WHY BISD SETTLED: WHY THROW GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD?

By Juan Montoya
Ruben Cortez, one of the former trustees who were the main reason for the current majority on the board of the Brownwville Independent School District to settle two major lawsuits and cut its losses, is trying to make it seem like settling them was the last thing he wanted.
But BISD board attorney Arturo Michel's statements explaining the decision offer some clues to why the $1.5 million settlement was necessary for the district.
The reasoning is going to take several steps.
First, the district might have won or lost the lawsuits filed by former Superintendent Hector Gonzales and Juarez, but if the plaintiffs won, it could have cost much more than the settlement.
As it was, Gonzales got $800,000 and an deputy superintendent's job including attorneys fees for the better part of three years. Ditto for Juarez, with $700,000, a job and attorney's fees.

Both me were targeted by the former majority after they refused tom join the conspiracy by Cortez, Joe Colunga, Rick Zayas and Rolando Aguilar to steer the multimillion Stop-Loss contract to the firm represented by the late Johnny Cavazos, a prominent political and financial contributor to their campaigns.

In the end, Juarez refused and went to the FBI with evidence – including tape recordings – of the p[lan to fire him and Gonzales unless they toed the majority's line.

Federal judge Andrew Hanen agreed that the evidence presented by Juarez's attorneys indicated that there was a factual basis for the lawsuit and he refused to grant qualified immunity to the four trustees. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals not only upheld his order, but refused to rehear the appeal filed by the district's attorneys.

But there is more.

The lawsuit insurance the district carries is paying part of the settlement. But it would not pay anything if the district went to trial and lost the lawsuits. That increases the monetary difference the district would pay – much much more – if it took a chance on the lawsuits and lost.

So why wouldn't the insurance pay?

This is the interesting part. Because the insurance doesn't cover the district when school board members break the law, or act outside the duties of the job. It doesn't cover the district when the likes of Cortez, Zayas, Colunga, Aguilar, and even former trustee Otis Powers are found to have conspired to manipulate the school district into firing its superintendent and financial officer.

These actions alone have already cost the district taxpayers at least a million dollars on this when you consider the cost of firing Gonzales added in.
Of course, the last thing that Cortez wants now is a settlement that will point out his role in the costly fiasco he generated by trying to protect his benefactor Cavazos now that he is in the running against a Republican in the race for the District 2 position in the Texas State School Board of Education. 

But is it any wonder the settlement was the best way out to limit the district's losses before the legal costs and damage penalties that would have affected the BISD's bottom line necessary to operate the district?