TRUSTEES TO LUCIOS AND OLIVEIRA: REFERENDUM ON JULIET GARCIA'S EXTORTIVE TSC-UTB PARTNERSHIP? FORGEDABOUTIT!

By Juan Montoya

Hailed as a fact-finding meet to listen to the concerns of the Texas Southmost College majority of the trustees who voted against Juliet Garcia's idea of a partnership between the UT System and the community college, it soon showed itself for what it really was: a brazen attempt by state legislators to arm-twist them into accepting a referendum to change the outcome.

Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., his son Rep. Eddie Lucio III, and State Rep. Rene Oliveira summoned trustees Trey Mendez, Adela Garza and chairman Kiko Rendon to Lucio's office at the North Park Plaza.

Unbeknownst to them, at least one blogger and four or five protesters were sitting in the waiting room as they – Oliveira especially – tried to get them to accept the suggestion by the Garcia administration and her supporters that they put the decision to a vote in an election.

The trustees refused, with Mendez firmly telling Lucio Jr. what he had told him in private over telephone conversations that to do that would be to set a bad precedent that would see any decision made at the local level questioned by legislators and have their decision-making responsibilities double-guessed every time some faction did not like the way they voted.

Supporters of the three trustees – Rene Torres, a member of the majority did not attend – crowded outside Lucio's office before the unheard of Sunday 8:30 a.m. meeting to show the trustees they were not alone.

Orange signs with "Save TSC" slogans and "Fire Juliet Garcia" were carried by the trustees' supporters as they waited for the results of the meet.

Finally, after more than an hour did not give the legislators the results they obviously had desired, they emerged and put on the best face they could to their fool's errand.

"We just wanted to see whether we could get both sides together and reach a solution to the problems," said Lucio III. "We have never said that we wanted to give away TSC."

However, there was no hiding the fact that the legislators were ready to proceed with Gracia's proposal for a partnership that would see the community college handed lock, stock, and barrel (including bank deposits and real estate and buildings) to the UT System.

The only thing the local taxpayers would keep is the $68 million in bond debt that would be paid in 2034. After amortization, that total would be $102 million. After that, the college district would not exist.

The legislators were obviously not pleased that their privately-called meet was not as exclusive an event as they had hoped. At one point, Lucio III told a local blogger that the meeting was not a public one.

"You shouldn't have left the door open then," was the reply.

It is unknown now that this ploy did not result in the expected capitulation of the trustees what other trick the Garcia faction will use to ram through the partnership through the board.

However, the legislators were told in no uncertain terms that they should not attempt to undo in Austin what the people of the district had done inside the TSC boardroom.

"Juliet's partnership proposal as written is DOA (dead on arrival)," they were told. "We hope you don't try to pass it in that form in the legislature."