LEGAL EAGLE SALAZAR, REFERRALS, GOUGING BISD $$$$$$

By Juan Montoya
When Baltazar Salazar came to the Brownsville Independent School District board podium April 2013 to make his pitch for the lucrative legal gig, he stressed the fact that he was a straight shooter who would "stab you in the front" in contrast to others who would stab you in the back.
He looked at trustee Minerva Peña and said pointedly: "I've known some of you since I was a kid," and said his goal was "not to make money."
He promised he would "tone down your legal expenses" and bring "stability, because you have chaos, and when there's chaos, lawyers make money."
The school district, he told them, had "become a cash cow" because the district did not follow procedure and said he was there "to serve the board as a whole."
Well, it appears that despite his Herculean efforts to keep down legal costs as promised, the cow is out of the barn and headed down the road to be milked once again.
In fact, since April 2013, Salazar and his referrals have done anything but "tone down legal expenses."
In the 16 months since, the district has paid out $849,426 to 12 law firms hired at Salazar's recommendation. This is in stark contrast to the "chaos" he said existed when he made his pitch for the job.
In fact, the former legal counsel – Thompson and Horton LLP – earned the wrath of the current BISD board majority who cited this spending as a justification for bringing Salazar on board.
Yet, when Thompson and Horton were on board, they charged the BISD only $822,394 in legal expenses for the three years – $27,032 less than what the BISD paid Salazar and the firms he referred in only 16 months.
At the top is Salazar himself who has drawn $328,000 since May 2013 to August 27 this year. (Click on graphics to enlarge)
The rest pale in comparison to this total. This includes the $240,000 he is paid yearly plus an "open purchase order" that he controls and from which he has drawn some $22,000 apart from his salary. (See graphic below. click to enlarge)

The same board majority who voted to hire him at $20,000 a month –  Otis Powers, Minerva Peña, the late Enrique Escobedo, and Jose Chirinos – also voted to limit meetings of the board to once a month.
Only trustees Longoria and Presas-Garcia objected to the speed with which the selection was made and to the fact that Salazar's firm had less experience in defending school district than at least five others.
Still, the lure of lower legal fees apparently won over the majority.
If you look at the bottom graphic closely, you will see that just in defending the lawsuit that Presas-Garcia and Longoria filed against the board majority and the administration for depriving them of their First Amendment rights when they voted to "censure" (or was it censor?) them, the BISD – at Salzar's urging – has paid Colvin, Chaney, Saenz and Rodriguez LLP $193,053 through an open purchase order so far in the last seven months. Even more outrageous is the $192,759 paid to Williams, Birnberg and Anderson – again, through an open purchase order – for acting as a "pair of second eyes" for Colvin and Chaney so they won't miss anything important in their defense.
It's also instructive that the "Rodriguez" in the name of the local firm belongs to none other than to Tony Rodriguez, the son of former BISD A.D. Joe Rodriguez, now a candidate for the board of the BISD. The older Rodriguez was also embroiled in a lawsuit against Defenbaugh and Associates for their publication of a forensic audit which showed that he had received favored treatment as a vendor in the sale of athletic equipment totalling $100,000s.
So far, no other trustee has supported the agenda item request by both women to evaluate Salazar's performance and he has remained at the trough. It takes three trustee signatures to place an item on the agenda and bring the issue before the board. Neither Otis Powers, Minerva Peña, Jose Chirinos nor Cesar Lopez have found it necessary to review the lawyer's performance, even in light of these legal extravagance.
It is also instructive that the firm that Salazar replaced – Thompson and Horton – have been tagged to represent the district because Salazar's firm does not have the experience or expertise to perform those legal duties for the district. So far, the discarded law firm has billed the BISD for $88,673 at Salzar's referral.
It is abundantly clear that Salazar's promises to the board that he would keep legal costs down have not materialized. Now, with a growing number of legal issues facing the board, it is apparent that the continuing farming out of cases to outside counsel may continue to keep the cash registers ringing across the state. And if he has anything to say about the upcoming elections for trustees, we'd be willing to bet we know on what horses he'd lay down his wagers.
Look at the agenda for tonight's meeting.
E. Recommend approval of the following Bid(s)/Proposal(s)/Purchase(s):
29. Recommend awarding RFQ
If what existed in the district before Salazar got the nod from the board majority was "chaos," as he called it, shall we call what is happening now "pandemonium," a wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; tumult or chaos? Or as John Milton called it, the capital of Hell?