IF ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES, SHOULD BISD BRACE ITSELF FOR A ROUND OF VENDOR AND PERSONNEL CHANGES?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Just about everywhere he's gone, former Brownsville Independent School District board counsel Baltazar Salazar has primed the pump by giving out large amounts of political contributions to candidates to various school district boards in hopes they'll remember him fondly enough to land him the well-paid position, which at BISD meant a $325,000 annual paycheck.

Now, as the new board takes shape after the Nov. 8 election which saw two of two incumbents being replaced by challengers, the chance to exact a return on his investment and public political support of the candidates might just materialize. Does a new majority mean a superintendent buyout, a change in legal counsel, and the handing out of patronage goodies like promotions and plum assignments for their supporters? 

And as the reorganization of the new board unfolds at today's board meeting, it could all come down to one swing vote for the pendulum to swing the new majority's way. And in this case, it might hinge on the decision of board member Jessica G. Gonzalez, an unlikely king maker whose voice is rarely heard in the board's open discussions.

On the old board, Salazar's interests were always supported by Place 1 board member Drue Brown, who lost to former trustee Carlos Elizondo. That will present no problem to the wily lawyer, knowing that Elizonzo has never been reticent of ingratiating himself with the right people to make a buck. And Salazar openly supported Place 4 winner Frank Ortiz and Victor Caballero, the latter losing to incumbent Denise Garza by more than 4,000 votes. 

BISD administrators and Cameron County Elections officials say Caballero is in the process of requesting a recount because he did not receive the comparable number of votes as did his fellows who ran on the same ticket and won, Elizondo and Ortiz.

Gonzalez, according to district sources, has reached a modus vivendi with Elizondo, sitting board member Minerva Peña, and Ortiz to maker her president, if in name only. If this new majority places Gonzalez at the head of the BISD board, could the superintendent's buyout be far behind, and perhaps, perish the thought, could it mean a phoenix-like return of Salazar to the district payroll? 

His support for her in 2020 allowed her to emerge the winner of the fray against BISD gadfly Argie Miller, and perennial board candidates Phil Cowen and Viro Cardenas.  

Some district staffers say she has already started hinting of replacing the current board counsel, raising red flags of a possible Salazar reemergence, whose generosity to her in her 2020 race exceeded any other contributor's, including the two major competing delinquent tax vendors.

The old saying that elections have consequences taken on a new, insidious, meaning if the new board majority engineers yet another superintendent buyout at the expense of district taxpayers, consider a new Request For Qualifications (RFQs) for board legal counsel, and install new faces in plum positions at the district's main office as the spoils of the election wars.