ROBSTOWN, Tx — A man convicted of five felonies, who is on parole until 2029, wants voters to elect him to a spot on the Robstown Independent School Board of Trustees.
Gilbert Cervantes is one of three candidates running for the district's Place 4 seat.
A viewer reached out to 6 Investigates, asking us to investigate his criminal history and eligibility to serve on this board.
KRIS 6 News began digging and learned that Cervantes's criminal background is one of several issues with his candidacy.
He submitted his application for a place on the ballot in July, and checked the box certifying "I have not been finally convicted of a felony."
Court records reveal this statement to be false.
Cervantes, who is on parole until 2029, was convicted of several drug-related felonies dating as far back as 2009, his most recent conviction was in 2014.
According to the Texas Election Code and Texas Education Code "a candidate for school board election must not have been finally convicted of a felony from which the person has not been pardoned or otherwise released."
Cervantes also failed to meet the requirement that he is a registered voter in the city before the filing deadline.
Robstown ISD, and some school board trustees, were notified of these allegations by the Nueces County Clerk and a concerned citizen at the end of September.
Nueces County Clerk Kara Sands told 6 Investigates that when she was notified of his criminal background by a concerned citizen, she contacted the district immediately and provided it with the applicable election law.
She said it is the responsibility of the district to validate, or invalidate, a candidate. Election law prohibits her from removing a candidate from the ballot.
This week, 6 Investigates asked Robstown ISD Superintendent Marc Puig what actions the district had taken to investigate these claims.
"In short order, probably about a week, we really started to move forward with working with the school board, working with legal counsel, and probably most importantly, working with the candidate in question, bringing them in to say, 'hey, there's some questions around your eligibility,'" Puig said.
He said the district conducted its own investigation and provided Cervantes with a notice giving him until noon on October 11 to respond to allegations that he is ineligible to run.
That deadline passed without a response from Cervantes.
"As we proceed through the investigation, the school board, as I indicated earlier, certainly does have options to pursue any kind of declaration if need be and act accordingly with respect to any ineligibility," Puig said.
6 Investigates asked Puig why the district does not do background checks on people seeking these positions. He said election law prohibits the district from running background checks unless there is a credible complaint.
"It's simply stated, we always vet all of our employees, anyone who's going to work, volunteer vendors, but as elected officials in statute, that is not the responsibility," he said.
6 Investigates also asked the district why it did not verify Cervantes was registered to vote and why it had not collected an application fee.
A district spokesperson said, "The district does not have an application fee", and continued with, "we are looking into the matter and thank you for bringing this to our attention."
This week, KRIS 6 News also learned Cervantes has not submitted any campaign finance reports.
The school board will discuss Cervantes's eligibility during Monday's school board meeting. While the school board president has the option to declare him ineligible, the deadline to remove him from the ballot has passed.
This means if he is found ineligible any vote cast for Cervantes simply wouldn't count.
6 investigates reached out to Cervantes for comment, but he ended the call when asked about his felony convictions.
KRIS 6 has confirmed he is an employee with Nueces County Water Control and Improvement District 3.
As KRIS 6 has previously reported, the water district has entered into a contract with Avina Clean Hydrogen, which is looking to build an ammonia plant near Robstown.
Avina plans to seek Chapter 403 tax breaks from the school district before moving forward with the project near Robstown.
