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U.S. FIFTH CT. OF APPEALS REJECTS AGUILAR, CORTEZ, COLUNGA AND ZAYAS PETITION FOR REHEARING ON QUALIFIED IMMUNITY IN ANTONIO JUAREZ LAWSUIT
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By<b> Juan Montoya</b><br />The U.S. Fifth Court of Appeals has yet again rejected a motion by defendants Rolando Aguilar, Ruben Cortez, Joe Colunga and Rick Zayas be denied qualified immunity in the lawsuit filed against by former Brownsville Independent School District Chief Financial Officer Antonio Juarez.<br />Aguilar and Colunga are still trustees of the BISD. Zayas and Cortez were defeated in the elections of the district the last go-round of elections.<br />The rejection for the rehearing was filed Friday.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-XfscMRBkENnXLgZTAQSKZnc8YoHRmBWsp3NTanGBcdrPZPordIUj_H4ytNShN8bLzN46ZKtTN3P5eQMeYlQ-s-qn1jnE1enMRrrW4iAQsrWtEHq35G9NJ3Dr-jwH59l_GBNTxniRF94/s1600/threesome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-XfscMRBkENnXLgZTAQSKZnc8YoHRmBWsp3NTanGBcdrPZPordIUj_H4ytNShN8bLzN46ZKtTN3P5eQMeYlQ-s-qn1jnE1enMRrrW4iAQsrWtEHq35G9NJ3Dr-jwH59l_GBNTxniRF94/s320/threesome.jpg" width="320" /></a>The judges, without comment, simply checked off the square by the notation that read: The petition for rehearing is DENIED and no member of this panel nor judge in regular active service on the court having requested that the court be polled on rehearing en banc.<br />The four, as individually and in their official capacity, must now go to trial in federal court on the allegations raised by Juarez that he was fired after he went to the FBI and other federal authorities to complain about bid rigging on a Stop-Loss insurance contract for the self-insured district. Federal Judge Andrew Hanen denied the four defendants their request that they receive qualified immunity on Juarez's charges.<br />Previously, the same appeals court had denied the four their appeal on Hanen's order denying the four immunity for their acts surrounding the Juarez firing. Nonetheless, attorneys for the district's insurance company went ahead with their appeal.<br />This second denial, according to some observers, means that the case will now go forward toward an eventual trial and verdict unless a settlement is reached with the four defendants and/or the carries of their insurance policy. The BISD is also named as a defendant because the four were acting in their official capacity.<br />Juarez started working for the BISD as its CFO in the fall of 2008. One of his duties was to make insurance recommendations to the BISD board of trustees. On Sept. 16, Juarez recommended that the district select AAG as its Stop-Loss carrier.<br />At the heart of the dispute is Juarez's claim that he was demoted and ultimately terminated from employment by the BISD and the defendants personally because he recommend that the board award Health Smart (AGG) the district's $40 million Stop Loss Insurance po<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7IXIdbbLI0UKzEzLcVvsf3TekyqSOiA5E6r8ZGOdIt_E0jgeOn-4Ss7NxSXgro9eErsfSm0EER2GdExx-Rdt5kwv3XQiIpophOkygGUBEN1raq1ikKFoE24AmC9IcOF8uW-bVG-zGsLI/s1600/colunga.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659298976073430178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7IXIdbbLI0UKzEzLcVvsf3TekyqSOiA5E6r8ZGOdIt_E0jgeOn-4Ss7NxSXgro9eErsfSm0EER2GdExx-Rdt5kwv3XQiIpophOkygGUBEN1raq1ikKFoE24AmC9IcOF8uW-bVG-zGsLI/s320/colunga.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 216px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 179px;" /></a>licy instead of to Oklahoma-based Mutual Assurance Administrators, Inc.<br />On Aug. 12, trustees awarded that contract for the 2009-2010 to MAA for $181,275 per month and can be worth as much as $40 million.<br />The local broker of the insurance company was none other than majority supporter and insurance mogul Johnny Cavazos.<br />According to testimony in deposition by former BISD superintendent Hector Gonzales, three of the defendants (Colunga, Aguilar and Cortez) accused Juarez of misinforming the board regarding the recommendation. Two of the trustees (Cortez andf Colunga) were adamantly opposed to the AAG recommendation, and after the meeting, both Colunga and Cortez met with Gonzales and said that they were lied to by Juarez. Gonzales said he would "look into it."<br />Then, in the following meeting, Cortez requested a consent item be placed on the agenda. The item was described as "discussion and possible action related to the apparent misinformation directed to the BSD board members at the last regularly scheduled meeting."<br />After the November meeting, Gonzales spoke with Juarez. Gonzales told him that the board "was upset with him, and that (Gonzales) was to terminate hi<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-UV8oOpy05i7Y_TDa6PG_rtU51r37Q6v276lNWdS5fxrXHxfJsnRGdkzqnO8CiCeS07lxG73lSYdAF8gPBuvYMiq_KkYG0nfBtph6DxJp4k5yaMSbQkCiDpSFU9d1D1ORpjWQlelNHk/s1600/aguilar.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659298854278107570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-UV8oOpy05i7Y_TDa6PG_rtU51r37Q6v276lNWdS5fxrXHxfJsnRGdkzqnO8CiCeS07lxG73lSYdAF8gPBuvYMiq_KkYG0nfBtph6DxJp4k5yaMSbQkCiDpSFU9d1D1ORpjWQlelNHk/s320/aguilar.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 239px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 177px;" /></a>m" or else Gonzales would "suffer consequences."<br />To make the long sordid story short, both Gonzales and Juarez were ultimately terminated with the district and both sued.<br />The core defense of the four former trustees is that they hadn't cast a vote that could be traced to have had resulted in an "adverse employment decision" for Juarez and therefore they could no be held liable.<br />This reasoning was roundly rejected by the court which stated that "Even if an adverse governmental decision does not reach a formal vote, the 'final decision maker' responsible for that adverse employment decision is subject to individual liability if their decision was motivated by impermissible considerations."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-2542755673467429477?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/02/us-fifth-ct-of-appeals-rejects-aguilar.html
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ANOTHER BROWNTOWN LANDMARK GOES UNDER THE WRECKING BALL
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By <b>Juan Montoya</b><br />For years the building on the corner of 14th Street and E. Tyler Street has served as a magnet for the residents low-income neighborhood who would awake every morning to the aroma of fresh<i> pan dulce </i>wafting from the squat green building with the painting of Aguilas de America soccer star Cuahutemoc Blanco and the gold and blue colors of the Mexico City soccer club.<br />And, like other landmarks in the area like the old Serrata Grocery store and other neighborhood businesses, the<i> El Puerto </i>Bakery is going the way of the mom-and-pop stores of yore.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKWR6_0p4dfQqUsxPPjcG3bzLjpKVlPzH_asSXIdwI_16waJBMH5kn2D4ImObAAL3kilVSsU8Gh7o1kST520eax8M8uIUcgsj-8y8HOMy23stjrVWx90umduO9NUXUuLHp1G2OEH_MWs/s1600/el+puerto+bakery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKWR6_0p4dfQqUsxPPjcG3bzLjpKVlPzH_asSXIdwI_16waJBMH5kn2D4ImObAAL3kilVSsU8Gh7o1kST520eax8M8uIUcgsj-8y8HOMy23stjrVWx90umduO9NUXUuLHp1G2OEH_MWs/s400/el+puerto+bakery.jpg" width="400" /></a>"They started taking tearing it down a few weeks ago but the weather has slowed them down," said housing project resident who lives just across the street. "For years we've been buying sweet bread and tortillas from <i>El Puerto </i>and barbacoa on Sundays. We're going to have to go somewhere else now."<br />A part of the problem with <i>El Puerto </i>was the ongoing problems associated with running a food establishment in an old building. As the building deteriorated, it exposed itself to the potential for health department citations. In the end, it was the city that ordered that the owners to shut the building when they couldn't maintain the bakery up to municipal sanitation standards.<br />Still, to residents used to living in homes where they battle roaches, mosquitoes, and other pests on a daily basis, the service provided by the corner bakery will be missed.<br />"We knew the owners on a personal basis and it got to the point where they just weren't making enough profit to compete with the larger businesses that started selling sweet bread like the chain grocery stores like HEB, Wal-Mart, and others," said a resident of the neighborhood. It's not going to be the same without <i>El Puerto </i>here." <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-4287625809483168262?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/02/another-browntown-landmark-goes-under.html
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WITH HEALTHSMART SUIT DITCHED, WHY THE HALF-PAGE ARTICLE? AND A CUSTODAIL DEATH REPORT THAT JUST RAISES MORE QUESTIONS
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />With the spate of self-serving articles recently in the Brownsville Herald, it is difficult to decide on which one to focus on first.<br />Should we comment on the half-page article on dismissal of the HealthSmart lawsuit written by Gary (too long) Long?<br />Or should we be content with dissecting the self-serving Brownsville Police Dept.'s custodial death report on Javier Gonzalez, the Cummings Middle School 15-year-old gunned down by two police sharpshooters?<br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrKKfmSHLdoRceBwIkK4MfgwQ3niKZwRmsmuCNeHFEw50c1GHcLHNXICRbSPO51p-KIcZcXG1u_NnrtOp_kQmkYInd6XtJxL9iKz46WYjhBUCOurqw9XqDEXymxqHTvnNbojEORE22Cg/s1600/Medical-Tourism-Goes-Under-The-Microscope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrKKfmSHLdoRceBwIkK4MfgwQ3niKZwRmsmuCNeHFEw50c1GHcLHNXICRbSPO51p-KIcZcXG1u_NnrtOp_kQmkYInd6XtJxL9iKz46WYjhBUCOurqw9XqDEXymxqHTvnNbojEORE22Cg/s1600/Medical-Tourism-Goes-Under-The-Microscope.jpg" yda="true" /></a>In the Long piece (sorry, couldn't help myself), the intrepid reporter was content to quote just about everyone not satisfied that the suit against Ted Parker's health service outfit was dismissed after the new majority on the board heeded the BISD counsel that it was a dubious proposition that the district would recoup some $14 million in alleged "overcharges."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Joe Coluga, one of the trustees who went along with the old majority of Rick Zayas, Ruben Cortez, Rolando Aguilar and Minerva Peña, to file the lawsuit and kept on former BISD counsel Mike Saldaña to ride the gravy train in litigation fees just one more time, was the point man leading this charge and saying that the litigation (on a contingency basis) should continue. Saldaña, eyeing the ned of the ride, also piped in with a script-written defense of the litigation of which he, of course, would be a beneficiary.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"With all respect to the current counsel, I stand by the merits of this case," Saldaña waxed eloquently from is Herald-provided soapbox.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"It is unfortunate that the district chose to dismiss this matter, with which, in my opinion, a substantial monetary recovery was realistically obtainable...It is obvious that the board's motivation in dismissing the HealthSmart matter was something other than an objective analysis of the case."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">In all the years that I have witnessed the meetings of the board now and in the past, that was about the longest statemetn that i have ever sen or read by our esteemed Messr. Saldaña. Obviously, he was given the opportunity to think long and hard to find the right words to buttress Colunga's statement about the amounts that "allegedly were overbilled by HealthSmart."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">In the fifth paragraph of the half-page opus on the case, Long states that "critics contend that the lawsuit's dismissal amounts to a quid pro quo for board members who received help in the election from "HealthSmart interests."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">However, weasel-tongued Long fails to identify these so-called "interests" in any part of the story, instead injecting in the next-to-last paragraph of the last column that "according to campaign finance reports previously reported by the <em>Brownsville Herald</em>, (now board president Enrique) Escobedo reported receiving $1,500 on Aug. 8, 2008 from Parker."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">That lone reported political contribution to one board member hardly qualifies as "quid pro quo" for the majority of the seven-member board to vote to dismiss the lawsuit, does it?</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">So why was the story even written?</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">On to the shooting by the cops of the 15-year-old. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">If you read the "custodial report" written by the cop shop, it leaves no doubt in your mind that the officers shot the kid trying to protect another student some 15 feet away in the hallway. Now, remember, none of this came out in the police department's initial report on the shooting that day. What did come out was that police officers at the PD had attempted to get his step mom to sign a waiver of responsibility absolving the police officers involved in the shooting.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Taking that as background, it is apparent that from day one, the output of the department and city officials has been to protect the interest of the department an the police. And while the final report that would include the surveillance video inside the school is still being withheld at the city's request, no one will ever really know just what happened on that tragic day until that is made public.</div>Until then, all we have received is a decidedly one-sided version of the local boys in blue. Unfortunately, this is not enough.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-1154685121193994890?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/02/with-healthsmart-suit-ditched-why-half.html
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CAMERON COUNTY REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS A STRANGE BREW
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />A friend of mine recently visited from the Midwest and was intrigued by the proliferation of political signs dotting just about every street corner in Brownsville.<br />He was even more puzzled when i told him that while most of the candidates were local Democrats,a smattering of them whose signs bore the <em>elefantito</em> symbol were Republicans. Since Tony Garza was elected as Cameron County Judge in teh 1980s â€" the first Republican since Reconstruction â€" it has been almost necessary to keep a scorecard to tell the difference between the parties.<br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyXSPjSvVsKbGfJ6-AvtAnbgkG7U0QsvmI2V8_A2dsuQAonHT6jDOcohrOP-4RUyaUsPcbz9_MpCb66q8KtH0c0O7Y302G48Aki4OJhqQ9c1uchP1ToFgFAyDkS4aLdVs-av3m8ZVwgtM/s1600/notdumbenough.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyXSPjSvVsKbGfJ6-AvtAnbgkG7U0QsvmI2V8_A2dsuQAonHT6jDOcohrOP-4RUyaUsPcbz9_MpCb66q8KtH0c0O7Y302G48Aki4OJhqQ9c1uchP1ToFgFAyDkS4aLdVs-av3m8ZVwgtM/s400/notdumbenough.jpg" width="400" yda="true" /></a>For example, I told him, three of the sitting Democrats on the Cameroun County Commissioners Court sided with Garza when he ran against Ray Ramon. As a result, Garza pulled off the upset of the centuy. Once in officer, and through good work, Garza easily won reelection and then went ton to bigger and better things such as being the chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission and later, appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico by George W. Bush.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">But it doesn't stop there, I told him.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Rolando Olvera, a district judge appointed twice before by Texas Gov. Rick Perry (a Republican), to serve out two unfinished terms changed parties after he lost running under the GOP banner. He took a the Democratic pledge before his former political enemies and was elected into office. He was even welcomed to the fold by red-bone Democratic chairman Gilbert Hinojosa.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Still followign this?</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">How about current county judge Carlos Cascos? The twice-elected county judge rrecently hosted a fundraiser for Cameron County Tax-Assessor Collector Tony Yzaguire (a Democrat). Cascos' race against Democratic standard bearer (supported by Hinojosa) was a nail biter with results delayed for a month before Cascos eked out the win. In between there were dark rumors of late-nigh vote changing, recounts,missing ballots, rediscovered ballots, you name it!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">This incongruency led Republican chairman Frank Morris to throw up his hands in despair and shake his head and was heard murmuring that: "Carlos has never forgotten he was once a Democrat."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">There is a distinctly different stripe of party affiliation in this neck of the woods, for sure. The slogan to vote for the man (and woman), and not the party, has replaced the call to vote for the "palanca" of the Democrtas. How else can you explain that Filemon Vela, said to be contemplating entering the new congressional district as a Democrat has a wife said to be considering entering the same race as a Republican?</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">At this my friend also threw up his hands in disbelief.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em>"Estan todos locos aqui</em>," he said.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-5133210753644315321?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/02/cameron-county-republicans-and.html
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