BROWNSVILLE NOISE SOFA KING ANGRY AT JULIET

By Juan Montoya
We've purposely avoided commenting on the content of other blogs believing that it only aggrandizes and gives credibility to individuals who otherwise were best ignored. But when we saw the Brownsville Noise posting this morning we couldn't suppress our baser desires.
The photo (a satiric Photoshop collage, of course) depicts Texas Southmost College-University of Texas Brownsville president Juliet Garcia posing with two students and holding up one of those giant checks favored by PR flacks to make their point.
It's not the photo itself, but as they say, the devil in the details. The check is made out to Juliet and is good for $38,726, the amount that bloggers have reported as the raise she gave herself for the 2010-2011 school fiscal budget through a transfer from TSC to her salary line item at UTB.
On the memo portion of the check is listed COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) and the name Imelda Marcos is crossed off at the top and hers inserted instead.
We all remember that Imelda, the former First Lady of the Philippines, was a big spender on shoes and was said to buy them by the thousands.
It's interesting to note that the UT System has claimed penury and her been tight-fisted and a deadbeat about paying some $12 million in rent arrears to the TSC district as per their "partnership agreement."
They have even threatened to end the partnership unless the TSC trustees hand over all the assets of the district to them and assume an advisory role, a scenario correctly rejected by the board. Can they be serious about this and at the same time that they are making painful cuts in teacher salaries and employment allow for Juliet to continue fleecing the people of South Texas?
This hefty increase (which was hidden as a budget transfer) will bring her annual compensation to $361,411. It is interesting to note that she has been receiving at least $75,400 per year for the last 19 years, or $1.32 million so far and counting to manage all of 11 to 15 TSC employees. Not a bad gig if you can get it, hey?
With all these issues increasing our stress levels, it's nice to see that some people are not taking it Sofa King serious.