BULLETIN:
A federal jury has ruled in favor of former Texas Southmost College president Lily Tercero, awarding her $600,000 in back-pay and $12.3 million in punitive damages.
Tercero's case was buttressed by former trustees Ed Rivera and Reynaldo Garcia when they testified that they believed the college’s former president was set up to be fired. It took the jury less than a day to reach a verdict.
TSC is expected to appeal the verdict.
As reported before in the Brownsville Herald, trustees fired Tercero in September 2016 for deliberately and recklessly failing to obtain windstorm insurance with board approval in compliance with state law; for allowing TSC checks to be stamped with signatures of people who were no longer trustees; for failing to timely search and fill the position of vice president for finance and administration; for failing to inform the board of the ailing nursing program and its pending suspension; for refusing a board member’s request that he personally sign and review checks in the amount of $10,000 or more and for not complying with a request for information sought by another member.
Tercero’s termination followed the renewal of her contract in May 2016 that was approved by the college’s board of trustees, prior to an election that changed the makeup and majority of the board, for an annual salary of $228,228 that would have expired on May 1, 2019.
Tercero's attorney called both Rivera and Garcia to the stand on behalf of Tercero and both men expressed that they believed Board Chair Adela Garza was out to get Tercero and that the outcome of the public hearing where Tercero was fired was decided before hand.
“I don’t see how anyone could not deduce that it was their intention to fire her,” Rivera, who did not sit on the board at the time of her termination, testified. Trustees stated their actions were made on the advice of legal counsel.
Garcia, who voted against firing Tercero, echoed those sentiments.
“It was already decided what was going to happen,” Garcia testified.
However, under cross examination by TSC’s attorney, Eduardo G. Garza, Garcia testified that no votes were taken during the 41-minute executive session deliberation prior to Tercero’s termination, and also said that he had made up his mind prior to the hearing that he would vote against firing Tercero.
Both men testified that it was Tercero’s obligation to inform the board of trustees and seek its approval for windstorm insurance renewal and Rivera testified that he never provided his consent for his stamped signature to be used after he left the board of trustees.