IF CORTEZ SUCCEEDS, A H.S. GRAD WILL RUN HERD ON PHDS

By Juan Montoya

Like a phoenix who has gone down in flames and rises to fly again, political observers are shaking their heads in disbelief at the resurrection of former Brownsville Independent School District board trustee Ruben Cortez who was defeated two years ago but is now running for the Texas School Board of Education on the ballot this May 29.

Cortez, who was beaten by current trustee Enrique Escobedo, then ran for the board of Region One, which oversees the boards and districts in South Texas and ...won.

Then, less than two years after he rose from defeat on the Brownsville board, he shook off the dust of defeat and is now running for the state board of education.

The wonder of it all, say some, is that just as he did when he was in Brownsville and Region One, if elected, he will be over people with college degrees such as those with bachelor's, Master's, and even PhDs.

"Can you imagine having someone like Cortez making decisions over people with doctorates?," asked a former Brownsville trustee. "This is ludicrous."

During the 2010 campaign for BISD trustee, his opponent Escobedo focused o

n Cortez's jetting around the country as a district representative and spent some $35,874 in only two years taking 27 trips, including one to Las Vegas at district expense.

He also paid for an ad where he stated that back in 1994, Cortez had been arrested for DWI after he refused to blow into a breathalyzer.

But the kicker is that Cortez, who sat on a board that would make decisions and evaluate the performance of people with educational attainment higher than he had ever reached, only listed a high school diploma as stated in a story in the Brownsville Herald.

Additionally, the ad stated that Cortez had been "personally sued" for defamation, retaliation, conspiring to silence, plotting to intimidate and more. In all, the ad continued, the BISD "has spent at least $228,447 in legal fees prosecuting and defending these cases."

That was even before the latest round of lawsuits where Cortez, Rick Zayas, Joe Colunga and Rolando Aguilar – the

reigning majority at the time – were named as defendants by the former director of the Special Needs department, the former Chief Financial Officer, and former superintendent.

In the case involving former CFO Antonio Juarez, a federal judge refused to give him and the other three co-defendants qualified immunity, meaning that they can be charged as individuals as well as in their official capacity. The lawsuit alleges the defendants conspired to deprive Juarez of his constitutional right to protected speech.

In the case involving the former superintendent Hector Gonzales, a state case also charges that Cortez was pressuring the former superintendent to fire Juarez after the former CFO did not recommend that an insurance broker be awarded the district's lucrative Stop-Loss contract.

In the case of former Special Needs director Art Rendon, the district's new board majority voted to settle the litigation rather than air the allegations in open court. In the Rendon case, he specifically states that Cortez interfered in the department's hiring process to have one of his relatives hired after the application period had expired.

"58. On or about June, 2008, Ruben Cortez, a sitting board member on BISD, contacted Plaintiff directly via telephone. He instructed Plaintiff to hire his sister, Linda Aguilar, for summer school employment as a Special Education teacher.

59. Plaintiff informed Mr. Cortez that BISD had hiring policies in place and instructed him that the hiring application for the summer of 2008 had already been accepted and processed.

60. Cortez sent Plaintiff his sister's application and insisted Plaintiff call her immediately and giver her a job. Plaintiff set up a meeting between Cortez's sister Linda, Ana Lerma, who was a Special Education supervisor, and Dr. Lee Garcia, Assistant Director for Special Services. At the meeting, Ruben Cortez's orders were followed, and Linda Aguilar was given a job for the summer of 2008.