Lawsuit against DCCCD over free speech violations and gender discrimination end

A federal lawsuit involving Mountain View College President Dr. Felix A. Zamora and former Vice President if Instruction Dr. Matilda Saenz has come to a close after a nearly year-long court battle.

The Dallas County Community College District Board of Trustees approved a settlement agreement in the case of Dr. Matilda Saenz v. DCCCD in the April 5 board meeting.

The board went into executive session to discuss the agreement with the district's attorney, Robert Young. When they reconvened in open meeting, the board voted to approve the settlement. The details of the agreement have not been published for public record.

Saenz could not discuss the terms of the agreement due to "rules of confidentiality" and she would not comment on the specifics of the case.

However, she did say that she is looking for "re-employment in higher education administration."

Saenz was hired to MVC in 2004 and she filed the suit against the district on April 13, 2010, less than three weeks after Zamora suspended her.

The suit was filed in response to Zamora, who allegedly made "efforts to damage and/or harm Plaintiff's leadership and competence and to continually retaliate, harass, and/or otherwise cause harm to Plaintiff in every way he possibly could," according to the Plaintiff's Original Complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.  Zamora has been MVC's president since 2004 and he is currently chairing the search for Richland College's president.

According to the complaint, she sued the district "for federal and state constitutional and/or statutory violations, for breach of contract, and under the Federal Declaratory Judgment Act."Of the claims filed, Saenz accuses Zamora of violating her freedom of speech and due process, and of discriminating her because of her sex.

Zamora and Dr. Wright Lassiter, chancellor of DCCCD, both did not respond to phone calls and messages left at their offices.

Saenz and all five instructional deans of MVC sent Zamora an electronic memorandum "regarding fiduciary concerns and the potential impact on student learning" which would result from a proposed 2.5 percent budget cut for the budgets of each academic division" in addition to a reduction of $150,000 directed by the Vice President of Business Services for Mountain View, Sharon Davis, according to the Factual Background in the complaint.

Lassiter was copied on the memorandum, which was sent on May 26, 2009. Upon receiving the memorandum, Zamora called and left a message asking Saenz to call him back. Saenz was out of town at the time attending the closing ceremonies for the National Institute of Staff and Organizational Development conference in Austin.

When Saenz got in touch with Zamora, he reportedly called her and the other deans "hysterical" and said that her actions "bordered in insubordination." As Zamora heard Saenz's rationale for the memorandum, he yelled, "I don't care."

Later, in a meeting between the Vice President of Instruction Staff at Mountain View on June 3, 2009, the court documents say Zamora "acted unprofessionally and conducted himself in behavior unbecoming of a college president." Soon after the meeting, Zamora gave Saenz a negative evaluation and placed her on a Performance Improvement Plan. Before this, Saenz had received exemplary evaluations for four full years.

In July, following the first graduation ceremony for the Instructional Administrative Institute, which Saenz chaired, her husband, Ruben, was told that his contract would not be renewed. On July 30, 2009, he received written notice of this news. The complaint suggests that the non-renewal of his contract came without warning suspiciously soon after the memorandum was sent to Zamora.

The complaint continues to say that Zamora retaliated against Saenz by denying her professional development opportunities which she was involved in the past (such as the annual Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education 2010 Conference), not preparing her for meetings by not providing agendas, and forcing her to send administrator-in-charge email notifications whenever she was out of the office sick or for a meeting.

Saenz filed a grievance against Zamora on Nov. 30, 2009 along with a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission "based upon perceived gender discrimination and other retaliatory actions taken by Zamora." According to the Second Amended Complaint, on "November 16, 2009, Defendant's Human Resources Department and Legal Counsel informed Plaintiff that she could not pursue this grievance…".

Finally on March 26, 2010, Zamora informed Saenz that she was immediately suspended and that she was to remove all of her belongings and clear out of the school that day.

The district motioned for partial dismissal of three of Saenz's claims and sent an answer to the Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint.

DCCCD admitted that Zamora received the memorandum entitled "Budget Implications for Instruction at Mountain View College." The district also admits that upon contacting Saenz, Zamora said that "Plaintiff's actions ‘bordered on insubordination'" and he may have responded, "I don't care" after hearing her rationale for the email. Zamora also indicated that the memorandum was "not appreciated."

In response to the allegations of the termination Ruben Saenz's contract, the district pointed out that "Plaintiff's husband was an ‘at will' District employee who was hired as a Program Grant Coordinator and classified as professional support staff." 

The district continues to say that Saenz did not attend professional development opportunities due to her "failure to observe appropriate procedures for attending such events" or because she chose not to attend the conferences.