SUMMER DOLDRUMS AND DOMESTIC HOUSEKEEPING

By Juan Montoya

We took a brief respite from the hurly-burly world of blogging and political campaigns to take care of some domestic duties. Therefore, the lack of new postings since last week.
One of our crew had to bury an uncle across and one of us married a daughter up in Michigan. That and the World Cup has kept us fairly busy.
(Hey, it looks like Mexico might just have a chance to enter the semifinals. Vamos Tri!)
And just as Lennon said that "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans," we had to take care of some personal business to catch up. Anyway, we're back.
We usually run into Ramiro Torres at the Palm Lounge or at Willy Garza's Border Lounge. Now, Ramiro is almost an exact opposite of Rene, his brother, a TSC trustee, but both have their hand on the pulse of the town. If you remember, Ramiro was the chief of the Brownsville Fire Department. Those guys spend all their off time at the chisme mill.
You'll know Ramiro because he speaks endlessly about his multi-million real estate investments, but has yet to be seen buying anyone a beer. I guess that's why he has all that money, uh?
One thing we will continue to monitor will be the performance of the new majority on the TSC board, Trey Mendez, Kiko Rendon, and Rene will probably find a kindred soul in Adela Garza. That makes four of the seven. If Dr. Robert Lozano is worth his salt (former Marine and U. of Michigan graduate "Let's go Blue!), the administration might need to start justifying some of the horrendous decisions that have been made in the past.
First on that list is the rescinding of the resolution doing away with "in-district" tuition for local students. Someone once said that the trustees, by passing the resolution in 2007, had transformed a right into a privilege" by denying local kids the opportunity every other community college district in the state has.
And rightly so. Since the local property taxpayers have been funding their college since its inception in 1926, it is only right that local students should get some consideration in the tuition rates they pay. Same goes for the ridiculously high user fees the college charges. Taxpayers already paid for the construction of the facilities, yet students still are required to pay building fees. What's up with that?
Then they had the gall to call the additional $3.2 million generated by the tuition hike a trustees scholarship fund. Gee, thanks guys.
The TSC trustees' agenda is pretty full. Meanwhile, however, they have several messes on their hands. For example, did anyone hear of the female jogger who was assaulted as she exercised on the levee near the golf course along the river?
And how about a brewing scandal involving Dr. Wayne Moore professor of English and special assistant to the president and a TSC employee. Word has it that the former employee is considering a harassment lawsuit against Moore for his role in attempting her to cover up cost overruns in some campus construction. The woman refused to do Moore's bidding and was shown the door. The figure of $1.5 million in overruns is often associated with this fiasco. We'll keep our ear to the ground on that one.
The woman is said to be married to a local judge, so she probably has all the legal help and advice she needs. Moore might have slipped on this one.
Sources say both David Oliveria and Juliet Garcia have been made aware of the issue and that the trustees will get to learn about it soon. What did Oliveria and Garcia do when they heard? Probably tried to sweep it under the rug like they did in the past with the test answer sales scandal.