ZAYAS FROM HARLINGEN NOW? CONFLICT? WHAT CONFLICT? NOT TO BROWNSVILLE HERALD OR NEWSHOUND GARY LONG

By Juan Montoya
From the very beginning of the story written by Rick Zayas-Ruben Cortez megaphone Gary Long of the Brownsville Herald, readers who are unaware of the byzantine world of intrigue within the Brownsville Independent School District were led down a deceptive path designed to obscure some obvious facts.

The first was that Zayas, the attorney representing former Athletic Director Joe Rodriguez and Tom Chavez was his successor – since reassigned as Rivera High School football coach – is from Harlingen.
Now, those of us who pass by his law office at his dad's Joe Zayas' former office on 14th Street still see him doing business out of there. And as far as we now, his wife still works at the federal courthouse with the probation office in Brownsville.

Until recently – when he was arrested for trying to drive away from a Brownsville Police officer – he still listed his home in Brownsville. Unless he has moved lock-stock-and-barrel recently and didn't tell anybody, as far as anyone knows Rick is from Browntown.

Another fact obscured in both the article and the lawsuit itself, is that trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia is not a defendant in this case.Rather, it's forensic auditor Danny Defenbaugh and Associates, who performed the audit on several departments in the BISD.

And, of course, the timing of this lawsuit is another glaring red flag conveniently ignored by the Zayas-Cortez hero-worshiper Long. The results of the forensic audit by Defenbaugh were issued way back in February. Why the lawsuit now, more than six months after it was issued and only two months before the November elections when Presas-Garcia is up for reelection?

Another pertinent fact is that Zayas cannot possibly represent these men for the simple reason that he was a sitting trustee during the time that some of the actions alleged in the lawsuit took place. Moreover, he was one of the trustees in the majority composed of himself, Ruben Cortez, Joe Colunga, and Rolando Aguilar who buried the Rodriguez scholarship foundation audit report and tried to prevent the public from having access to it. That was the basis of the first Rodriguez lawsuit against Presas-Garcia with Big Joe claiming that her handing of the two incriminating audits to the local district attorney was part of a vendetta she had against him. If we remember correctly, the board – with Zayas himself as a trustee – paid attorneys to fight the Texas Attorney General's decision that the contents of the audit were public documents and should be released to the private citizen who requested them and to the local daily who filed a Freedom of Information request to get them.

Someone who has been so intimately involved in the process from which the lawsuit originated cannot possibly represent a litigant who indirectly is basing his lawsuit on some of his own decisions. We're not lawyers here, of course, but there does appear to be some teeny-weeny bit of a conflict of interest, don't you think?

Presas-Garcia's admonition to both men, and specially to Rodriguez, to "let it go..he's got too much in the closet..." should be heeded.

For example, not too many people knew that as part of his negotiations with Brett Springsteen for his separation from the BISD, Rodriguez got the district to agree to his condition that he be allowed to select his replacement, the next BISD athletic director.

That, of course, was Tom Chavez. Chavez, Springsteen and Zayas knew, had no management training to take over the position. He was soon reassigned to coach a football team, his true calling in life.

Another concession by the district was to give him a nice $90,000 send-off to exit stage right and make no fuss.

Instead, Rodriguez got into the sports-equipment vendor business and worked a nice deal from Chavez for the purchase of sports uniforms to Valley Memorial High School and Manzano Middle School from the company he now represented, BNS.

The investigation by forensic auditor Defenbaugh and Associates cites the following in the report made to the BISD board:

"Investigation and analysis subsequently revealed that a substantial amount of payments of uniforms and equipment totaling $497,117 in fiscal year 2010-2011 was completed compared to the previous fiscal years (2009-2010) total of $175,715; an increase of 283 percent...

"Although Chavez denied giving preferential treatment to BNS and/or Joe Rodriguez in the purchasing process for both schools, Chavez never gave any due consideration to at least three other approved vendors sports distributors."

In other words, the customary (and mandated) bidding process seems to have been circumvented in this case.

For that Rodriguez and Chavez say they want another $1 million to compensate them for damages and mental anguish.

Observers are unanimous in the conclusion that the lawsuit may never see a courtroom and – like the Rodriguez lawsuit against Presas-Garcia for releasing audits of his scholarship foundation – will die an ignominious death.

But it isn't really the lawsuit they want, is it?

With barely two months left before the November election, they hope that having Megaphone Long blast their allegations far and wide without any critical analysis of their merits they can poison the political atmosphere and get Caty out of their way so they can get a pliant board elected like they had when the former majority with their attorney Zayas in control gave them everything they wanted.