process can be as formal or informal as the board wants, Muñoz said. The board can simply appoint individuals to those seats, or they can conduct a more aggressive search, employing things like applications, community forums or interviews.
Ultimately, voters will have an opportunity to elect trustees to those seats in the fall.
“Either way, all the appointments will be in the November 22 ballot,” Munoz said.
Trustee Espie Ochoa noted the board could have appointed replacements quickly. She said moving slowly on replacements wasn’t necessarily a sign of a lack of transparency or anything nefarious at the district.
“Perhaps we have been dragging our feet, but it’s because we care dearly and love our district, and we want to do what’s right. And we keep listening to our legal, and perhaps the communication hasn’t been as clear, but I think we have one purpose: that we’re passionate and we love our district and we want to do what’s right,” she said. “We don’t have a hidden agenda or anything like that. We want to do what’s right, but for whatever reason things are being seen differently.”
