THE KID GLOVES COME OFF: GONZALES SUES BISD

'Some of the alleged illegal activity involved the Special Services department, where director Art Rendon had found "Medicaid fraud, fraudulent billing (by lawyers and 'educational consultants') barratry, misconduct by and among various board members and/or BISD personnel, and use of inadequate psychiatric evaluations..."'

By Juan Montoya

As the board of the Brownsville Independent School District contemplates the settlement of the lawsuit of former Special Services director Art Rendon at today's meeting, former BISD Superintendent Hector Gonzales filed a lawsuit against the district in 357th State District Court.

Both lawsuits arose from the tumultuous era of the board when new members Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez formed a majority with trustees Joe Colunga and Rolando Aguilar after the election of November 2008.

In his lawsuit filed in 357th District Court Friday, Gonzales claims he was the victim of First-Amendment retaliation for speaking out in matters of public concern and that the speech outweighed the government's interest in efficient provision of public services and precipitated adverse employment action. He claims he was speaking as a private citizen as opposed to a public employee when he confronted the board and others.

He claims he suffered substantial economic and other damages as well.

Other causes of action listed in his lawsuit include an alternative claim that the BISD, through the board majority and co-conspirators, tried to coerce him into performing numerous illegal acts that resulted in his termination when he refused.

An additional cause of action includes the emotional distress he suffered through the defendants' continuing efforts to try to force him "to participate in a conspiracy (whose purpose was illegal) in falsifying and creating evidence to destroy his career, in oppressing evidence favorable to Gonzales, in coercing and intimidating witnesses, (and) in procuring and condoning false testimony."These actions, he charges in his lawsuit, caused "severe emotional distress, including embarrassment, ridicule in the community among Gonzales' peers – warranting actual and exemplary damages.

As a consequence of such actions, Gonzales claims, "BISD and its co-conspirators intended that their actions result in a de facto blacklisting of Gonzales ain the education community. Their intent materialized and manifested when Gonzales was refused employment as a direct result of the conspirators' actions."

Gonzales became the interim Superintendent of the BISD in July 2006. Subsequently, he signed three contracts that extended into 2010. In 2008, BISD signed a contract with Gonzales that gave him a $20,000 raise.

That same year the board conducted a performance evaluation that rated him "Very Effective."

During his tenure the BISD won the Broad Award that bestowed $2 million in scholarships to district students, an accomplishment that had never been achieved. That same year, the BISD was also awarded the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Award. While he was superintendent , 83 percent of the BISD campuses were recognized by the Texas Education Agency as "exemplary" or "recognized."

That November, the majority of the board changed and Zayas and Cortez entered the picture. They quickly became aligned with Aguilar and Colunga to form a majority bloc. Gonzales says that "under the new board majority, and pursuant to a conspiracy involving some board members, administrative personnel, and persons employed and not employed by the BISD, illegal activity was being conducted."

Some of the alleged illegal activity involved the Special Services department, where director Art Rendon had found "Medicaid fraud, fraudulent billing (by lawyers and 'educational consultants') barratry, misconduct by and among various board members and/or BISD personnel, and use of inadequate psychiatric evaluations..."

Gonzales claims that trustee Joe Colunga send him word that "Gonzales was to fire (Rendon) or face termination himself. This message was meant to...completely stop further...attempts to uncover illegal and improper activity...to intimidate Gonzales into joining those conspirators who were committing, condoning and allowing illegal activity...(and) to engage his active assistance in knowingly concealing illegal activity, itself an illegal act."

When Gonzales refused, and then came forward and confronted the board identifying the illegal activity being pursued by the BISD and others..."the board majority and various unnamed co-conspirators...engaged in a systematic process to destroy Gonzales' credibility by creating fake evidence of wrongdoing.

"The conspirators manipulated and created evidence, coerced and intimidated witnesses, gave false testimony and falsified records to make it appear that the Special Service Department was in a financial mess and in an organizational shambles.

These allegations were manufactured, Gonzales charges, so that the board majority and its co-conspirators could "terminate him" and conceal the "ongoing illegal activity quickly being uncovered."

Additionally, Gonzales' lawsuit charges that the defendants tried to procure false grievances against him in an effort to discredit, discriminate against, and terminate him" and cite the ongoing federal case of former BISD Chief Financial Officer Antonio Juarez vs. BISD where Juarez has submitted recording of former trustee Otis Powers and other district employees encouraging him to file a grievance against the former superintendent.

Juarez, as was Rendon, was subsequently terminated when – just as Rendon went to the U.S. Attorney, Cameron County District Attorney, Medicaid investigators and the Texas Rangers –

he turned over his evidence and recordings to local FBI agents.

The BISD further "controlled, corrupted, and manipulated the entire grievance and appeal procedures such that the outcomes of specific and selected cases, at the conspirators' choosing, were predetermined.

"It had become and was, BISD policy and practice to manipulate intimidate and and coerce witnesses in this result-oriented process...to...strip employees...of any rights that their employee contracts were intended to protect...

"This control, corruption, and manipulation of the grievance process and appeal procedure extended to entities outside BISD," the lawsuit asserts. "Such was the case with the grievance and appeal procedure Gonzales was mandated to use..."

Throughout this "corrupt and pre-determined process," Gonzales asserts that he refused to join the conspiracy...participate in nay of its illegal activity...and refused to condone it. Instead he continued to speak out about the illegal and improper activity pursued by BISD board members, its co-conspirators, and others.

As a result, Gonzales charges, he was terminated in September 2009.

In his lawsuit, the former superintendent is seeking economic damages past and future, compensation for mental anguish, general damages, reinstatement, attorneys fees, the costs of the lawsuit and appropriate costs judged by the court, interests, and exemplary damages.