CHOOSE A TRUSTEE TO BEAT THE SCAVANGERS OFF TSC

By Juan Montoya
With the unexpected resignation of Dr. Robert Lozano, a Texas Southmost College Board of Trustees member, this means that the board will have to find a replacement to swerve out the remaining of his term until May when TSC elections are held.
Lozano's departure was greeted with disappointment by other board members who said he cared deeply for the college district but was swamped with his professional duties as vice president for medical affairs at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Brownsville.
Chairman Kiko Rendon said the physician's heavy work load at the hospital forced him to make the decision.
Others said that when Lozano won office four years ago he was seen as the candidate of the Juliet Garcia faction on the board. In that election, except for Lozano, Garcia's candidates lost.
"I think he felt a little out of place," said one. "He was still under some pressure form the administration to work against TSC in favor of UTB and he didn't have the heart to do that. Toward the end of his service you could tell he really cared about the community college."

Whoever the board appoints, he or she will have to close ranks with the majority on the board to protect the interests of the community college district as it goes through the throes of a messy divorce with the UT System. Imagine one of the "partners" in the separation being from South Texas and another from Austin. One has what local legal talent it can afford and the other – with deep pockets from oil-and-gas revenues – can afford cut-throat representation which has shown nit can subvert local politicians and economic leaders to take its side and dispossess the weaker partner of all it can.
The analogy is not a fallacious one.
The UT System has found that it can count among its character witnesses and supporters the President Juliet Garcia of the UTB, City of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez and the city commission, and the local legislative delegation.
Take, for example, the grand announcement that now that UT-Rio Grande Valley ( the newest, improved, and better moniker after the community University, the University of the Americas, etc.), because it was a new institution, will eligible for the UT System's Permanent University Fund. Our local luminaries way back when in 1991 agreed to forgo a piece of that $13 billion pie just so the UT name could be affixed to buildings constructed with the dollars of the poorest community in the United States.
Grand sounding, self-serving names like Rose Mary Cardenas Building, the Fine Arts Center, the Kinesiology Center, etc, were all built using local taxpayer dollars under the agreement fashioned out by the likes of Rep. Rene Oliveira and State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr.
With pliant TSC boards guided along like puppy dogs by Garcia and Michael Putegnat and a cadre of overpaid underachievers, the "partnership" racked up a horrendous academic record and hiked up the tuition and user fees so that they were the highest in the state.
This November, the UT System announced (drum rolls please) that Brownsville it will receive $54 million for a 140,000-square-foot academic building and an $18 million to pay for the costs related to UTB's end of its partnership with TSC.
That's $72 million in state money from the PUF after 22 years in the "partnership." Generous, you say?
Consider this. An audit of TSC finances released in December by the Patillo, Brown, and Hill LLP accounting firm indicates that this year TSC transferred $30 million in payments to UTB as part of its partnership agreement for 2013. Last year, that figure was $47.5 million. The year before it was $55 million.
So within the last three years, the cash-strapped and over-taxed partner in this divorce has handed over $132 million to the UT System.
Compared to what the god-sent mana from UT System in the form of a PUF payment being hawked by the likes of Garcia, Oliveira and Lucio, it is obvious that UTB is going to miss its cash cow from the get-go.
And what do local political leaders do?
Instead of lending TCS a helping hand, they join in the sacking of the community college.
Consider this scenario. Twelve years ago, the members of the city' Beautification Committee thought it would be a grand idea if Brownsville would donate a 10.2-acre tract to the college so it could construct a botanical education center which could perhaps flourish into a department of studies for local students. The city commission at the time agreed and the land was conveyed to TSC subject to the provision that the land would revert tot the city if the center was not constructed in 10 years.
At that time, Garcia and her administration were too busy trying to build monuments to themselves and scheming on how to take over all the assets of the TSC college district to hand them over to the UT System and abolish the 85-year-old community asset. That included the creation of a mural by a Mexican artist which carried a price tag of $640,000 that was dropped like a hot potato after local residents learned that Garcia intended to pay for the mural using process from college construction bonds.
In short, the botanical education center was never built.
Then, this August, as TSC, the city and UTB were negotiating the end of the partnership and Martinez and city contract attorney Mark Sossi reminded the college that the property had reverted to the city. It was common knowledge that Martinez and the city commission had enticed the UT System to come downtown where there is "Always a Fiesta" and they would throw in 70 acres of public land to them as an incentive.
But not to worry, they wrote on TSC on August 20. We'll simply execute a warranty deed back to the city"...for clarification of the public record only...
"Pursuant to this proposal, the city will execute a no warranty deed to TSC for the 10.2-acre tract. This deed will be a fee simple conveyance and will not reserve any interest in the property  to the city."
What a deal, eh?
Well, in just under a month (Sept. 19), Sossi came back with a missive which stated that although the city wanted to be supportive of both TSC and UTB, "there is a real limitation to what the city can do."
Then he let the hammer fall on the bait-and-switch.
The city, Sossi said, had already provided the partnership (TSC) $5.5 million through the Greater Brownsville Incentive Corporation  for the International Technology, Education and Commerce (ITEC) and feels it must protect its constituency and not give away any city assets. Since the property would revert ot TSC, it had to pay the piper.
Now, Martinez said though his legal megaphone Sossi, "the value of the property is approximately $900,000. While the city "is willing to convey the property to TSC, it must receive reasonable consideration for that conveyance."
In other words, we didn't mean it about giving TSC the 10.2 acres.
And while we're at it, Sossi added, we want back the George Kraiger House that the partnership had funneled in more than $400,000 but which did not meet the restriction – shades of the 10.2 -acre tract – that it be fixed and open to the public within 10 years. We'll just keep the renovations and take the building back, thank you very much.
And by the way, we are not going to turn over the National Guard Armory to you as we first agreed back then in August, either. We want $930,000 or the equivalent in TSC assets  Nor are we going to help you demolish the Jacob Brown Civic Center as Martinez had led you yokels to believe. It is something, Sossi said speaking for Martinez and the city commission, they do not feel they can reasonably do.
Whoever replaces Lozano must be a strong advocate for the community college and not be afraid to hold these weasels to their word. These examples are but the tip of the iceberg in the division of community property between such unequal adversaries.
In return for the 10.2 acre-tract, TSC trustees had to hand over the Neal and Young historical properties, and eat up the $400,000 (+) in renovations to the Kraiger House. In all, the city took the college district for more than $1.5 million or more while trying desperately to donate 70 acres gratis to the big boys at the UT System in Austin and to Garcia at UTB.
Martinez and the commission do not represent the interest of the citizens of Brownsville or the TSC district. They are bough-and-paid for stooges of the UT System. Why did Garcia not follow through on the construction of the botanical education center of the opening to the public of the George Kraiger house? Now as a result of her negligence and the negligence of prior TSC boards, this leaves the door open for scavengers like Martinez, Sossi, Garcia and the UT System to continue to pillage the community of its assets.
The TSC board must choose wisely in its appointment of a trustee to replace Lozano.