AS DA TAKES OVER ELIZONDO PROBE, CITY PICKS UP PIECES

By Juan Montoya
Just a few minutes after the officers of the Brownsville Firefighters Association Local #970 filed their complaint alleging Theft by a Public Servant against Brownsville Fire Dept. Chief Carlos Elizondo, City Manager Charlie Cabler is said to have called him in to inquire on the nature of the complaint.

Cabler told Elizondo that the firefighters association president Jorge Lerma and his vice president Margarito Gracia had told filed a complaint alleging that while he was the union president in sole control of their Political Action Committee fund, at least $8,000 had gone missing.

According to firehouse sources, as soon as Elizondo got done talking to Cabler, he called union vice-president Gracia and handed him his pink slip terminating his employment. They say that Elizondo gave no reason for firing Gracia.

"We're under civil service and that requires progressive discipline," said a firefighter. "Carlos just called in Margarito and fired him on the spot without any reason. You know that the termination is going to be appealed on the basis of retaliation."

Some sources in the city say that the abrupt personnel decisions taken by the fire department administration have raised concerns among some city commissioner and the city administration that it might expose the city to legal liability.

Yesterday, Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said that his office was now in charge of the Elizondo probe.

“I can confirm that the DA's office has been asked by the Brownsville Police Department to take over the investigation of the alleged case on Fire Chief Carlos Elizondo.”

The firefighters alleged that Compass Bank, where the account was deposited, showed them statements indicating that many of those withdrawals had been made through ATM machines.

Others, the bank statements show, were checks made out by Elizondo to various individuals, including political operatives (politiqueras.) In reconciling the  withdrawals from the PAC and the campaign finance report, there are several expenditures – including one for $2,500 for advertising for his campaign – that seem to have been made at the same time.

Some of the expenditures were made in the days preceding the November 2014 Brownsville Independent School District elections where he was a candidate for a trustee.

Other sources say that the $8,000 figure is low, and is based only what can be documented directly to Elizondo's spending. Some site a $19,000 figure as closer to the actual amount taken without the firefighters' authorization from the fund.

Lerma and Gracia told a local broadcaster that since he took the reins of the association back in March, he’d tried to make sure everything is done by the book. So, when the withdrawals raised a red flag, he reached out to Elizondo in May to try and get answers.

"To identify those expenditures and to identify the PAC committee that made the decisions for these expenditures and we, to this day, we haven’t gotten an answer,” said Lerma. "He had exclusive control of the account,” said Lerma.

The firefighter's PAC requires periodic reports to the Texas Ethics Commission that must include all the names of the contributors and the names of the individuals or businesses that the PAC listed as expenditures.

Lerma said there was more.
He told News Central 4 that when association officers investigated further into the case, they discovered documents from the Texas Ethics Commission which, he says, left him in shock.

“We found a document that suggests that he wasn’t even – shouldn’t have been allowed to be handling PAC funds, and we do have a document that indicates that back in 2010,” Lerma said. “We just weren’t advised or aware of it. He didn’t make the association aware of it.”

Now, as the Cameron County District Attorney investigates the firefighters' complaint, all those loose ends will be brought together to determine whether there are enough grounds to bring criminal charges against Elizondo or other parties.

There have also been allegations investigated by the city administration and perhaps a grand jury alleging Elizondo's involvement with an unlicensed ambulance service – InterCity Ambulance – with whom he is said to be associated. The ambulance was operating in the city without being licensed by the city manager and fire chief as required by the city charter.

Elizondo and its owner, Justin Overland, have had a close relationship for many years and units of the company often parked in his home's driveway.

Theft by a Public Servant is listed as  State Jail Felony.