LINKS TO STORIES ABOUT THE PBK ARCHITECTS WHO WERE FOUND GUILTY:
CORPUS CHRISTI — A trip CCISD trustees and its superintendent took to Houston to get ideas for the new Southside high school was a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act, a Texas-based open government advocacy group board member said.
District officials, however, said the trip isn't a problem, it generated ideas and they gathered information that will be discussed at an upcoming workshop.Gignac & Associates, a local architecture firm selected as part of a two-firm design team for the new Southside high school, paid for the plane tickets for four board members and Superintendent Scott Elliff estimated at about $260 each, Raymond Gignac, a principal with Gignac & Associates, said.
Five of seven Corpus Christi Independent School District trustees were part of the July 21 one-day tour of Clear Falls High School in Clear Creek ISD and Summer Creek High School and Atascocita Springs Elementary in Humble ISD.
Trustees Carol Scott, Lucy Rubio, Tony Diaz and Dwayne Hargis boarded a flight to Houston that day to get ideas for the new $80 million to $90 million high school, which is part of a bond election approved by voters in November. Board President John Longoria, who was vacationing with family in Houston, later joined them.
Gignac and San Antonio-based PBK Architects invited the board and district officials to tour schools in Clear Creek and Humble independent school districts that PBK designed within the past two years.
Gignac and PBK also were selected Aug. 5 as the architects for the new $30 million to $40 million Southside middle school, which also is part of the 2010 bond program.
In addition to the two new schools in that bond program, Gignac was awarded the architecture contract for every new school building from the 2008 bond, including Hicks, Zavala, Berlanga, Kolda and the new Garcia elementary schools. (Follow the link to read the rest of the story.....) http://www.caller.com/news/2011/aug/16/trip-some-corpus-christi-isd-trustees-took-was-a/
...Joe Larsen, an attorney and board member for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, an open government advocacy group, said in the Aug. 16 Caller-Times article that even though the intentions of the board members seemed good, the elected officials essentially shut out the public from a gathering involving a quorum of school board members conducting public business...
(Follow the link to read the rest of the story) http://www.caller.com/news/2011/aug/22/ccisd-trustees-superintendent-address-trip-cited/
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Some of those who filed the complaint said a video of the Aug. 5 meeting shows the Gignac-PBK team discussing design team savings with the school board, particularly how the district could save $100,000 to $135,000 by hiring the team for the new middle school and the new high school. CCISD trustees already had selected Gignac and PBK in March to design the high school.
"They essentially offered to work for a lower fee," said local architect Bill T. Wilson II, who signed the complaint.
Several who signed the complaint said that video led them to believe a formal complaint was warranted.
(Follow the link to read the rest of the story....) http://www.caller.com/news/2011/aug/26/corpus-christi-architects-engineers-file-against/
CORPUS CHRISTI — It's not unusual to overhear unsuccessful bidders on a government project complaining about a perceived or real injustice in the selection. It's less usual to see one or more of them muster the gumption to make their complaint formal, partly because filing a complaint is not without risk to the complainant.
The formal complaint by 32 local architects and engineers against the design team chosen for a Corpus Christi middle school is highly unusual, perhaps unprecedented. Without rushing to judgment, the sheer volume of complaint signers is a statement that can't be ignored. And since not all of the complainants bid on the project, they're less easily dismissed as sour grapes.
(Follow the link to read the rest of this article biy the Corpus Christi Caller Times Editorial Board...) http://www.caller.com/news/2011/aug/30/ccisd-needs-to-ensure-faith-in-its-bid-process/
...The complaint accuses Gignac, Hernández, Nigaglioni and Powell of violating the Texas Professionals Procurement Act while interviewing in a public meeting with the school board for the lead position in the design of the school district’s middle school. The complaint, which is about 90 pages, centers on an allegation of the team discussing and mentioning architect fees.
Follow the link to read the rest of the story....) http://www.caller.com/news/2011/sep/12/texas-board-of-architectural-examiners-opens-pbk/
CORPUS CHRISTI — More than 100 Corpus Christi and statewide architects sent a formal complaint Thursday to the Texas Education Agency claiming the CCISD school board violated state law when it interviewed a two-firm architect team to design its new Southside middle school.
The complaint, signed by 107 architects statewide, accuses the board of trustees of violating a section of the Texas Government Code covering government professional services and contracts.
The complaint accuses trustees of discussing fees and potential savings to the district during an Aug. 5 interview with local firm Gignac & Associates and San Antonio-based PBK Architects for architectural services for the new middle school. It is part of Corpus Christi Independent School District's $125 million bond approved by voters in November.
State law requires professional services, such as selection of architectural firms, to be chosen based on qualifications. After a firm is selected, fees are negotiated, according to state law.
(Follow the link to read the rest of the story.....) http://www.caller.com/news/2011/oct/14/more-than-100-corpus-christi-statewide-file/
CORPUS CHRISTI — An investigation into a two-firm architect team hired to design CCISD's new Southside middle school found the group engaged in conduct that violated state architecture licensing board rules and state law during an interview with district trustees for the school project in August.
The allegations stem from a formal complaint filed with the state board in August by 32 local architects and engineers alleging the architect team discussed and mentioned fees during the August interview.
(Follow the link to read the rest of the story: http://www.caller.com/news/2012/feb/07/texas-architecture-licensing-board-seeks-for/
CORPUS CHRISTI — The state architectural licensing board and a two-firm architect team designing CCISD's new middle school didn't reach an agreement on proposed settlements Tuesday in the wake of investigation findings by the state board.
Staff at the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners, including executive director Cathy L. Hendricks, met with architects James Ian Powell, Irene Nigaglioni and Joel Hernández, all of statewide firm PBK Architects; and Corpus Christi architect Raymond Gignac of Gignac & Associates.
The architects each face proposed penalties, ranging from a $5,000 fine to a two-violation combined fine of $10,000, in connection with the state board's investigation. Those fines were detailed in notices of violation sent to the architects and their attorneys in mid-January. (Follow the link to read the rest of the story.....)
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/feb/28/architecture-licensing-board-ccisd-architect-to/
CORPUS CHRISTI — Enforcement staff at the state architectural licensing board seek to suspend the licenses of a two-firm team designing CCISD’s new Southside high school and middle school as part of updated penalties proposed in an ongoing investigation.
Members of the CCISD team composed of architects James Ian Powell, Irene Nigaglioni and Joel Hernández, all of statewide firm PBK Architects; and Corpus Christi architect Raymond Gignac of Gignac & Associates, and their attorneys were sent letters detailing the penalties June 25.
Each architect would have their license suspended six months, according to the notices.(Follow the link to read the rest of the story....)
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/jul/05/state-architectural-licensing-board-staff-seeks/
CORPUS CHRISTI — The Texas Education Agency directed CCISD officials this week to submit a plan to the state detailing how the district will better control its bidding process after the agency found the district violated state statute during the architect selection for its new Southside middle school.
Sonya Etheridge, the state agency’s financial audits division director, sent a letter July 9 to Superintendent Scott Elliff stating Corpus Christi Independent School District officials violated statute during the August selection of statewide firm PBK Architects and Corpus Christi firm Gignac & Associates. (Follow the link to read the rest of the story....)
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/jul/13/texas-education-agency-finds-ccisd-in-violation/
CORPUS CHRISTI — Good intentions have stirred up a lot of trouble for the Corpus Christi Independent School District board of trustees. I don't think this was supposed to happen when voters in 2010 passed a $125 million bond issue to build new schools.
Good intentions put them on a plane last July to Houston for an all-expense paid trip to tour new high schools in that area. They wanted to get ideas on what's new in school design. The district is building its first new high school in more than 40 years. Getting new ideas for school design is supposed to be a good thing for trustees, isn't it?
The trouble was that the July 21, 2011, trip amounted to a secret meeting of the board. With five trustees present on the tour that constituted an official meeting, a meeting that the public didn't know about since no official notification had been posted. Complicating things further was the fact that the expenses, including airfare and a lunch, were paid by the architectural team with the design contract for the new school. (Follow the link to read the rest of this OP-ED piece.....) http://www.caller.com/news/2012/jul/22/good-intentions-dont-protect-public-trust/