In the end, in the wee hours of the morning, Brownsville Independent School District general counsel Baltazar Salazar was able to convince a majority of the board members that he had saved the district $100,000s through his legal acumen and heavy lifting in litigation.
The trustee, through a 5-1 vote, approved a $24,000 raise, almost identical to the $25,000 raise he received just one year ago last June.
Even though the district is mired in lawsuits that have been generated against the district partially as a result of his bad legal advice to them on various issues – mainly personnel – the trustees disregarded these topics and made the decision to give him the raise.
The topic of Salazar's raise came toward the end of the marathon meeting, when most of the audience had departed and when those watching on the school cable channel had dropped off to snooze.
The voting – as far as we can gather today – was board president Cesar Lopez, Phil Cowen, Minerva Peña, Laura Perez-Reyes and Dr,. Sylvia Atkinson "aye." Only trustee Joe Rodriguez, who knew the item would pass, strategically voted "no." Trustee – and Brownsville Fire Department Chief – Carlos Elizondo, was absent.
Elizondo had to be present at the meeting of the commission of the city of Brownsville and could not attend the BISD meeting being held on the same day at the same time.
Lopez initially wanted to give Salazar a $36,000 hike, but was unable to convince the rest of the majority to go along with the generous increase.
We commiserate with poor Balty. It's hard for a lawyer to made do with a paltry $264,000 when you are representing the poorest community in the United States.
And we empathize with the sensitivity of the school board members who held the line at $24,000. After all, a $36,000 raise would have mean they would have given him a raise above the median income for a household in Cameron County at $26,155 over $8,000 more than the median income for a family at $27,853.
But, hey, you reap what you sow and Salazar has made sure that whenever there's an election, the right amount of money goes into the right candidate's pocket so he can have his bought-and-paid-for board reward him for his labor and generosity.