Cabrera & Fenenbock Travel Raises Eyebrows

The amount of money spent by EPISD Superintendent Juan Cabrera is obscene and there's no nice way to put that. He spent 4 times as much time out of the district as his counterparts.

He spent twice as much as YISD and SISD superintendents COMBINED.

And its not just that he's spending a lot of money, its how he's spending it. According to the story in the El Paso Times, Cabrera spent the money on First Class and Business Select flights, SUV car rentals and Uber rides in luxury vehicles.

You the tax payers are funding his fun time.

Look I'm not naive, a certain amount of travel is often necessary. People don't have a problem with that. But what they do have a problem with, and what undermines public trust, is when officials make bad decisions.

Cabrera doesn't have to take First Class flights. He doesn't have to rent SUV's. He doesn't have to take Uber rides in luxury vehicles. He gets a salary, so the District doesn't HAVE to foot the bill every time the guy eats out of town. 

Those are all things he does by choice. He can very easily make the choice to be more frugal with tax payer dollars.

And not only can he do that, the school board can make it a matter of policy. In fact, they should've done that a long time ago. They should make changes to travel policy to save tax payers money and maximize their travel.

What is more troublesome is EPISD Board President Dori Fenenbock's defense of her close political ally. She said the number one goal was to restore public trust. How is public trust restored when your super, who already gets paid a boatload of money, is taking first class travel on the tax payers' dime?

To say the least, the optics are terrible. You're struggling to pay teachers but your super is taking first class trips and staying in luxury hotels that the district is paying for?

Thats some serious waste and reforms are needed right away.

And I'll go ahead and ask the question everyone else wants to know...

Why do Cabrera and Fenenbock need to travel to so many events together? Why is that a priority or a necessity? I get it, sometimes the Board President and Super need to attend things. But to the extent that they do at tax payer expense? Surely there is a more efficient use of tax payer dollars.

Remember I wrote recently that anything Fenenbock and Escobar do from this point forward is going to have some sort of campaign ramification? This is exactly the type of situation I'm talking about.

And this mailer writes itself.