D.A. ON TRAIL OF $2,000 PAID BY ELIZONDO FOR RECOUNT

Avila and Peña had tied in the early vote with 1,423 apiece. Avila's election day total of 1,045 carried him over Peña's 951.

According to Election Department rules, each candidate requesting a recount was to be charged $100 per precinct and the early vote. In Peña's case, it was total 45 precincts for a total cost of $4,500. Adjustments could be made if the recount was a hand recount or a machine recount. Nonetheless, it would cost at least $2,000 for Peña to get her recount.

Now, everyone knows that an 108-vote difference is difficult, if not impossible, to overcome in a recount. Yet, Peña said she owed it to her supporters to make the effort.

But first she had to come up with the cash, and she turned to her colleagues on the BISD board to see whether – as the candidates they had been before – they would help out a friend in need.

At the time, the BISD was trying to establish a Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) training program and trustee Carlos Elizondo was in the forefront of trying to get it set up. Elizondo is a certified nurse and a firefighter who was recently demoted as fire chief. But at the time it seemed to be a good idea to enlist his services to set up the program for BISD students.

So on the day of the recount, he and a fellow firefighter drove over to the to the Elections Office to ask about the cost. They found out that the cost would be $2,000. Little did the other firefighter know that Elizondo had already written out the check and simply signed it and delivered it to help out his fellow board member.

The check had been drawn from the Brownsville Firefighters for Responsible Government account, a general purpose political action committee (GPAC) of the Brownsville Firefighters Association Local #970. Up until that time – March 2014 – everyone thought that Elizondo, who had been appointed treasurer of the PAC in 2008, was still registered as the treasurer.

But no one knew that the Texas Ethics Commission – citing the PAC treasurer's failure to submit reports on its contributions and expenditures – had removed him as treasurer. In fact, the TEC terminated his treasurer appointment on May 21, 2010. But since he was the contact person for the PAC, he kept the notice of termination and sanctions to himself and remained as the PAC's treasurer with access to the PAC's bank account.


Through May 21, 2010 through February 28, 2017, no committee campaign treasurer appointment had been filed by the PAC and no campaign finance reports had been filed with the TEC.

On May 16, 2016, City Manager Charlie Cabler named Elizondo as the city's new fire chief and he had to give up the labor association position. When the firefighters checked the PAC account, they found that more than $8,000 in ATM withdrawals had been made by Elizondo. And bank records only covered two years, with the period from 2010 to 20140 still missing.

Yet, when Elizondo was pushing for the establishing of the EMT program run by his close associates, he expected that Peña would be one of the supporters of the program given the fact that the firefighters had help to pay for the recount.

"Carlos was pissed when Peña started asking a lot of questions about the program that he was supporting," said a former colleague. "I gave that p---che vieja $2,000 for her recount and look how she pays me back," he was said to have fumed.

El Rrrun-Rrun has learned that Cameron County District Office investigators have already questioned some of the principals about the $2,000 PAC check. Each year, the firefighter donate an average of $8,000 to the PAC through paycheck donations. How much is missing counting all the years under the control of Elizondo will take some time to discover.

Meanwhile, and inquiry to the Cameron County Elections Office has revealed that Peña did not file a finance contribution report due July 15, 2014 that covered the period when she received the $2,000 for the recount from the PAC.