LIZ REALTY, BISD GENERAL COUNSEL LINKED TO FAKE PAC

By Juan Montoya

The address listed by the treasurer of the Brownsville Taxpayers Political Action Committee (PAC) used as a front to campaign against incumbent Place 5 Brownsville Independent School District trustee Caty Presas-Garcia has revealed a link to Baltazar Salazar,  the district's general counsel.

The PAC listed Juan Fores Leal as its treasurer with a "residence or business" address listed on its October 11 campaign finance report to the Texas Ethics Commission at 925 N. Iowa, in Brownsville.

That turned out to be an empty lot that has a sign indicating it was being offered for sale by the Marser Corp. through Liz Realty and its listing agent Lenny Vera.
The Cameron County Appraisal District lists the owner of the N. Iowa property as Marser with its corporate office address at 7941 Southmost Road.
A visit to the Southmost address indicates that
the house there is up for sale, and has a  Liz Realty sign in front of the house and property.

Lenny Vera is married to Liz Vera, the owner of the realty company. Liz Vera, in turn, is the sister of BISD general counsel Baltazar Salazar.

How was it that the listings of Liz Realty owned by the sister of the BISD's general counsel ended up being linked to the treasurer of the Brownsville Taxpayer PAC?
There is no indication that Marser Corp. or its officers or staff had any knowledge that its listings on Liz Realty would end up linked to the anti-Presas-Garcia PAC.

In its short existence, Brownsville Taxpayer PAC created a Facebook page and paid for an expensive and slick mass mail out directed at voters of the BISD where Presas-Garcia is blamed for costly lawsuits in the district. The mass mailing does not indicate the source of the figures it quotes nor the link between the realty company and its listed treasurer.

An examination of the Texas Ethics Commission website on Friday opened up a campaign finance page that identified its treasurer, his address, the address of the PAC office, and the amount of contributions and expenditures it had made.
The PAC reported its treasurer was Flores, with the N. Iowa Ave. address.
 The mailing address given for the PAC office was 400 E. Alton Gloor, Ste. B, #222. that turned out to be a Pro Pack and Ship, a Fed Ex franchise where one can also rent mailbox addresses.

Workers there refused to identify the person who had rented the box with the #222. There is no evidence that the business had any role in the PAC's potentially illegal activity.
The Ethics Commission account number for the PAC was listed as Acct. # 80081082.

Curiously, just about an hour after we first visited the page using both the PAC name and the account number, the page was identified as being empty.
Just this morning, after inquiries were made to the TEC on Friday by the office of the Texas Secretary of State, the campaign finance report of the PAC reappeared. (See graphic, click to enlarge.)
The PAC had reported zero contributions and expenditures on October 11, 2016, the last reporting period.

So who paid for the design, printing and mail delivery of the mail out? Which ad company was paid for designing the mail out? What company printed them and who paid the U.S. Postal Service for delivering the negative campaign material?

Numerous BSD voters in Brownsville have reported received the PAC's asking them to reject Presas-Garcia's reelection. (See graphic at right.)
It is no secret that there is no love lost between Salazar and Presas-Garcia. She voted against the district hiring his firm citing the lack of the law firm's education law experience compared with the other applicants.

He, in a bizarre confrontation, accused her of making sexual advances on him in the district main office's parking lot. Later, when Salazar and several board members tried to censure her (and censor) and former trustee Lucy Longoria, both sued on First Amendment grounds and defamation and a federal dismissed the fee speech rights part of the lawsuit but retained the defamation part against several trustees and Salazar. He has also made political contributions to at least one of Presas-Garcia's opponents, Laura Perez-Reyes.

Campaign finance reports indicate that Salazar  has contributed generously to Perez-Reyes. On August 1, she reported receiving a $2,000 cash contribution from the general counsel. Then, on Sept. 6, she reported that he again gave her another $2,000.

Salazar earns $264,000 a year after trustees – with only Presas-Garcia voting against – gave him a 25,000 raise in June and extended his contract for another three years.

And even though his contract contains a clause prohibiting him from contributing to his employees in exchange for a benefit, he has also contributed $2,429 to incumbent Minerva Peña this election cycle and contributed thousands to trustee Cesar Lopez for his reelection in the past election.

This new potential link to the attacks upon Presas-Garcia where the address of the fake PAC treasurer is one of his sister's real-estate company's property listings opens up new insights on his role in the BISD elections. Has the setting of the fake PAC finally gone over the line?