EXCUSE ME: COULD YOU RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN?

By Juan Montoya

Just last Friday,the Fifth Court of Appeals in New Orleans denied Rick Zayas, Ruben Cortez, Joe Colunga and Rolando Aguilar qualified immunity which meant that they could be held liable as individuals, and could not claim they did not deny former Brownsville Independent School District Chief Financial Officer Juarez's First Amendment rights because their actions did not come through a formal vote.

Now we understand that despite the BISD board's desire to put all the Cortez-Zayas generated litigation behind them after years of expensive legal wrangling, the insurance company's attorney, one Roger Hughes, has asked the appeals court judges to "reconsider" their decision.

"He did it on his own without even telling the board," said  a source close to the case. "It appears as if the insurance company lawyers are just trying to delay the resolution of the case and buy more time. The board members –except for Minerva Peña and Rolando Aguilar – are not happy.

The federal appeals court judges in a 12-page opinion firmly rejected the reasoning of the former board majority justifying the actions of the four and their counsel.
In the case of Art Rendon, the BISD and the insurance company chose to settle with him instead of dragging on the indefensible case forward.
In the case of Juarez, the Fifth Court of Appeals has given his attorneys – Frank Perez, Star Jones and Ben Neece – the go-ahead to pursue his lawsuit against the four in the district court under Judge Andrew Hanen.
Juarez started working for the BISD as its CFO in the fall of 2008. One of his duties was to make insurance recommendations to the BISD board of trustees. On Sept. 16, Juarez recommended that the district select AAG as its Stop-Loss carrier.
At the heart of the dispute is Juarez's claim that he was demoted and ultimately terminated from employment by the BISD and the defendants personally because he recommend that the board award Health Smart (AGG) the district's $40 million Stop Loss Insurance policy instead of to Oklahoma-based Mutual Assurance Administrators, Inc.
On Aug. 12, trustees awarded that contract for the 2009-2010 to MAA for $181,275 per month and can be worth as much as $40 million.

The local broker of the insurance company was none other than majority supporter and insurance mogul Johnny Cavazos.

According to testimony in deposition by Gonzales, three of the defendants (Colunga, Aguilar and Cortez) accused Juarez of misinforming the board regarding the recommendation. Two of the trustees (Cortez and Colunga) were adamantly opposed to the AAG recommendation, and after the meeting, both Colunga and Cortez met with Gonzales and said that they were lied to by Juarez. Gonzales said he would "look into it."

Then,after the majority were informed that Juarez had turned over the incriminating information to federal agents, the majority chose not to renew his contract.

Local U.S.District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled that the four could not receive qualified immunity for their actions as individuals and they appealed. That was the essence of the ruling issued last week.

"Now this attorneys want to drag this case out and ask the same judges to reconsider," said our source. "After waiting months for the judges to reach their decision, they want to drag this thing out again. The board just wants to put all this behind them.There's going to be fireworks at the next board meeting. I wouldn't want to be in Hughes' shoes."