Thursday, July 25, 2013

WHAT WAS BEHIND BISD COUNSEL'S SET UP OF CATA? THE LUST FOR ILLUSORY HEALTHSMART $$$ CONTINUES



By Juan Montoya
The hired gun from Houston hired by a majority of the Brownsville Independent School Board thinks he earned his salary at Tuesday's meeting.
And, if you compare the video of the meeting and compare it with the fictionalized account written by Gary Long of the Brownsville Herald, you would wonder whether Long lived in a neighboring inverted universe. 
The items slated for executive session were put on the board's agenda by board attorney Baltazar Salazar, an action that is usually limited to board members and its president Enrique Escobedo. Nonetheless, Escobedo allowed Salazar to place them for discussion in executive session, commenting that he would rather would not have it aired publicly since there would be "negative" comments about trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia and Lucy Longoria. How did he know?.
Both trustees, saying they had nothing to hide, opted to hear Salazar's gripes in open meeting.
With a studied spiel, Salazar went on a diatribe against Presas-Garcia and Longoria, only to be sent with his tail between his legs when Longoria demanded the facts behind his accusations.
But don't expect to read this in the Herald account. In fact, none of Longoria's counter charges against the attorney were even mentioned in the article.
 In order for you to see for yourself and reach your own conclusions, we have included the pertinent discussion of the items in the video accompanying this port.
Baltazar placed two agenda items asking for the board to "censor" both women (though he said it was a typo and he really meant "censure") for allegedly violating executive session rules, interfering in criminal investigations, and – ready for this? – Presas-Garcia allegedly coming on to him sexually in the parking lot and telling him he would never really know her until he spent a couple of nights with her. The specifics of his allegations against her were never disclosed by Long in his one-sided front-page piece.
Despite Presas-Garcia's protest and demands from board president Ernrique Escobedo that she be allowed to defend herself against the accusations, Escobedo closed the discussion after Baltazar's charges and asked for a vote to "censure" her over Salazar's allegations.
The vote passed 3-2 with Escobedo, Hector Chirinos and Otis Powers supporting the motion and Presas-Garcia and Longoria voting against. In a sense, Presas-Garcia was not only "censured" by the likes of Powers, Escobedo and Chirinos, she was also "censored" because despite the fact that the Herald says she was given two opportunities to respond, the video will clearly show that Escobedo did not allow her to speak before the censure vote.
"We're not going to get into discussion match," Escobedo said after Salazar laid out his accusations. "We are going to declare our peace and then move on. Comments, questions to the board? ( pause of one second) No? With that said do I have a motion to approve item 61a?"
(Don't believe it? See the video for yourself).
When Rick Zayas was on the board, it was common knowledge that he would put whatever spin Zayas and his associate Cortez wanted on a particular issue, Long would be only too glad to accommodate them. The story on Tuesday's meeting when compared with the video of what actually happened, is illustrative of this. Long was no watchdog. Instead, the term lapdog is more appropriate.
However, it didn't go so smoothly for Salazar with Longoria.
Longoria had placed an item on the agenda item demanding from Salazar the reports to law enforcement and the Texas Education Agency that would justify her "censor" by the board.
Salazar had also accused Longoria in divulging executive session proceedings and interfering with a criminal investigation. Salazar offered no proof for his charges and made several unsubstantiated statements such as that board members were not allowed to contact Texas Education officials without going through him or through the BISD administration.
"You're a liar," Longoria told Salazar.
At this point Presas-Garcia intervened and asked Longoria if Salazar had not conveyed invitations through her asking for a lunch date on several occasions and Longoria said he had.
But you will not see any of that in the Herald report. But it's in the video, isn't it?
There is a saying in Spanish that asks: ¿Desde cuándo los Patos le tiran a las escopetas?
The same can be asked about the agenda items at Tuesday's meeting. We have a board attorney having an elected board member "censored" and a majority doing his bidding. Since when?
As Deep Throat used to say: Follow the Money.
Even before Powers was elected, he promised that he would vote to reinstate the politically-inspired $14.5 million lawsuit against HealthSmart filed less than two months before the 2010 elections by eventual losers Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez with the advice of former legal counsel Mike Saldaña. Ever since the voters voted Cortez and Zayas out, they have been working feverishly behind the scenes to reinstate the lawsuit. The motivation? We'll let a former ally explain.
"Otis Powers promised if elected back to the Board he would seek the refiling of the lawsuit."
"Rick (Zayas) told me he had three trustees ready to give the contract to (  a local law firm). He specifically said ...that they ALL COULD make attorneys fees on the Healthsmart lawsuit...Rick (Zayas) later verified for me that Chirinos, (Butch) Barbosa, (Minerva) Peña, and Powers were all on board with refiling the Healthsmart lawsuit."
When the current majority voted to reinstate the HealthSmart lawsuit as promised (with Powers, Chirinos, Peña, and Escobedo now on board), they did not instruct Salazar to solicit law firms or to deliver confidential litigation files to anyone prior to having board approval. (See the video when Longoria accuses Zalazar of doing just that and Salazar cannot respond.)
Salazar did it anyway and, in fact, it wasn't until this Tuesday's meeting  that the firm of GarciaKaram, of McAllen, the firm chosen by Salazar without board approval, was accepted by the majority to handle the litigation.
Salazar may think that setting up and besmirching the personal reputation of a mother, daughter, wife and elected official is a new tactic brought from the big city to cow the opposition into submission. Well, we've got news for him. It's been tried before. In fact, it's been tried by Zayas when he and his blogging allies accused Longoria – a married woman and mother – of "being in bed" with the leaders of an opposition PAC.
It didn't work then, and we doubt that it will work now.
(As an aside, it was revealing that edited versions of the video were posted on the Cheezmeh website that tended to discredit Presas-Garcia and that another blogger posted a vague version of the events at 12:20 a.m. Wedsnesday. The word set-up comes readily to mind.)
More proof? After the the meeting Superintendent Carl Montoya said he had talked about the agenda item "with two board members" before the meeting. It pays to be "in the know," don't it, Uncle Carl?
Incidentally, after the meeting, Escobedo, Powers, Salazar and the attorney for GarciaKaram were seen having celebratory drinks at Toscafinos after a hatchet job well done. 
  

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw the meeting on live tv. and it looked like a bunch of little kids (attorney included) fighting on a she said/I said back and forth argument. In the mean time, there are many things that are never brought out in the open and this district is very much behind others in the valley and in the state. The citizens of Brownsville and the citizens of Brownsville deserve better. Our city government and our school district, both are being run by incompetent adults acting like little kids.

Anonymous said...

Gary Long is taking sides. Escobedo didn't allow discussion before the vote to censure Presas Garcia. This is all so ugly.

Anonymous said...

"...video will clearly show that Escobedo did not allow her to speak before the censure vote.
... "Comments, questions to the board? (pause of one second) No? With that said do I have a motion to approve item 61a?"


Oh, BS, Juan. Cata had time to rebut. But she was too busy pouting with her chair turned away from the deliberation and let the moment slip between her greasy fingers.

Lucy, dumb as she is, nevertheless seized the opportunity to address her accuser, and she didn't need no "pause of one second" to do it.

So, you snooze, you lose (or loose... for most of your readers).

Anonymous said...

To 4:48
Wrong. Watch the video, if you care about the truth. Which I doubt.

Anonymous said...

Correction my friend at 2:37 comment, not all members are incompetent. The board majority are incompetent and corrupt including the board attorney.

I'm glad this was done in public so we can see what goes on behind closed doors. Now we have an idea what these two ladies would have gone through or have been going through and then they come out making them the bad ones.

Ladies we applaud you for standing up to these dirtbag cowards! They are not men, they're cowards.

Anonymous said...

Juan we can count on you to give us the REAL story, not like the disbarred bobby la loca.

Keep the good work!

Caty and Lucy great job, you put these shit heads in their places. Worthless pieces of shit.

Anonymous said...

Luci is not dumb, she ripped the attorney. I would love to see you do it. Having a degree doesn't mean shit, it defintely doesn't mean you are smart.

Dumbass....

Anonymous said...

No chinges Juan, I saw the video. I do not need anybody to "interpret" what happened.

The attorney was not censuring anybody, he was asking the board to censure the "ladies" for their unprofessional behaviour and violation of fiduciary responsibility.

Anonymous said...

"Caty and Lucy great job, you put these shit heads in their places."

What board meeting were you watching? Yo do know that we all saw it on the net at: http://bisd-kbsd-itv.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=f630031fdae9ffd447619340175c03b4

Anonymous said...

toscafinos, VIOLATION of open meetings act, HMMMM. Pictures anyone?????

Anonymous said...

Wow, looks like the comments made here in favor of the ladies, are being made by the ladies themselves. Too Funny!

Joaquin said...

Like the first comment, I agree these are immature adults acting like children. Thank you for posting the video and providing proof for your analysis of the story. It doesn't surprise me the Herald half-assed it again. Why don't you tell us what happens now? I know the "censure" goes up to the state so they can take note but are there any investigations done? What is keeping the majority from censuring the minority members over and over and over?

Anonymous said...

12:12 Your a liar, the comments posted here are from me.
I applaud the females, that can earn the bacon, bring it home and cook it.
El wash and wear

Anonymous said...

Unprofessional behavior and fiduciary? Look who's calling the kettle black. The attorney released a confidential report & solicited an outside attorney without board approval, this is a violation of not only district policy but ethics of Salazar. You all are stupid to allow and support this, it only tells me you are just as bad.

Anonymous said...

Post 12:12, sorry to disappoint you. These ladies have alot more support than you think and we are people that really make a difference in this community.

Anonymous said...

Post 12:35 AM You can not be people who really make a difference in this community if you back women like Luci & Caty. They are an embarrassment to this community. You must be related to either Luci or Caty. Triste bien Triste!

Anonymous said...

Post 12:27 am. Only believe 0% of what comes out of Luci's or Caty's mouth. They are professional liars! They twist words to their favor.

Anonymous said...

3:04 You must be Minervas's relative, and you know Escobedo, Chirinos and Otis are tranzas and are going to bet busted sooner or later.

rita