Reporters looking into some nose-thumbing by the chairman of the board of trustees of Texas Southmost College in Brownsville are wondering whether that thumb got stuck in the eye of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
At the very least, it seems thumb-wielding chairman Francisco "Kiko" Rendon arranged a public meeting in a way that ensured three trustees would not be part of it, Joe Larsen, an attorney with Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, told the Brownsville Herald in a story today.
The three trustees in question had on Feb. 17 been on the losing end of a 4-3 vote to move Texas Southmost College toward independence from the University of Texas at Brownsville. The majority vote, led by Rendon, was a departure from a partnership agreement between the two schools in effect since 1991 and extended for another 99 years in 2000.
RENDON
Four days later Rendon and the other majority board members, Juan “Trey” Mendez, Adela Garza and Rene Torres, met with a consultant who was to direct the Southmost College transition. Two of the three minority trustees, David Oliveira and Robert Robles, say they were not told about the meeting. The third, Robert Lozana, did not respond to a telephone message Rendon says he left for Lozana.
The appearance of a majority of the board together constituted a quorum, which constituted a public meeting with all of the public notification requirements included in the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Only these board members say they weren’t together that day, but that they met separately with the consultant and were certain that at no time did they constitute a quorum. Later, in an e-mail, Lozano told Rendon he thought the trustees deliberately met with the consultant in the way they did, a tactic called a rolling quorum, to skirt the open meetings law.
Rendon says the move to split with UT-Brownsville has been divisive and that he believed he had done nothing wrong. “I’ve got a bullseye on my back like no other chairman of the board before,” Rendon told the Herald.
Larsen says that while there may not have been a direct violation of the Open Meetings Act, “there appears to be some sort of discriminatory action against the minority board members.”
At the very least, it seems thumb-wielding chairman Francisco "Kiko" Rendon arranged a public meeting in a way that ensured three trustees would not be part of it, Joe Larsen, an attorney with Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, told the Brownsville Herald in a story today.
The three trustees in question had on Feb. 17 been on the losing end of a 4-3 vote to move Texas Southmost College toward independence from the University of Texas at Brownsville. The majority vote, led by Rendon, was a departure from a partnership agreement between the two schools in effect since 1991 and extended for another 99 years in 2000.
RENDONThe appearance of a majority of the board together constituted a quorum, which constituted a public meeting with all of the public notification requirements included in the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Only these board members say they weren’t together that day, but that they met separately with the consultant and were certain that at no time did they constitute a quorum. Later, in an e-mail, Lozano told Rendon he thought the trustees deliberately met with the consultant in the way they did, a tactic called a rolling quorum, to skirt the open meetings law.
Rendon says the move to split with UT-Brownsville has been divisive and that he believed he had done nothing wrong. “I’ve got a bullseye on my back like no other chairman of the board before,” Rendon told the Herald.
Larsen says that while there may not have been a direct violation of the Open Meetings Act, “there appears to be some sort of discriminatory action against the minority board members.”
***
Editor’s Note: Attorney Joe Larsen’s firm is on retainer for Texas Watchdog, and Larsen has provided us with legal services.
Editor’s Note: Attorney Joe Larsen’s firm is on retainer for Texas Watchdog, and Larsen has provided us with legal services.
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.
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