ACCION AMERICA FIRES BACK: “REMOVE ZAYAS AND CORTEZ”

By Juan Montoya

Charging that Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees members Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez had committed “malfeasance, fail(ed) to disclose material fact(s) related to potential criminal wrongdoing and conflict of interest,” Acción America and its president Carlos Quintanilla filed a counterclaim today in the 357th District Court demanding the removal of the duo for failing to perform their fudiciary duties to the district’s students.
Quintanilla and his organization issued a general denial of contained in a previous lawsuit where Zayas and Cortez accused them of libel and defamation.
Quintanilla and Acción America charged that the duo had engaged in “conduct unbefitting a member elected by the citizens of Cameron County, in particular the residents of Brownsville.”
Further, the suit asks the court to remove the duo for “incompetency, official misconduct, intoxication on or off duty and conviction of a trustee for any felony or misdemeanor misconduct.”
In the statement of facts portion of the lawsuit, Quintanilla and Acción America charge that the two played an active role in suppressing two reports that were highly critical of former BISD Athletic Director Joe Rodriguez. They charge that despite personal relationships between Zayas and an attorney son of the Athletic Director, and the fact that BISD attorney Mike Saldaña was Joe Rodriguez’s teammate, neither recused themselves from actively discussing or taking action on the recommendation of then-superintendent Hector Gonzales to terminate Rodriguez.
Further, the suit charges that Zayas also represented Saldaña on a drug charge which they allege constitutes an obvious conflcit.
The suit also charges that while Gonzales was dealing with the Rodriguez matter, Zayas and Cortez were pressuring him to terminate a $38 million insurance contract with Texas-based Healthsmart and to divert it to Omaha, Nebraska-based Mutual Assurance Company, who "has nexus with Johnny Cavazos, a big contributor of Joe Rodriguez, and a campaign contributor to trustees Zayas, Cortez, and Joe Colunga."
The lawsuit charges that after Gonzales commissioned a report to investigate "improper evaluations and potential civil-rights violations of children with special needs "that found highly critical and questionable billing practices and commentary by Saldaña, Joe Rodriguez's teammate," Zayas – rather than taking action against his friend – took "unprecedented" steps to remove the superintendent and eventually terminate him.
After Gonzales was placed on administrative leave, the lawsuit charges that the plaintiffs (Cortez and Zayas) "engaged in a premeditated and willful conspiracy to:
a. terminate Gonzales
b. terminate the Healthsmart contract
c. Rescind the recommendation to accept Rodriguez's resignation
d. Ignore the reports critiical of Special Needs (Overton, SBC Study)"
The suit alleges that Saldaña, after Texas Education Agency investigator Veronica Guerra concluded sufficient cause existed to terminate Gonzales, waived his immunity as an attorney for BISD by testifying about privileged information for the purpose of piling on reasons to fire the superintendent. The purpose, the suit alleges, was, to quote Zayas, to get rid of "vulgar language Gonzales."
Further, the suit charges that Zayas and Cortez in collusion with Gary Looney "orchestrated a campaign to terminate the Healthsmart contract and (to) award it to Mutual Assurance Company by accepting fraudulent, misleading and unsubstantiated data...critical of Healthsmart and thus creating a basis to justify terminating the contract."
The suit further noted that "of the 20 companies who submitted bids, 17 were related to companies associated with (Cavazos)."
Only after Healthsmart representative Clay Simmons made a "compelling presentation" defending his firm's bid and Acción America launched a public campaign questioning the contract did Cortez engage in "backtracking and consternation" and ask that an audit be performed to examine both bids. Acción America called Cortez's move a "smokescreen" because the board's majority eventually awarded the contract to Mutual Assurance Company nonetheless.
Quintanilla and Acción America charged that the fact that Zayas and Cortez failed to disclose material facts to the proper legal authorities in the Rodriguez affair justify their removal from office.
They charge that some of the potential criminal findings in the reports include:
a. Falsifying time sheets
b. improper use of BISD property
c. Using BISD Tax ID to solicit funds for non-BISD activities
d. Harassment and violation of employee rights
e. Unaccounted payments of $8,273
f. Payment of hotel bills incurred for non-BISD activity in Olmito, Texas.
The suit goes into detail on specifics surrounding the suppression of the Rodriguez reports by the majority of the board (Zayas, Cortez, Colunga, and Rolando Aguilar). It further states that both reports were release "in the public interest" by Acción America while the majority sought to keep them hidden by filing a lawsuit against the Texas Attorney General who had deemed them to be public documents.
Further, they allege that the trustees' continued to ignore the recommendations relating to Special Needs and rather than taking corrective action "continue to violate in an inconceivable manner" the rights and lives of thousands of children with Special Needs.
Quintanilla and Acción America also countercharge that the plaintiffs "have acted with a willful disregard to safeguard the public funds entrusted to them by allowing excessive legal fees by friend and BISD legal counsel Mike Saldaña, that have amounted to more than $900,000 related to fees associated with defending Due Process Claims under IDEA that could have been easily resolvable at the administrative level."
Included in this part of the lawsuit are charges that the Special Needs reports found that the district performed "defective evaluation, and questionable testing" and that BISD attorneys instructed administrators to "dilute the reports" that were "indefensible against litigation resulting in gross negligence against children with special needs and their parents over a period of ten years."
The suit also charges that the plaintiffs allowed Colunga to "misuse government property, to benefit personally by ordering exclusive use of BISD property for his son, a 25-year-old adult with Special Needs. As a result, they charges that Colunga got to "assign personal drivers, monitors for his son and expenses to be paid for his wife (Judy) to accompany his son on out-of-city trips."
Other charges involving Colunga's son include that the trustee used his position as a BISD board member to "expend more than $78.000 in construction upgrades independent of BISD Trustee approval or vote."
They charge that $47,000 were spent at the ITEC to house the program where Colunga's son attended, and that "because Mr. Colunga's wife was not satisfied with the quality of air," an additional amount of funds were expended without board approval for remodeling of the facilities where the program eventually was transferred.
"The citizens of Brownsville have a right to know what's going on," Quintanilla stated in a press release. "How can you ignore the horrendous actions that for years went on unresponded to? Rather than taking corrective action on gross negligence against children with special needs, these two board members have placed legal billing over decency and respect for these children.
"You don't dilute reports. You don't misdiagnose children. You don't deny a board member representation when she is speaking out against potential criminal behavior. You don't sue the Texas Attorney General to suppress a report that contains disturbing material and potential criminal behavior. You don't fire someone for political reasons. You don't defend someone on a marijuana charge. You don't get someone else to do it.
"We will call on dozens of witnesses to prove that what is contained in this lawsuit is true and we will defend ourselves against attempted intimidating litigation and defamation," he said.
Quintanilla also said that Acción America will set up an office in Brownsville and that a defense fund will also be established to defend the Zayas-Cortez defamation suit.
They can be contacted at (214) 524-1011, Fax: (214) 484-6323.