Fenenbock's Absence Stops Travel Budget Cut to Cabrera

An effort to reduce the travel budget of the El Paso Independent School District Superintendent Juan Cabrera following controversy around First Class travel, frequent travel, and travel to non-school related functions like the AIPAC convention in Washington DC, failed in a 3-3 vote of the Board of Trustees.

By Robert's Rules, when there is a tie on a motion, it dies. Trustees Dye, Geske, and Hatch (shocker) voted against the item. That means Trustees Byrd, Taylor, and Velarde voted to reduce the travel budget for the embattled Superintendent.

Compared to other Supers in neighboring districts, Cabrera travels significantly more and the amount of his budget that has already been spent on his travel, coupled with the amount of time he has been out of the office for that travel, has been the subject of criticism for Cabrera.

The reason it was a tie is because Trustee and Congressional Candidate Dori Fenenbock has not attended a single meeting of the EPISD Board of Trustees since resigning abruptly. Shortly after her resignation, controversy started to swirl around the superintendent and alleged contact between the super and someone competing for a contract.

Interestingly there doesn't appear to have been a legal requirement for Fenenbock to have resigned from office.

By contrast, Escobar did have a legal requirement to resign to run for congress and yet continued to serve under the Texas Holdover Clause, which also applies to Fenenbock, until such time as she was replaced.

So by the Texas constitution, you have an obligation to continue your service until such time as you are replaced.

Fenenbock quit and hasn't attended a meeting since.

And thats how her buddy the Superintendent, got to keep his first-class travel budget.