BISD STUCK WITH SALAZAR AT LEAST UNTIL NOVEMBER 3?

2. Discussion, consideration and possible action to review, amend and/or terminate BISD Board Attorney. (Board Member Request Laura Perez Reyes, Board Support Eddie Garcia)

By Juan Montoya

It had seemed too good to be true. And it was.

Two members of the board have placed and item on Tuesday's consent agenda of the Brownsville Independent School District that could result in the termination of board counsel Baltazar Salazar.

On the other hand, the agenda item also includes the action to "review and/or amend," that is, to grant Salazar an extension of his contract.

Salazar was hired by the board on April 2, 2013 by then-trustees Otis Powers, the late Enrique Escobedo, Minerva Peña and Jose Chirinos who chose him over vastly more experienced and able law firms. Seven years later, he is still there and now drawing $283,000 a year from the BISD.

That board chose him despite the fact that the Texas Department of Public Safety was successful in negating a court order expunging his criminal record of three felony convictions for theft before he attended law school. The reversal of the expungement was announced by the 13th Court of Appeals on August 2013, four months after he had been hired by the BISD.

The 13th Court of Appeals issued its decision and noted that while Salazar claimed that he "has been released, that the charge has not resulted in a final conviction and is no longer pending, and that there was no court-ordered community supervision...."and that prosecution "is no longer possible because the limitations period has expired," the record reflected differently. In other words, he had misrepresented the truth to the court and to the BISD on his job application.

https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/thirteenth-court-of-appeals/2013/13-12-00771-cv.html.

At an average of $250,000 a year over eight years, the BISD has paid him about $2 million for his services which are mainly attending one meeting a month. And the practice of outsourcing district cases to private firms has continued despite his April 2013 statement to the board that "lawyers love chaos" because they make money. "Chaos" would be one way to describe the state of affairs in the district now with resignation of one board looking at court removal and the indictment of another in federal court.

And the BISD counsel always seems to be right in the middle of the chaos, the latest example being the federal trial of board member Dr. Atkinson on eight counts of bribery and conspiracy involving selling  materials and services to the district. Most of the board members – and it is safe to assume that includes Salazar – have been subpoenaed as witnesses and have received notice of their conversations with Atkinson having been recorded though her court-approved wiretaps.

With the potential of a new board taking over in November, the agenda item on Salazar is similar to the one considered in a recent meeting where Superintendent Rene Gutierrez' contract was extended by two years. In case the new board wants to change general counsel, they will have to negotiate an exit settlement with Salazar just as they will with Gutierrez should they decide to change superintendents. In other words, negotiate a buyout.

We know that Salazar's has buttressed his relationship with some board members by contributing to their campaigns which has been questioned before as being contrary to a clause on his contract that states he should not give gifts, money, etc., in return for approval of his contract. He blithely answered that he was not doing in return for keeping his job, but because he wanted good board members.

Whatever.

We don't expect that the current board members will vote to terminate or extend his contract. Rather, it is safer to assume that they will kick the can down the road and continue his employment on a month-to-month basis and let the incoming board decide his fate. It's been a good run for the board counsel. BISD has been very, very good to him.