ADELA HEADS OFF OLIVEIRA-GARCIA AT THE LEGISLATIVE PASS

By Juan Montoya

Just as the majority of the trustees of the Texas Southmost College district suspected, a hearing on a "shell" bill filed by State Rep. Rene Oliveira before the House Committee on Higher Education would have achieved exactly the opposite of when they voted to have two separate and distinct institutions.

The bill, HB 3689, instead, called for a continuation of the ruinous "partnership" between both institutions with wording calling for the UT System to continue leasing land from the college under the terms of the contract drafted by UTB President Juliet Garcia's administration. Currently, the UT System is some $15 million in arrears and the trustees have been unable to collect from UTB which tells them that they must seek the money from the legislature.

Trustee Dela Garza, who along with Kiko Rendon, Rene Torres and Trey Mendez voted to preserve TSC instead of dissolving the district and handing it to the UT System, decided to attend the hearing and lobby the committee's members in Austin Wednesday.

She was glad she did.

"The members of the committee were told by representative Oliveira and his cousin David (also a TSC trustee) that the bill was non-controversial," she said. "The committee members didn't know that UTB wanted us to give the them district."

Garza, also the representative for the southern end of the U.S. congressional district under Blake Farenthold, said she lobbied each member of the committee and that they were astounded to hear that the bill actually continued a partnership that the majority of the elected members of the TSC board of trustees had voted to dissolve.

"Some of them actually laughed when I told them that the plan proposed by the administration included us giving away the district's assets to the UT System," she said. "They just sat there and smiled."

After the UT System and TSC had failed to reach an agreement on the proposed partnership that was drafted by Garcia and would have transferred all of TSC's assets and bank deposits to the UT System, Oliveria said he had filed a "shell" bill to get funding from the state. But what he didn't say was that the bill actually supported the Garcia plan to have the UT System swallow the district and abolish it leaving the district's taxpayer to pay the outstanding debt.

Oliveira filed HB 3689 on March 11, the last day to file a bill. On March 23, the bill was laid before the house for the first time and it was referred to its appropriate committee, Higher Education.

The bill was scheduled for a public hearing on Wednesday. The bill, as it was written, does not voice the opinion of the constituents or TSC representatives.

Garza's lobbying paid off and she said that she found sympathetic ears among the committee's members.

"One of them (Dennis Bonner) had actually had a community college defunded and was very sympathetic," she said. "The majority couldn't believe how arrogant UT System representatives were."

By the end of the hearing, it became apparent that Oliveira's bill, as written, wasn't going to fly, Garza said. "The chairman told the representative to come back with a bill that reflected the desires of the majority on the board and told both sides to get back to the negotiating table." she said.

"I was still working off the adrenalin. I shudder to think what would have happened if we hadn't attended the hearing."

For his part, Oliveira issued a press release saying that he was working with Garza, Sen. Eddie Lucio's office and the other participants to draft a new bill.

"I write to update you on the latest developments regarding CSHB 3698. The bill was heard this evening in the House Higher Education Committee and was left pending. There was an excellent dialogue between committee members and witnesses.

To address TSC board concerns, an informal agreement was reached between TSC Trustee Adela Garza, UT System Executive Staff, members of Sen. Eddie Lucio's staff, and myself on additional language for the bill which we believe further protects the interests of all parties. As a result of the hearing and our discussion afterward, new bill language is being developed to reflect the following:

1. UTB and TSC are formally recognized as separate institutions.

2. That the partnership agreement cannot be terminated any earlier than SAC accreditation is complete,

3. That the partnership agreement cannot be terminated any later than August of 2015.

4. Section 4 of the bill which refers to a 90-day transition period on lease agreement language is extracted from the bill. "

We look forward to a quick turnaround on language from attorneys to proceed in moving an agreed bill next week."

Rene O. Oliveira.

Good work, Adela!