AOBE'S PADDY HAMMES: A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT

By Juan Montoya
What an outrage!
One could literally feel how livid Patrick Hammes, the president of the Association of Brownsville Educators must have felt when he wrote and Emailed his protest to the Brownsville herald over the settlements between the Brownsville Independent School District and the former district's superintendent Hector Gonzales and former CEO Tony Juarez.
The hand-wringing Hammes takes only members Catalina Presas-Garcia, Lucy Longoria, Dr. Cristina Saavedra, and Enrique Escobedo to task for awarding the men $800,000 and $700,000 respectively and employment with the district. Gonzales will be a consultant at $72,000 and Juarez will be in charge of Human Resources at $154,000.
What he doesn't say is that the other two trustees who abstained from the vote on the settlement were both named as co-conspirators in the scheme to rig the multi-million dollar Stop-Loss insurance  contracts to their benefactor and political supporter the late Johnny Cavazos and therefore could not vote.
In the case of Minerva Peña, she played to the electorate for her run for trustee this year.

Yes, the settlements are huge. But what price do you put on the destruction of a person's reputation, his termination from employment, and his subjection to riedicule and humiliation over what amounted to a conspiracy to evade the bidding process and violate the rights of the two men when they went to the federal authorities instead of participating in the conspiracy?

We didn't read any letters of outrage from Paddy Hammes when the former majority oversaw a Special Services department that was in essence a virtual ATM machine for crooked lawyers, consultants and mental therapists. Where was the outrage when more than 400 Special Education students were misdiagnosed with testing instruments that the district's own attorneys called "legally indefensible?"

Who spoke out for those children? It sure wasn't Paddy "The Hand-Wringer," was it?

Where was Hammes when relatives and close friends of the former majority trustees got plum principal and adminuistrator positions over other more qualified candidates?

Where was Hammes when Ruben Cortez went to Special Services and forced the department to hire his sister even after the application period had closed?

Maybe he missed this little nugget from the Art Rendon case that, by the way, was also settled to save BISD the embarrassment of the revelations that would come.

"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."

Or how about this one?

– Also May 2008: Cortez went to Gonzales and instructed him to promote his wife to principal of Benavides Elementary. Cortez threatened Gonzales that "if he wanted to remain at BISD as superintendent, he should make it happen. Gonzales said he could not oblige such a request. Cortez responded "we will see what happens."

What does Paddy do?

He and his organization endorsed Cortez (with a  GED) to the Texas School Board of Education District 2 position over Celeste Sanchez, a classroom teacher and now assistant San Benito ISD assistant superintendent with more than 45 years in education. Oh, yeah, that was a fine example of Paddy's continued support of education, alright.

And where was Paddy's indignation when Joe Colunga continued to pressure the BISD administration to get "special treatment" for his disabled son? Did he read the charges raised by Gonzales in his lawsuit?

"Gonzales charged in his lawsuit that he was being persuaded by members of the conspiracy of four to join in their schemes to fire Rendon and Juarez because the various board members of the majority were not pleased with:

1. The administration of the Special Needs Department under Rendon because Colunga did not want Rendon poking in areas where illegal activity may be uncovered and he and his wife Judy, who had a son in Special Services, were demanding (and receiving) special treatment for their disabled son;"

Or how about this?

"–  May 2008: Cortez went to Gonzales and instructed him to promote his wife to principal of Benavides Elementary. Cortez threatened Gonzales that "if he wanted to remain at BISD as superintendent, he should make it happen. Gonzales said he could not oblige such a request. Cortez responded "we will see what happens." Gonzales reported the incident to BISD counsel Mike Saldana. Saldana told Gonzales that the board majority could change in November 2008, thereby becoming part of the conspiracy."

Or perhaps he didn't hear that the BISD attorney Arturo Michel when he said that "We settled for a significant amount...The district believes it's a fair settlement and one that prevents further exposure for much larger dollars for the district."

 The lawsuit insurance the district carries paid 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.
Hammes also took the trustees to the woodshed charging that they had raided the district's fund balance to complete the payment after the insurance companies paid their share. It was considerably less than the $100 million-plus that the former majority took from fund balance in two years alone (2008-2010) to pay for construction fund overruns that ended in the pockets of local building contractors and architects. That should have created bedlam, but nooo! Nothing. In short, the AOBE, former president Borrego, and in fact, no one associated with this group made a peep about that.  

Where were you when we needed you Paddy? The hand wringing, alas, comes a day late and a dollar short.