ROBLES AND OLIVEIRA SNAKES IN THE TSC-UTB GRASS

By Juan Montoya
What do you do after you lose repeatedly as a member of the minority on the Texas Southmost College board of trustees?
If you are David Oliveira and Dr. Robert Robles, you sow as much dissent against the majority as possible and then concoct red herrings to discredit the members of the majority.
That's why the Brownsville Herald, always obliging to Messrs. Oliveira, Robles and Dr. Robert Lozano, the darlings of TSC-UTB's President Juliet Garcia, devotes front-page coverage to groundless rumors that majority trustee Trey Mendez is somehow benefiting from a land swap in a deal with his former law partner Dennis Sanchez.
The story disingenuously outlines the land swap proposed between TSC and Dyna-Gro Properties and Sanchez, and then asks whether Mendez would profit from the trade.
Nowhere is there any mention of who is asking whether a conflict of interest exists. Is it a competing developer? A real estate broker cut out of the deal? A disgruntled former partner of the owners? Or perhaps Oliveira and Robles still stinging from the bitter defeat after the majority – Rene Torres, Adela Garza, Kiko Rendon, and Mendez – refused to hand over the entire assets, real estate and bank deposits of the district to the UT System leaving the district's taxpayers with only a $120 million debt?
The issue started as vicious rumors generated by pro-UTB adherents of Oliveira and Robles. That's when it first reached our ears and we posted it on this blog May 31. At the time it was making the rounds we questioned the source and asked Mendez directly about the issue.
Now we know that Oliveira and Robles, rather than accepting the fact that they have lost the UTB-TSC separation battle, want to play a war of attrition against the majority. What better way than to question the integrity of its makeup?
"They are spies for UTB sitting on the TSC board," a college administrator said. "Whatever is discussed in executive session reaches the ears of the UTB administration immediately and they make counter moves to defeat the plans of the majority. That's where all this thing about a supposed conflict of interest started. They want to derail the process."

Take, for example, the hiring of a financial officer for TSC, a crucial step in the ongoing process of the separation of UTB and TSC. When the UTB administration found out that the second-in-command of their own finance department had applied for the position, they immediately let him go. Why?

"He knows where the bodies are buried," said out source. "We are planning a forensic audit of the UTB-TSC expenditures in the past few years and a person like him s invaluable. The UTB administration didn't like the idea that their second guy in their own finance department was coming over to us. It'll be interesting to see what happens."

Meanwhile, as the separation process moves forward, our sources tell us to expect more red herrings like the alleged conflict-of-interest land swap to issue from the Garcia-Oliveira-Robles embittered triumvirate and for the Herald to obligingly megaphone them.