PSJA: public school officials sold their votes for food, guns, clothing, gambling, entertainment, home improvement - including trips

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

And They Just Keep Falling...

Three more public officials from the Valley and a high ranking public school figure have been pinched by the FBI for extortion and bribery. This knocks up the total count to 11 on a 22 count indictment in a school district scheme the Feds have been investigating for over 2 years.

This all started back in 2005 when the FBI raided the P-SJ-A School District headquarters and the homes of certain P-SJ-A trustees and the superintendent. Six months later, former P-SJ-A trustee Guadalupe Jaime Santa Maria and a local contractor Alonso Cardenas Jr. were picked up by the FBI on bribery, extortion and mail fraud. Both men pleaded guilty to those charges.

Earlier this year, P-SJ-A trustee Roy Rodriguez was accused by the Feds for accepting money from McAllen architect José Lopez, and McAllen masonry contractor Pedro Armando Gutierrez in exchange for favorable, official votes and influence regarding PSJA schools construction contracts.

The latest line up includes:
* P-SJ-A ISD Superintendent Arturo Guajardo;
* P-SJ-A school board secretary-treasurer Roy Navarro;
* P-SJ-A school board member Rogelio "Roy" Rodriguez - he was picked up again and re-arrested;
* P-SJ-A school board member Vangie De Leon;
* De Leon's husband Richard De Leon;
* Donna school board president George Hernandez; and
* Arnulfo Olivarez, Harlingen insurance agent and former candidate for HD 38 State Representative.

According to News Channel 5, the FBI is asserting that their undercover agents attended unofficial meetings, where the public school officials sold their votes for food, guns, clothing, gambling, entertainment, home improvement - including trips to sporting events in San Antonio and Houston and six trips to Las Vegas.

As I've stated before; This it isn’t the first time nor will it be the last time a politico gets pinched for being greedy. I'm not sure if these arrests are more of an indictment on these public officials or an impeachment on how we do things down here in the Valley.