IN SALAZAR'S CASE: YOU DON'T GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

By Juan Montoya
There are two interesting items for discussion and possible action in tomorrow's Brownsville Independent School District meeting.
Both have to do with the job being done for the district by attorney Baltazar Salazar who was hired just five months ago.
So far, the BISD has paid Salazar $100,000 at $20,000 a month. And now that a majority of the board chose at the meeting held on September 17, 2013 to hold only one regular meeting per month rather than two, Baltazar will get paid the same for half the work.
The meeting where the two items – placed on the agenda by trustee Lucy Longoria – are:
17. Discussion, consideration and possible action regarding Board Attorney billing. (Board Member Request – LL)
18. Discussion, consideration and possible action regarding Board Attorney’s Board approved contract. (Board Member Request – LL)
These are interesting themes since – if you recall – it was the soaring number of due process cases against the BISD Special Needs Department that triggered the firing of then-department head Art Rendon. Rendon had found that the due-process cases were being filed at wholesale volumes and then the attorneys representing the students (and the district) were making a mint milking them. Whereas the settlements reached might have totaled some piddling amount like $3,000 to perhaps $10,000, the lawyers were stretching them out and billing the district as much as $20,000 a pop.
In other words, Rendon likened the due-process scam as lawyers using the district as their personal ATM.
When Salazar was hired by the majority of the BISD board (Minerva Peña, Enrique Escobedo, Otis Powers ad Jose Chirinos) they chose to ignore the fact that he lacked qualifications to deal with Special Needs issues. This majority on the board chose to replace Thompson and Horton, of Houston with Salazar even though the former legal representatives not only had more experience representing school districts, but also specialized in stemming the hemorrhage caused by Special Needs due-process cases.
Salazar, whose claim to fame seems to be his personal relation to trustee Peña, is in fact farming out the work in the areas where he lacks expertise, including the Special Needs due-process cases. We are in the process of acquiring his referrals to other firms, but if our suspicions prove correct, it seems that he has gone to Thompson and Horton and farmed out the work dealing with the Special Needs department. In other words, he is going to the firm he was hired to replace and paying them to do the work.
Salazar let us know early in the game that he believed that he could refer cases as he saw fit without the benefit of telling the board what he was doing. The first indication was his transferring of files having to do with refiling the HealthSmart litigation to a McAllen attorney without even consulting with the board for their approval. He merely presented the fact as a fait accompli.
We have also filed an information request for the contract he holds with the district to see whether he has complied with the letter and spirit of the compact.
When he first appeared before the board to plead for the work, he lamented the fact that the district was spending loads of cash on litigation and outside referrals. Now it seems that he may be doing that very thing without going through the board for its approval. If in fact he lacks the expertise to represent the district in a few areas (as his resume indicates he does), perhaps the contract should be revisited and a new agreement be worked out where he is paid only for the work he performs on a contractual basis. Twenty thousand a month to attend one meeting (or to send a representative) does seem a bit steep. It should be interesting to see how the board proceeds on this matter.