HER SCHEME FOILED, JULIET PICKS UP THE PIECES

By Juan Montoya
What should have been a smooth con job rushed through in the two meetings in September that would have transferred the assets of Texas Southmost College to the UT System and consolidated total power in her hands, has turned instead into Juliet Garcia's worst nightmare.
No one would know what was in a new and improved "partnership agreement" that legal counsel was to present during the Tuesday meeting. The action item to pass it would take place in a special meeting that Thursday, and no one would be the wiser.
But someone let the people know the contents of the new pact and it turned out that the people didn't like it. So they told their representatives on the board to sink it.
And they did.
Now, an independent board of trustees has told her in no uncertain terms that as the elected representatives of the district's residents, she – as their employee – will have to do what they say.
There's no rushing for help to Austin. The UT Regents were promised the college and Juliet couldn't deliver.
In fact, now people up there are saying that the force behind the agreement was Juliet and her staff. Neither Texas State Rep. Rene Oliveira nor Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. were told of the maneuver, they assert.
The UT Regents were to get on a silver platter all the assets of this most historical of all campuses for their system and had woven a web of legal agreements and bonds that would have taken a Solomon to unravel should some board sometime in the future decide it wanted out of the stultifying agreement.
The plot was set.
As long as a year and one-half ago the blueprint for the takeover was set. The plan was to be intricately laid out using the talents of TSC counsel Daniel Rentfro, the chicanery of Wayne Moore and Michael Putegant, and the guile of Juliet's hand-picked agents.
But democracy got in the way.
The people, tired of a freshman retention rate of less than 50 percent, a 17 percent graduation rate after six years, tuition and fees that were highest than any other community college in Texas, and a ranking in the national media of UTB-TSC as "unranked," had had enough.
Then, a year ago, Juliet's board did away with in-district tuition and charged the students living in a region that ranks as one of the highest in poverty level in the nation the highest the market would bear. The difference in the cost, some $3.5 million, were doled out as so-called "trustee scholarships," a crumb to throw to the peasants.
We should have been grateful?
The giving was good. With the cynical use of local politiqueras and brainwashed students, the people were convinced to incur debt on their properties to fund a building binge unseen in this area since cotton was king.
Art centers, tech buildings, engineering, child care, etc., suddenly dotted the campus. Real estate properties were gobbled up indiscriminately, fueling a feeding frenzy for selected local Realtors only too glad to acquire the properties (and fat commissions) for the college.
UT also had it good. They rented the buildings as per the agreement, and knowing they had a pliant landlord in Juliet and her boards, forgot to pay the rent. Not yesterday or the day before, but a mere three years (1994) after the original agreement was signed in 1991.
Today, the arrears have mounted and total more than $11 million.
TSC went begging to Austin for the UT Regents to pay up. The oil- and gas-rich UT System claimed penury. Go to the Legislature, they told the TSC guys.
They did. And there they were told that the state hadn't rented the buildings. UT had.
And so, back they went. Our able representatives attached a rider to a bill for the system top pay. UT attached two riders, one of them calling for furher "study" on the matter.
So what to do?
Juliet and her accomplices like Moore and Putegnat huddled with the bosses at Austin and decided to forge a different "entity" that would gobble up the entire assets of the college, the $11 million debt(now an asset), included.
Once passed, the UTB-TSC would swallow up the college, the $11 million would be a "wash," and the pesky trustees would have no say-so in the matter. As a matter of fact, the trustees' role under the new agreement would be an "advisory" one, not one to formulate policy.
And once signed, the agreement would prohibit the college from seeking a share of the Permanent University Fund $millions available to all UT Sytem and A&M system schools except UT-Brownsville and UT-Pan American at Edinburg.
Now, what do these two schools have in common besides the UT name? It couldn't be their demographics could it? Nahh!
Despite the intense pressure exerted by Garcia, IBC's Fred Rusteberg, brainwashed students wailing and beating their breasts in agony, the guileless Father Armand Matthews, and others who admitted they hadn't even read the proposal, four trustees had the courage top say "no" to Juliet's extortive agreement.
Adela Garza, Rene Torres, Kiko Rendon and Trey Mendez held firm. The Bobosos, Robert Robles and Robert Lozano, had to be dragged kicking and screaming to go along and demonstrate board unity. Unless that hadn't happened, they would have been willing to sell us down the river like the board of 1991 did.
Now Garcia and UT know where they stand. If they want to, they are welcome to treat us as partners. They will have to sit down at the table with us as equals and negotiate. Why mince words? The only reason they're down here is because of the MALDEF lawsuit. If they like it, fine. If not, fine, too.
And by the way, don't think that the PUF exclusion of our two Valley student bodies that are more than 90 percent Hispanic is going to last forever. We have another 80 years left for us to get though with this little matter of the partnership agreement.
The PUF exclusion is next.
Any self-respecting executive who has had a major initiative shot down by her board and told in no uncertain terms that they wanted no part of it would do the professional thing and seek a gracious exit. Now that she's been shown the door, will she walk out of it on her own? Or will push have to come to shove?