CATY ASKS YOU TO "CONNECT THE DOTS OF DESPERATION"

By Caty Presas-Garcia

This Sunday I was attacked in a newspaper ad by someone named "Leo Hernandez" whose charges are suspiciously similar to allegations made against me by the bogus Brownsville Taxpayers Political Action Committee which the Texas Ethics Commission found that it deliberately violated the Texas Election Code in at least two instances and fined its treasurer $1,500.

The final resolution on TEC SC-3170479 was issued to PAC treasurer Juan Flores Fermin June 29, 2018. Flores first listed his address in a vacant lot on Iowa being sold by Judy Vera, a Realtor and the sister of BISD attorney Baltazar Salazar.

When he was found out, he changed his address to a Houston residence owned by...Salazar.
In the end, he said he lived in Ft. Worth.  I don't know this new Mr. Hernandez who paid for the ad – if he exists – and he has never had the courtesy to address these concerns directly to me. He, however, gave the newspaper $1,260 for the half-page ad.

And in today's online version of the newspaper, there are numerous (and expensive) electronic  ads with the same message. Someone, obvisouly, feels threatened. Who could it be, I wonder?

But what is curiouser and curiouser is that the allegations made in his Sunday ad are exactly the same made by the PAC, even down to the graphics used. (The logo at left in the newspaper ad is the same I used in my 2016 BISD campaign election cards above.).
                                                         
                                                          CONNECT THE DOTS
But think about this and connect the dots: When I was on the board, trustee Luci Longoria and I were the only ones who voted against hiring Baltazar Salazar as board attorney. In our opinion, his firm lacked sorely in expertise on education issues compared to the other 17 applicants. We voted "NO."


He retaliated by making false allegations during an open board meeting that I made sexual advances on him in the BISD main office parking lot. He later retracted them.

It didn't help that we found out he had tried to expunge felony convictions for theft by check but the Texas Department of Public safety appealed the local court order to expunge the record and the felonies stand. He never told the board when he was hired that he had tried to erase his criminal past.

The DPS appeal was granted months after he was hired. https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/thirteenth-court-of-appeals/2013/13-12-00771-cv.html
                                                       

THE "$2 MILLION" LAWSUIT

Ms. Longoria and I had to sue the district and the board members who tried to "censure" us and to silence the voice of the thousands of voters like you who we represented. Among those concerns were the awarding of BISD insurance to vendors linked to some board members.

Salazar even tried to place an agenda item before the board to remove me from my elected position. The lawsuit caught their attention and they got the message. And no, we did not get one red cent from the BISD and we non-sued in the end. Was it worth it? Your voices were not silenced. Yes, it was.
                                                     

                                                           THE FAKE PAC                                                                                

 The TEC investigation found that now-board general counsel Salazar was listed on the PAC's reports as the only donor to the PAC making in-kind contributions totaling $13,200 in the form of payments to Brownsville advertising and marketing firm Breeden/McCumber. The TEC also noted that all the invoices were billed directly to Salazar.

Salazar and his associates were caught red handed manipulating public opinion behind a fake PAC. Now, with this newspaper ad, they're trying to do it again. Could it be that Salazar, who is getting paid $280,000 of your heard-earned dollars to attend 12 meetings a year, and his vendor buddies are  afraid I will kick them off the gravy train? They might be right. Someone should.

Notice that the ad says nothing about our children's education, the needs of our district, or relief for our taxpayers. It's all about character destruction and personal attacks. If you have had enough of this, vote this Tuesday so we can stop this nonsense and get back to the business of educating our future leaders.