FULLER LAWSUIT FALLOUT FROM LOST 2010 BISD ELECTION

By Juan Montoya
On December 1975, the world was stunned when Richard Welch, the CIA station chief was gunned down on the streets of Athens, Greece.
At the time he was blamed by the Left for aiding the ruling military dictatorship. Amidst all the angst that followed, I still remember a statement that succinctly interpreted his assassination.
"You play the game, you take your chances."
And so it was with former Brownsville Independent School District CFO Tony Fuller when the new superintendent Carl Montoya came on board and – finding him wanting in financial adroitness and firmly connected at the waist to losing candidates Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez – placed him on administrative leave and replaced him at his position.
Now Fuller, who was placed in another job at the BISD, wants the district's money for having played the game and lost.
He wants "actual and punitive damages for his claims of injury to reputation and character, lost earnings, and diminished earning capacity, and past and future mental anguish., in addition to attorney and court fees."
Let's rewind the tape a bit.
It's October 2010. In less than a month, it will be election time for the BISD. Zayas and Cortez are reeling from the newspaper ads and campaign literature being spread all over town detailing their gutting the district's fund balance. They had Fuller go to reporter Gary Long, their  mouthpiece at the Brownsville Herald (which by the way published those ads and was provided with documentation) and he willingly sought to be a source for articles to counter the statements of the DefeatZayasCortezandPowers PAC. Those ads charged that the administration of Brett Springston and the majority of the BISD board had been fudging the truth with their interpretation of the budget numbers. Fuller agreed to be the spear carrier for the group.
Long and the Herald published a 50-inch screed that spilled over from a front-page banner headline story onto more than a quarter page on Page 9 with Fuller doing mental gymnastics trying to prove that if you have more expenditures than you have revenues in a budget and had to go to reserves, you couldn't call that a deficit.
Instead, it's called "amounts BISD designated for use from fund balances in each year's budget."
OK.
Let's get this straight. Under financial whiz Fuller;
In 2008-2009, BISD "designated for use from fund balances" $26.542 million.
In 2009-2010, BISD "designated for use from fund balances" $11.436 million.
In 2010-2011, BISD "designated for use from fund balances" $6.511 million.
Now, if you in your household economy were to operate in this fashion, you would have a "shortfall," a "liquidity problem," etc., but heaven forbid that you would call it a household "deficit."
Long, Fuller, Zayas and Cortez seemed to think that by dipping into reserves for three straight year and spending more than the district takes in is perfectly OK, as long as there was water in the well.
Fuller said that it was "incorrect" to characterize the figures as deficits "because by law BISD must operate under a balanced budget. Each year, revenues must match expenditures, so there can be no 'deficit spending."
Is is any wonder that given this proof the voters of the district overwhelmingly ignored the sage advice of this numbers man and opted instead to elect the opponents to his candidates in the election?
And, given the incongruity of Fuller's claims in face of the black-and-white numbers on the record, does he have a leg to stand on when he states that some trustees like Catalina Garcia-Presas and others made comments "publicly casting shadows over (his) as well as inferring acts of dishonesty and incompetency on him."?
And in spite of the fact that Long gave Fuller, Zayas and Cortez reams of copy where they made their case to the reading public, Fuller has the nerve to charge that he "was never provided a meaningful forum to clear his name nor an opportunity to examine his accusers."
The BISD forensic audit charged Fuller "of not possessing the competencies in both faculties and capabilities necessary for the position of CFO."
Zayas and Cortez listened to a self-styled legal guru who was stripped of his law license in Dallas and lost on every count. Every case where he has given advice to these people has been lost or dismissed. Fuller's lawsuit raising the red herring of Presas-Garcia's legal representation and the forensic audit that was performed bears that footprint. Fuller was no financial whiz and the guru has proven to be legal fool.
Zayas realized this and dumped him. He-She turned on him and accused him of corruption.
Why doesn't Fuller just face the naked truth?
You and your political allies played the game and took your chances, Tony. Y'all just happened to lose. Now you want the district's taxpayers you served so badly to give you money.
Verguenza no tienen.