The Edinburg school board voted Tuesday to propose the termination of Human Resources Director Margarita Oyervides and Payroll Director Zelda Martinez, a decision the women’s attorney says relates to work they performed remedying an over payment fiasco that followed the introduction of a new district payroll system in the summer of 2021.
Both women, the district said Friday, are currently on administrative leave. Legal counsel for the district says the matter has been referred to law enforcement.
“The District will not comment on the specifics of the alleged misconduct,” Superintendent Mario Salinas wrote in a release. “However, the District does forward allegations that may be crimes to law enforcement. In all cases forwarded to law enforcement, the decision regarding criminal charges is left to the appropriate law enforcement agency.”
Tony Conners, an attorney representing the women, said Wednesday that he understood ECISD had sent information on his clients to the district attorney’s office, though he feels his clients face no criminal liability. Conners said he feels they’re victims of a “witch hunt” being illegitimately justified by them receiving additional money for additional work responding to that 2021 payroll incident.
A string of payroll mishaps around the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year resulted in the district accidentally overpaying employees by over $6.2 million.
The district ultimately brought in consultants to help personnel adapt to the new program. The board kept a close eye on over payment collections for the rest of that semester.
“They switched over to a new payroll system in the pandemic, and unfortunately many folks were underpaid or overpaid, so they had to take immediate action in order to get the kinks out of the new system fixed,” Conners said. “And both my clients were directly involved in these payroll functions as HR director and as payroll director. And so they did the work.
“And their supervisors and the board — they were fully aware of all the work that they did. And they didn’t pay themselves, the district paid them.”
Conners said he didn’t have the amount of additional pay his clients received for that work immediately available, but described it as “quite a bit of a sum.” He said he understands the district contends Oyervides and Martinez shouldn’t receive overtime because they’re exempt under the Fair Labor Standard Act.
“And that’s faulty because the fact you’re exempt under the FLSA doesn’t prevent you from getting additional money for additional work,” he said. “They didn’t get overtime, they got additional pay. So that whole premise is gone, it should be.”
Conners also questioned why his clients’ work was being scrutinized now, almost a year and a half after the payroll snafu and why it was being criticized with — in his view — a weak argument.
“And it has so many obvious shortfalls that it raises concern that there’s some sort of motive taking place. I don’t know what the motive is. But we’re looking at the facts and we’re raising concerns,” Conners said.
Conners says his clients have the right to ask for an independent hearing examiner, a process that could stretch on into the springtime.
The vote to propose termination of Oyervides and Martinez was not unanimous.
Trustee Minga Vela voted against doing so.
