Faculty group to sue UT regents

A group representing faculty says it plans to file a lawsuit Wednesday asserting the University of Texas System’s governing board violated state law when it met behind closed doors before authorizing mass layoffs.

The Texas Faculty Association claims the system’s board of regents violated the Texas Open Meetings Act when it met in executive session Nov. 12 to deliberate issues resulting in layoffs at the University of Texas Medical Branch. The medical branch completed a reduction in force last week, ultimately dismissing 3,000 workers and stunning the community by firing some renowned researchers and surgeons.

‘Shocking Decision’

In an open meeting following the closed session, regents blamed the layoffs on financial losses of about $40 million a month at the medical branch after Hurricane Ike flooded the island campus Sept. 13, causing severe damage to John Sealy Hospital.

“We don’t know the basis of their decision since it was secretly deliberated in a closed session in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act,” said island attorney Joe Jaworski, who will file the lawsuit Wednesday in Galveston County district court.

“This lawsuit seeks to shine some much needed light on the regents’ shocking decision.”

UT System officials said Monday they could not comment on pending litigation.

But attorneys for the regents have said the governing board acted within legal bounds when it met in executive session.

At issue is what exactly the regents discussed in the executive session.

State law prohibits governing boards from deliberating about classes of employees in executive session.

But the law allows executive session deliberations about an individual employee unless the subject of the discussion requests a public hearing.

State law also allows governing boards in closed session to discuss legal ramifications of its contemplated actions.

Although regents convened in open session to authorize the layoffs, the public discussion wasn’t sufficient for such a monumental decision, Jaworski said.

If regents discussed individual cases, as is allowed, they never informed some faculty members who were among 127 laid off last week.

‘Rules And Regulations’

“Such discussion of individual employees was a very small part of the executive session and covered only a very few administrative employees,” Francie Frederick, general counsel to the board, said in a written response to Daily News inquiries last week.

The Open Meetings Act does not require an employee or officer be given individual notice of an executive session in which that person will be discussed, Frederick said.

“Further, while certain employees are afforded due process rights by the Regents’ Rules and Regulations, other law, or under contract that would have required notice (e.g., tenured faculty members subject to termination for cause), and without revealing specifics or discussions at the Nov. 12 meeting, the status of the individual employees who were discussed during executive session and the substance of the discussions regarding those employees did not trigger such notice requirements,” Frederick said.

Finally, the regents discussed a variety of topics and permitted issues in executive session that day, some of which had nothing to do with layoffs at the medical branch, Frederick said. Regents received advice on legal issues related to the reduction of the work force, such as the legal rights of potentially affected employees, the legality of prospective benefits that might be offered laid-off employees and legal notification requirements to employees, Frederick said.

Shining Light

The whole point of exceptions under the Texas Open Meetings Act is to prevent embarrassment of individual employees, Jaworski said.

“It’s not to shield embarrassment of the legislative body seeking to hide its motive,” he said.

The aim of the lawsuit is to move the regents to reverse their decision and return the medical branch to its pre-Ike capacity and to reveal what was discussed in the executive session, Jaworski said.

“What I hope is this shines light on their true motivations, and I hope it causes the board of regents to reconsider its decision,” Jaworski said.

‘Vicious, Cruel’

Laying off 3,000 of the 8,000 people working at the medical branch’s island campus staggered a city already reeling from a catastrophic hurricane.

The medical branch, the county’s largest employer, is home to the state’s oldest medical school and had operated a 550-bed hospital known for treating thousands of indigent patients from across the state.

“It is a vicious, cruel, immoral and abusive attack on thousands of loyal UTMB employees who have already been traumatized by Hurricane Ike,” said Texas Faculty Association Executive Director Tom Johnson.

“The decision is guaranteed to render increasing illnesses and may even increase deaths among the noninsured Galveston population — a population that UTMB has been attempting to abandon for years as unprofitable.”