ZAYAS SCHEME TO MUZZLE CATA BACKFIRES

By Juan Montoya
It was an innocuous item buried deep within the Brownsville Independent School District's June 1 (Tuesday) agenda.
Placed at the request of a board member, it neither named the targeted board member nor the board member who requested the action item to censure her.
However, virtually everyone in the room knew that the item under "Consultation with Attorney" and was "41. Consultation with attorney regarding pending or threatened litigation matters" was requested by member Rick Zayas and directed at fellow board member Catalina Presas-Garcia.
The item asked for "Discussion, consideration and possible action to censure a board member and disclaim and/or repudiate an act by said board member."
Sounds like some heavy lifting, doesn't it?
But what resulted – a majority vote to "defend the assets of the district" – was a far cry from what Zayas wanted: a high-tech public whipping of the outspoken board member.
"Rick had to settle for that vague statement of the obvious because Cata demanded that the item be heard in the open and that her attorney be present when it was discussed," said one of her supporters. "In the end, there was nothing behind the charges and the call for Cata's censure."
What's even more interesting is the genesis of this Zayas-generated tempest in a teapot and his attempt to politically murder his fellow board member.

The case goes back to one of the many snafus committed by the district in its construction of new facilities under the direction of then-supervisor Oscar Tapia. Tapia has since left the district to take a similar job in Harlingen.
One of his last acts of genius while he was here was overseeing the construction of Keller-Manzano Elementary and Middle Schools off Alton Gloor Road. The district hurried the construction of its athletic fields first and then presented the ingress-egress plans to the Texas Department of Transportation (TDOT).
In the case of the Alton Gloor schools, TDOT immediately spotted a problem: The school plans did not show sufficient ingress-egress entrances and exits to handle the traffic (bus and vehicles) that would be generated by the schools.
Unfortunately, the construction of the athletic fields toward the rear of the schools facing toward Laredo Road prevented the use of the existing easement and right-of-ways that could have provided a way out for the school traffic.
(Incidentally, Hudson Elementary has the same design goof. There is only one entrance and exit to that school as well. In case of an fire or security emergency at the beginning or end of the school day, it would be nigh impossible for emergency vehicles to access the building).
Since the schools abutted a neighborhood (Casa Linda Homes), this meant that there would have to be a route devised to feed the bus traffic from the back of the schools to the subdivision, through the neighborhood, and out into Alton Gloor. The district had purchased a home off Paris Street and demolished it to build an exit. Now, apparently, construction personnel would have to find an alternate route to the east (off Frankfurt Street) to funnel some of the traffic from the school on the rear.
That is, in fact, what the district has done, and the purchase, demolition, of the home and construction of driveways is now underway at an additional cost to the district taxpayers (change order anyone?).
Someone started the rumor (no one will say who) that the realty company that Presas-Garcia works for was trying to muscle itself into the sale and leaked it to the district's administration.
In no time, it was learned that BISD superintendent Brett Springston had filed a report with the Brownsville Police Department that had in turn been handed to the Cameron County Attorney's Office for review and possible prosecution.
Presas-Garcia and her company – unaware of any such activity on their part – demanded from
Springston information on the matter only to be ignored by the superintendent until the board member confronted him. Only then did Springston acknowledge that he had filed the report with the P.D.
Meanwhile, Zayas, sensing an opportunity to publicly embarrass Presas-Garcia, asked the superintendent to place the censure item on the June 1 agenda.
When Presas-Garcia asked that the item be made public, Zayas asked her if she was ready to be humiliated in public. When the Southmost-raised board member demanded that the item be brought before the board in public and that her attorney be present to defend her, Zayas backed down and accepted the watered down amendment vaguely stating that the board direct legal counsel to defend the assets of the district.
Apparently, the item was passed to protect the district against possible litigation against them by the superintendent as a result of the inquiry. But observers detect a more sinister motive: A campaign to discredit Presas-Garcia in preparation for the November elections when Zayas and Ruben Cortez are up for reelection.
"They would love nothing more than for Caty to be discredited to place the attention on her rather than on their record since Zayas has been in office," said a Presas-Garcia supporter.