FORMER BISD BOARD COUNSEL REARS HIS UGLY HEAD

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Guess who's trying to inject himself into the November elections of the Brownsville Independent School District?

Wold you believe legal malingerer Baltazar Salazar, who was ousted by a majority of the board of the district when he came up short when compared to the other firms who handed in a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) for the position? 

At the time he was let go, he was getting something close to $325,000 a year salary despite a dismal track record of representing the district.

One of his greatest supporters was none other than Minerva Peña, who herself has her share of legal troubles after a visiting judge nullified the runoff election she won and declared that a sufficient number of votes had been cast illegally to cast doubts on the outcome. 

The judge ordered that a new election be held, only to prompt her attorney Rick Zayas file an appeal which is still to be considered.

Salazar, who has somehow managed to stay in the profession even though evidence exists that he had been convicted of felonies, is still smarting from his ouster and now shows that he is up to his usual tricks – stacking the board with his candidates through large political contributions. Has he been promised that he might get back on the BISD gravy train?

This time he is unabashedly backing three candidates running in this year's board election. He entered the Facebook wall of Prisci Roca-Tipton who is running against Frank Ortiz for Place 4 and said he's supporting former board member Carlos Elizondo who is running (again) against incumbent Drue Brown and Phil Cowen, another former board member for Place 1. Salazar has made it known that he is supporting Brown, Victor Caballero, and Ortiz. (See graphic on left.)

Elizondo is running despite his indictment by a grand jury who charged 

him with two felony counts of misapplying fiduciary funds of the firefighters' union. The court's denial of a writ of habeas corpus is also under appeal.

Things get curiouser and curiouser because Elizondo, Ortiz and Caballero are apparently running as a slate and against Brown, one of Elizondo's opponents.

But Salazar took special umbrage with BISD board member Roca-Tipton for accepting contributions to her re-election campaign by board counsel O'Hanlon, Demerath, & Castillo from Austin. She is facing Salazar-supported Ortiz for Place 4. That firm took over the board counsel position for $240,000, almost $100,000 less than what Salazar was getting. 

This led to the unseemly exchange on social media where Salazar attempts to castigate Roca-Tipton for allowing O'Hanlon to support her candidacy, using his father's USMC service to make his point. Salazar did not serve in the military.
"My late father, an Honorably Discharged Marine from the U.S. Marine corps, also said opinions were like a_s h_les, everyone has one, but they are slightly different. I bet your father was not a US Marine."
Salazar trying to hide behind his father's service and to attempt to chide Roca-Tipton for accepting the law firm's support would appear that he has forgotten his blatant intrusion into BISD politics.

After all, it was Salazar who allowed a PAC he created and funded (the Taxpayers Political Action Committee) in April 2018 to defeat former BISD trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia which deliberately violated the Texas Election Code in at least two instances and the Texas Ethics Commission fined its treasurer $1,500.

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.

The Brownsville Taxpayers PAC filed a treasurer appointment on November 26, 2016 listing Fermin Leal as its treasurer, and listed an address of 925 N. Iowa in its 30-day pre-election report covering the period from Sept. 22 to Sept. 29.

The address was for a vacant lot up for sale. The commission found that the Cameron County Appraisal District listed the owner as Marser Corporation. During that period at issue, the property was being offered for sale by Marser Corp. through the company Liz Realty, which is owned by Liz Vera, Salazar's sister.

Leal changed the PAC's address in the eight-day pre-election report to 9574 Ravensworth, in Houston. The commission's findings indicate that Harris County Appraisal District records list the owner of the property as Maria and Baltazar Salazar.

In that eight-day pre-election report, the PAC disclosed that it accepted in-kind contributions totaling $13,200.42 from only one contributor, Baltazar Salazar, for web design, legal services, and political advertising mailers. The commission found that communications from the committee directly opposed only one candidate (Presas-Garcia) and that there was no evidence to show that it actively or directly supported the other three it listed.

So when Salazar criticizes O'Hanlon for supporting a candidate and getting involved in politics, isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black? Or does Balty have  conveniently short memory?