DID ELIZONDO EVEN HAVE A RIGHT TO SPEND P.A.C. MONIES?

By Juan Montoya
On June 9, 2008, the Brownsville Firefighters for responsible Government, a general purpose political action committee (GPAC) of the Brownsville Firefighters Association Local #970, filed its campaign treasurer appointment with the Texas ethics Commission naming Carlos Elizondo as the committee's campaign treasurer.

As its treasurer, Elizondo was the contact person between the TEC and the association, responsible for filing contribution and expense reports periodically. He did so for the the the period covering June 9 to June 30, 2008, and for the period covering July 2008 to December 31, 2008, two reports in toto.
(Click on graphic to enlarge.)

From there on, until he became chief in 2016, he did not file any of the required reports with the TEC. In fact, the TEC terminated his treasurer appointment on May 21, 2010. But since he was the contact person for the PAC, he kept the notice of termination and sanctions to himself and remained as the PAC's treasurer with access to the PAC's bank account.

The TEC – based on Sec. 252.0131 of the Texas Election Code – "may terminate the campaign treasurer appointment of an inactive candidate or political committee that is required to file a campaign treasurer appointment with the commission...(It can do so) "if the political committee files a campaign treasurer appointment with the commission and more than one year has lapsed since the campaign treasurer of the political committee has filed any required campaign finance reports with the commission."

Through May 21, 2010 through February 28, 2017, no committee campaign treasurer appointment had been filed by the PAC and no campaign finance reports had been filed with the TEC.

On May 16, 2016, City Manager Charlie Cabler named Elizondo as the city's new fire chief.

Cabler selected him and made the announcement. Thirty nine other candidates with vastly greater amounts of experience apparently didn't have the "right stuff" that Cabler saw in Elizondo.  According to the job description, the new fire chief would be earning $100,000 a year.

(With his demotion, the labor agreement between the city and the Firefighters' Association sets his Elizondo's salary to 59,432.04.)

“The burden falls on me to make the ultimate call, and I felt that I have selected the best possible candidate at this time,” Cabler said then. 

The announcement was made at news conference at the historic Young House on St. Charles Street. Firefighters, elected officials, Elizondo’s family and others were in attendance. Elizondo’s wife, along with his daughters, pinned the fire chief badge on his suit, making it all official.

However, Elizondo's performance has not impressed the city commission as much as it did Cabler. An audit of the fire department discovered some 74 violations of city policy, some linked directly to the former chief, leading a majority of the city commission to pressure Cabler to demote Elizondo or remove him as chief.

One of the factors mentioned for Elizondo's demotion was the police complaint filed against him by the Firefighters Association charging that between 2014 and when he left in May 2016, there was more than $8,000 in PAC money unaccounted for. Their bank statement indicates that most of the withdrawals during this time were made by Elizondo at local ATM machines.

However, this may only be the tip of the iceberg because this does not include the period between 2010 and 2014. How much more may be missing is anyone's guess. If one extrapolates the $8,000 missing in two years by the four years, that's another $16,000 bringing the total to close to $25,000.

And – this is making some people nervous – if the Firefighters' PAC contributed to local political campaigns, were those campaign contributions illegal?

The Cameron County District Attorney is now investigating the Association's criminal complaint.