BEHIND THE SCENES: DISCREDITED PUPPETEER BALTY SALAZAR GUIDES ELIZONDO'S ATTEMPTED POWER GRAB AT BISD

By Juan Montoya

Guess who has finally emerged from behind the scenes to reveal the money and skullduggery behind Brownsville Independent School District board members Carlos Elizondo and Frank Ortiz to take over the district and receive his reward by being reappointed as board counsel?

Yes, it's our old shyster and inept lawyer Baltazar Salazar who was unceremoniously dumped by the board three years ago May 18 after he ranked a distant fourth in the evaluation of law firms. At the time he was drawing a $280,000 annual salary, second only to then-Superintendent Dr. Rene Gutierrez.

Now the word on social media is that Elizondo and board member Frank Ortiz (and Victor Caballero, Minerva Pena, Nelda Rocha and Farley Trevino), if victorious,  will back Elizondo for president of the board and bring the legal rethread Salazar back to his old – and plum – gig.

You remember Salazar. His first "gig" for the BISD put his firm (which consists of just him) in charge of fighting the insurance companies who refused to pay for the mold problems at Besteiro Middle School and Aiken Elementary school. Despite urging by federal judge Andrew Hanen to file a brief in response and defend the BISD, Salazar chose to roll over and did not file a brief and let the insurance companies' motion for summary judgment stand. The district lost and the taxpayers ate the bill.

In the case ( No. CIV.A. B-03-109) decided in 2005, Hanen, who had bent over backwards to give Baltazar a chance to speak up for the district against the companies' petition for summary judgment said that:

"...BISD filed nothing. The old adage comes to mind that you can lead a horse to water, tell him to take a drink, give him extra time to drink, but you still cannot make him drink...Despite warnings by the Court and a direct order setting a deadline, BISD has not filed a response to two of the three motions. Also, despite warnings from the Court, including an admonition to supplement its sole response, and the issuance of a firm deadline, the one response filed was not supplemented to provide the Court with any competent summary judgment evidence that raises an issue of material fact. That being the case, the Court hereby GRANTS all three of Royal's summary judgment motions."

Many district residents wondered how Baltazar – after having been convicted of three felonies for theft – could have been allowed to go to law school. Perhaps the fact that his sister was married to one of former State Senator Eddie Lucio's brothers might have played a part in that.

When he tried to have the record expunged, the Texas Department of Public Safety objected and the local district court's expungement was rescinded  by the 13th Court of Appeals. because he had served probation on the convictions.

At the time he made his pitch to land the lucrative board counsel position Salazar made a few prescient statements that should have raised red flags for the board members and public.

He stressed the fact that he was a straight shooter who would "stab you in the front" in contrast to others who would stab you in the back.

He looked at trustee Peña and said pointedly: "I've known some of you since I was a kid," and said his goal was (despite the fact he got $2 million over eight years) "not to make money."

He promised he would "tone down your legal expenses" and bring "stability, because you have chaos, and when there's chaos, lawyers make money." Pretty much what happened, isn't it?

And the board members and candidates who are heeding his siren call best be wary of the wily Salazar. Look what he did in the case of board member Caty Presas-Garcia when she and Lucy Longoria questioned his machinations and shortchanged the district with his legal ineptness (he ranked last of 17 firms in a RFP) and of farming out cases to his legal cronies across the state. They were the only votes cast against his hiring at BISD.

Salazar then accused Presas-Garcia in open meeting alleging that she had made sexual advances to him in the parking lot of the BISD's main office. Much later, he apologized to Catalina, albeit privately.

He later tried to submit an agenda item to censure her and possibly remove both from the board. The board refused to consider the removal motion. When she ran for reelection, a PAC was formed to defeat her.

In a complaint filed with the Texas Ethics Commission it was revealed that the  Brownsville Taxpayer s Political Action Committee formed to defeat Presas-Garcia deliberately violated the Texas Election Code in at least two instances and fined its treasurer, Juan Flores Fermin, $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 Flores 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.

Flores 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.

Flores initially denied the allegation regarding providing false addresses. Later, in response to written questions, he stated that the Brownsville address he had disclosed in the 30-day election report was an "inadvertent error" and that "the address has been used on the same computer writing the report and it was mistakenly left on the digital page by mistake."

Yeah. Right. 

Salazar has bounced around school districts like buzzard looking for carrion and has been unceremoniously dumped more than once after school board members of districts across South Texas got to know the seamy side of this despicable character. 

He even disregards the most basic ethical behavior for an elected board and their counsel. In this photo taken at a local restaurant with a majority of the previous board (that's Peña, Drue Brown, Sylvia Atkinson, Prisci Roca-Tipton, a majority or walking quorum) with Salazar. They wouldn't have been discussing district matters or personnel, would they? 

A shyster is a person who acts in an unethical, unscrupulous, or disreputable way, especially in the practice of law, politics, or economics. The board members and candidates who are scheming with this man to put him back on the district's teat might be in for a rude awakening when voters in the district not only reject him, but also the horse(s) that brung him.