Southeast Bexar County Awareness: ESD#6 Board Member now want the Southside ISD board positions

Local media covered the end of fire protection for the residents of the Ata-Bexar VFD area. People living in the area from 281 west to Applewhite Rd will no longer have fire protection from the AtaBexar fire department, however their tax dollars will fund ESD#2, whom Ms. Mendelsohn and another member of the Southeast Bexar area, Gil Perez; whom she struck a deal with for protection.

Who do we give credit for this? Mr. Roberto Chavez, the vice president of the ESD#6 board and candidate for the Southside ISD School Board. He along with his board president Sylvia Ruiz Mendelsohn and other members decided not to renew the contract with Ata-Bexar VFD and the most that Ms. Mendelsohn could say is "because she wants everyone to get fire protection from the same place." The out-sourced fire fighters from ESD#2. While they still had a binding contract for the Sandy Oaks VFD and the South Bexar Fire and Rescue area, they did not have one for the Ata-Bexar VFD area.

While, Mr. Chavez and Ms. Mendelsohn and their ESD#6 board were busy plotting on how to shut down the fire departments, funding was cut considerably to the fire departments. Court order made it so that the ESD#6 would have to pay $8000 per department at which time Ms. Mendelsohn and the board cut out expenses that would normally be paid and still did not have enough money to fund the $8000 per, equaling $24,000 a month.

Then Ms. Mendelsohn and her board signed an agreement to pay more than $24,000 dollars a month for ESD#2 to go in to the ESD#6 area and cover two departments, for a total of $288,000 a year. The exact cost for them to pay the 3 departments at $8000 a month. ESD#6 had no justified cause to shut down Ata-Bexar VFD and so it waited out it's contract, then did not renew.

Fuzzy math just doesn't add up

ESD#6 voted and approved in January of 2013; $165,781.39 for the year to fund the ESD#2 fire department for their service. This broken down per quarter is $41,445.35. However, the ESD#6 board approved a payment of $54,000 for the quarter for the ESD#2 fire department during their meeting February. So, at $54,000 a quarter, that is actually a total of $216,000 a year. That is a difference of $50,218.61. Once again showing that the calculator that they use doesn't work and they end up in trouble financially.

In the year, 2014, the ESD#6 paid out a total of $345,000.00 to ESD#2 for it's services and possibly more, since the lack of transparency for the month of October showed their expenses to be 97,544.02, but no details as to where it was paid to.

• Jan- $142,500.00
• Apr- $142,500.00
• Sept- $60,000.00

The county commissioner of Precinct 1 is ultimately responsible for this ESD#6. Ms. Mendelsohn, a close friend and supporter of the County Commissioner and his brother former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez is ultimately responsible to the people of her community.

Mr. Chavez, being the Vice-President of the ESD#6, held as much responsibility for the action of the board as he was next in line should Ms. Mendelsohn not be available.

Does Mr. Chavez know anything?

As the vice-president of the ESD#6 and next in line on the board, one would assume that Mr. Chavez would do well to stay informed on the decisions that he made for the safety of his community. However, Nov 6, 2010, Ms. Vargas held a private meeting with two volunteer fire fighters to discuss the beginning of what would be the end of the Southeastern Bexar County Volunteer Fire Departments.

In her conversation:

Firefighter: When did you find out all this was happening? Cause the reason I ask, on Friday Mr. Chavez said when he talked to him, he had no idea. Then Woods....

Vargas Interrupts: "Chavez doesn't know sometimes because he doesn't answer the phone. It wasn't told to Sylvia until Friday."

One could conclude from the remarks of his fellow board member, that Mr. Chavez does not follow the goings on of his board and simply follows along as he's told. As a vice-president, Mr. Chavez should have known all the activities in case he had to handle board business.

There once stood a home and animals ran in the yard, then a fire came through and destroyed the area, causing evacuations. What happens now, with no fire protection?

This is a question that should have been asked of Mr. Chavez by his community. What made him agree with the decision to put lives and homes of his own community members at risk?