Wednesday, 23 July 2014, AUSTIN, TX - With attention of many focused elsewhere last week UT officials grabbed the perceived strategic opportunity to try and turn the tables by delaying and distracting attention on several fronts from the already long-approved drafting of articles of impeachment against presently serving Perry U-T Regent appointee Wallace Hall. These obvious subterfuges apparently spearheaded by three top U-T system officials reportedly not surprisingly soon descended into "clashes" with antagonized oversight committee lawmakers as the U-T officials in addition to widely publicized earlier acts in direct defiance of committee requests continued at the hearing repeatedly to attack the lawmakers with seemingly specious allegations of overreaching and outright misstatements reflecting a misunderstanding of the nature of the legal relationship between the Texas legislature on whose behalf the committee served and the U-T system Regents supposedly serving at someone's pleasure other than their own or the Governor's office.
In any case the distractions of attacks against lawmakers and other apparent time-wasting heated interchanges did succeed in further delaying the actual purpose of the hearing of moving forward with reaching conclusion on the specifics of drafting the previously overwhelmingly approved articles of impeachment of Wallace Hall in order to go forward with removing him from his position on the Board of Regents in the absence of his willingness to resign that position.
For the good of the UT system overall and the withdrawal from the spotlight of bad publicity particularly exacerbated by scrutiny of tensions with its flagship UT-Austin campus and President Bill Powers it has been reported that Mr. Wallace's colleague(s) have suggested that he resign his U-T Regent position from which he so far steadfastly has declined to resign (at least to those who so far have approached him) despite widespread allegations by Power supporters and other critics that Hall's actions have been manifestly inappropriate for a U-T Regent who one might expect to promote rather than detract from the public perception of their university (the role of Regent being one however which Hall previously has described in defending his alleged actions as apparently requiring active investigations into U-T matters in what he perceives to be the absence of others available in the U-T system more appropriately tasked with such "investigative"-type activities).
Regent Hall's activities to date publicly have been alleged to encompass a spectrum of improprieties including but not limited to those which have focused unwelcome and unproductive attention on the U-T system's apparent differences with what is after all its flagship university at Austin and what have been described as actions by Mr. Hall which are subject to investigation by the Travis County District Attorney's office including but not limited to "the release of confidential student information, bullying of campus officials and submitting onerous records requests" as described in the
San Antonio New-Express all with the ultimate purpose of doing the bidding on his appointment as a U-T Regent of Texas Idiot Governor Rick "Payback" Perry of getting rid of Bill Powers for reasons which we to date have not been able to confirm.
It would appear that the events leading up to the past week have in fact succeeded in accomplishing the objective of ridding UT-Austin of its popular President Bill Powers. At last week's hearing the UT officials reportedly aggressively attacked lawmakers by among other things distorting the reason for the lawmakers' seemingly reasonable request that officials refrain from making any "substantial personnel decision" because it would be inappropriate to do so pending resolution of current contentious issues.
These have included those which had been surrounding Bill Powers tenure and Wallace Hall's actions in relation thereto as well as questions regarding the conduct of Hall in what he apparently has understood to be his "official" capacity. His conduct to date in what he claims to understand to be his appropriate role as regent has resulted in the overwhelming vote in the Texas legislature for his impeachment as well as an increasingly long period without consequence to date given which there have been calls that Hall meanwhile be subjected to some other form of censure or reprimand also pending any criminal investigation's outcome by the Travis County District Attorney. In any case the next Texas Legislature's committee meeting on its overwhelming approval of the drafting of Wallace Hall's articles of impeachment apparently has been set for 11 August 2014.
Doubtless the greatest and perhaps best obscured irony by this not uncharacteristic Texas GOP state government fiasco is that in attacking the Texas House Select Committee in Transparency in State Agency Operations ("HSCTSAO" for those fond of acronyms but not having yet achieved the somewhat more refined elegance of Federal acronyms) is the actual outcome when one shovels away the filth that has been flung back and forth which they otherwise might "step in" but failing that has become so apparent one wonders whether they should laugh or cry. As Regents' Chairman Paul Foster lambasted the legislators for their "overreaching" in encroaching on the Regents territory he even went so far as to chastise the the legislative committee for attempting to do something so "offensive". Apparently on that basis alone it therefore merited no more discussion or answering of questions before the panel by the regents because as it turned out they not only ignored the legislators, they outright defied them and took it upon themselves in the midst of all the controversy and pending investigations to simply do their own analysis reaching the compelling (not to mention convenient) legal conclusion that "[i]t's our view that the Legislature has no authority at all to direct us on personnel matters".
Powerful stuff. This of course leaves open the question until their next scheduled opportunity to lambast the legislature if that personnel matter authority resides with everyone's favorite Governor who appointed them, with the regents (even when impeached), not to mention raises other fascinating questions such as whether they can employ children and women to work fifteen hours a day for ten cents an hour redeemable only at the Regent's "company store". Given all this drama it almost came as an afterthought that not as of last week there had been no "articles of impeachment" drafted pursuant to the "overwhelming vote" of the legislature as to Mr. Wallace. He once had been widely seen as "playing dirty" but now at least for the time being is a free man with a job which seems to include a lot of investigative work.
And lo and behold UT-Austin President Bill Powers in fact now has decided of his own free will to make Governor Perry and henchman Wallace Hall's dream come true as it was announced that Powers had decided to resign effective 15 June 2015. Powers apparently had been told to resign by UT System Chancellor Francisco Ciggaroa "or face a possible firing by the board of regents at its next meeting". Cigarroa nevertheless apparently adamantly denied that he had given Powers an "ultimatum". As for the great umbrage shown by top U-T system regents at the Texas legislature's attempts to interfere with its personnel decisions, Regents' Chairman Foster apparently did feel compelled despite all the strong words thrown at the legislators, including claims of overreaching and their causing "offense" purporting to direct the regents on "personnel matters" which directions were therefore ignored and the opposite actions taken, that it was only accurate that Mr. Foster did grant the panel that "only the legislature can forcibly remove a regent".
In perhaps some final counterpoint of sanity as if to balance out all else that was said and went before, Representative Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, did note that Powers resignation was "a travesty" . He further criticized the UT system's only known initiative other than ridding itself of President Bill Powers of its flagship UT-Austin campus, which was the regents pending investigation into admission practices to root out every outside influence over admissions which Larson simply described as "impossible and costly".
Copyright 2014 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
