A DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO SABOTAGE THE RENDON VS. BISD CASE?

By Juan Montoya
That's what some observers are asking after the insurance company representing the Brownsville Independent School District against former Special Needs director Art Rendon – under pressure from the district to settle the matter once and for all – recommended that local attorney Jim Hunter be appointed to represent the district in the case.
Red flags immediately went up. You see, the district's Stop-Loss insurance's agent of record is one Johnny Cavazos, who – if Hunter was retained – would have a tailor-made and potentially a deal-killing conflict-of-interest issue.
Not only would a local blogger go apoplectic and concoct elaborate (and imaginative) conspiracy theories, but Cavazos could also point out that Hunter had at one time served as trustee Enrique Escobedo's campaign treasurer.
If Escobedo had to abstain from voting on the settlement, the case could remain in a stalemate (3 to 3) , dragging the district into the legal morass, providing lasting job security for the lawyers, and increasing litigation costs for the district.
"This can't be," said a source close to the majority on the board. "It's unfortunate that Jim's professional life had to be affected like this, but the potential for Cavazos to use this as an issue saying, in effect, that the fix was in because of his past political relationship with Enrique is a very real possibility. It looks like this was almost a deliberate strategy to sabotage any settlement of this issue."
Escobedo also decried the fact that someople might have questioned Hunter's ability to maintain the highest professional ethics in his legal practice.
"It's a shame that this issue could affect Jim's ability to practice his profession," he said. "I have the utmost trust and respect for his professionalism. It's too bad this has to intrude into this matter. It affects people's ability to work."
Rendon filed a Whistleblower's lawsuit against the former majority on the BISD board (Rick Zayas, Ruben Cortez, Rolando Aguilar, Joe Colunga and former superintendent Brett Springston) after he was terminated from his position after he went to law enforcement and federal authorities over what he called the abuse of the due-process system to milk the district of hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements.
In his lawsuit, he charged that the BISD misdiagnosed students with bogus psychological tests in "an effort to profit at the expense of children with special needs," and get federal and state funding,."
He claimed he was fired after the contacted a Medicaid fraud investigator, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, a Texas Ranger and the FBI, to report what he believed was "systemic fraud and abuse of the system."
Rendon claims that a consulting firm BISD hired to review the tests determined they were "not scientifically valid" and "legally indefensible."
He claims the district's legal counsel and Corpus Christi attorney Christopher Jonas, who represented BISD parents and their "special needs children," profited from the testing, as it led to excessive due process hearings about the children's educational needs, and "outrageous" bills for legal services. The BISD placed Rendon on a 1-year paid suspension, then fired him in retaliation for reporting the fraud to authorities, he stated in his 26-page complaint.
He charged in court that the administration, its local legal counsel, and the majority of the board had asked him, in effect, to turn a blind eye to the alleged abuses.
At least a couple of trustees on the current board majority have expressed concern that if the Hunter appointment goes through, it would be perceived as if the board was deliberately "fixing" the settlement of the case.
This Monday, at least two – chairperson Catalina Presas-Garcia and Lucy Longoria – said they had expressed their reservations to the district's legal counsel on the matter.
"The residents of our district must be assured that we are acting above board in every instance," said Longoria. "It's a shame good people have to be dragged into this. We hope this wasn't done on purpose by people associated with the insurance carrier."