THEN THERE WERE EIGHT: LUCI SPANKS RICKY ZAYAS

By Juan Montoya
Candidates for the three positions on the ballot of the Brownsville Independent School District board of trustees election are falling like leaves off a poplar in a Midwest windstorm.
The latest would-be trustee to drop his bid for the post was Mauricio Paniagua. Paniagua had submitted his candidature for Position 2 now being held by incumbent Ruben Cortez Jr. Cortez is now facing Enrique Escobedo as his lone opponent. Escobedo drew the number one position on the ballot.
Escobedo, at the last moment, switched from Position 1 where four other candidates are vying for the post.
They are Eric Garza, Daniel Peña, Herman Otis Powers Jr., and Christina Saavedra. Saavedra drew the number one placement on the ballot for November.
Position 4 candidates are Luci B. Longoria and Richard "Rick" Zayas. Longoria is also first on the ballot.
Paniagua dropped out of the race as did Argelia Miller, who was on the ballot vying for Position 4 along with Longoria and Zayas.
But while Miller said she dropped out so as not to split the vote and to make sure Zayas did not run unopposed, Zayas is known to have been Paniagua's personal attorney and observers do not discount that he was placed in the race against Cortez to discourage others from jumping in so he could later drop out and have Cortez run unopposed.
Escobedo's last-minute switch to that position stymied that strategy.
Even though the unofficial start of the campaign doesn't begin until after Labor Day (Monday), Longoria is already challenging Zayas' claims in a recent newspaper article that he had been instrumental in acquiring stimulus funds for the district and cutting $7 million from the BISD budget.
Zayas and Cortez make up the majority on the board that many say has diverted the direction of education in Brownsville toward favoritism and cronyism. The other two, Rolando Aguilar and Joe Colunga, consistently form the bloc that effectively decides the outcome of the board's voting.
Longoria knows that she faces a tough going in the race against Zayas, the acknowledged leader of the Gang of $4. But she says the local newspaper is giving Zayas credit where none is warranted. Obviously, Luci will be no shrinking violet in this race.
"Mr. Zayas had nothing to do with acquiring stimulus funds," she said, echoing a common response to his statements in a recent Brownsville Herald article by Gary Long.
"The federal government made the funds available to the district," she said. "The criteria that was used to disperse these fund is the criteria that the State of Texas uses to allocate Instructional Facilities Funds. Because Brownsville ISD is consider a property-poor school district, it is eligible for these funds and only required to pay back 27 percent of the total funds obtained.
"Once again this is predetermined by the state and neither Mr. Zayas nor the local school board had any role with setting the criteria. Ricky should know better than to take credit for something that he had no part in."
Longoria says she looks forward to countering Zayas' claims that he cut $7 million from the budget.
"Where did he cut from? Where are the benefits to the students or the employees? If he cut $7 million from the budget, why didn't he give employees a pay raise or reduce the tax rate? Where are the savings Rick? And while you're at it, why have we had budget deficits for two years in a row since you became a board member?"