The Mayor’s DWI
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David Moreno hadn’t been elected Mayor of Donna, Texas when he got busted for drunk driving last year, but the body camera videos of his arrest tell you an awful lot about the chaos underway in that Rio Grande Valley town between him and the majority of the new city council.
It’s two in the morning… And longtime Rio Grande Valley Educator David Moreno is about to fail a big test…
Moreno’s girlfriend. A female Donna ISD School employee is in the car but apparently not in any shape to drive.
“She looks hammered. Oh yeah, she’s hammered… I don’t think she can call to have someone to pick her up”, says the cops.
Moreno hadn’t been elected the Mayor of Donna yet… But he was already a City Commissioner…
And of course he had a right to a lawyer.
But Hidalgo County Court records show the lawyer who handled the case that got dismissed because the cop didn’t show up in court was Robert Salinas…
Last December Moreno was sworn in as mayor.
“Today is a new day for Donna… and today I’m honored by the election results. This is a new council that is ready to work together, unified in the direction of the city”, he stated.
Boy that didn’t last long… Moreno had won election campaigning as a slate with councilman Jesse Jackson…
Who now accuses Moreno of lying under oath…. And is appalled at the public embarrassment.
Shortly after his election as Mayor, Moreno asked the City Council to approve a two-year contract for a City Attorney… Robert Salinas.
And the vote was unanimous.
17,500 dollars a month… Seems like a lot for a small town.
“A full-time City Attorney representing the city gets over 200,000 a year in mission”, expresses Salinas.
“I’m getting to know the Rio Grande Valley pretty good… In fact, we exposed a judge there… so I know that Mission has more than 85,000 people living there. Donna has just 16,000”, tells Wayne.
And Salinas is also paid to represent the smaller of one of the city-run economic boards…
The payments of ten thousand dollars a month appear to dwarf the little money spent on marketing… Their jobs. The mayor is in charge of that panel too.
That’s more than three hundred thousand to Salinas… His two-year deal in Donna would become a lightning rod of controversy.
“And then this contract happened, and shit hit the fan”, said Councilmember Joey Garza.
Councilmembers claimed they didn’t know when they voted that Salinas was Moreno’s personal criminal defense lawyer before the contract.
“We started looking into it and we knew there was something fishy about it”, revealed Councilmember Oscar Gonzales.
“Do you think it’s a conflict?”, Wayne asks. “Absolutely”, responds Garza.
“Well, I didn’t know I had to check in with him”, declares the mayor.
But Councilmember Garza posed a question the mayor should answer. Did he get free or discounted legal help when he was arrested?
“And if uses him as his attorney was that compensation for that or not”, completes Garza.
DWI defense lawyers aren’t cheap… Was that two-year contract a quid pro quo? A reward… Even though it wasn’t a raise…? The mayor didn’t answer us, but Salinas did.
Wayne: “Isn’t it fair to ask him how much he paid you and whether or not he didn’t have to pay you as much because this gig here”.
Salinas: “It would not be applicable if the attorney was already employed at the time that the mayor asked him to represent him. So, there’s no quid pro quo”.
But Salinas wasn’t just the mayor’s criminal defense lawyer last year…
According to Donna city campaign records we think he was also Moreno’s biggest single campaign contributor when he ran for mayor.
We say we think because the campaign records reveal Moreno has broken state election law for months.
“The only campaign report you filed was in October”, says Wayne.
That’s October last year…
Moreno has failed to turn in at least three State required campaign reports since that one… including a semi-annual report due last summer.
“I’ll need to check up on that because we are submitting what we need to do”, said the mayor.
We know that Moreno advertised this fundraiser last February here at the ignite lounge in Edinburgh…
But voters don’t know who gave money that night… What they might want in return?
It appears from this fundraiser document we obtained that at least 25,000 was pledged that night for Moreno.
And councilman Gonzales claims Salinas may have paid campaign workers for the Moreno campaign.
Wayne: “And now it’s political season again in Donna… and to coin a phrase it’s been a real dumpster fire… No… not inside there”.
Inside the small and usually packed Council Chambers.
Ernesto Lugo: “It’s shameful, it’s unethical, it’s cowardly, this could have been settled behind closed doors as gentlemen, this ridiculous”.
Lugos: “I’m not asking for your advice…”
Salinas: “The one thing I resent is being called a coward. I was performing the actions of a man when you were still in diapers”.
You can see where this was all heading.
“You want the city attorney fired?”, asks Wayne. “I do”, replies Garza.
Council members had been calling for Salinas to get fired for weeks… And he knew it… He even went to Court to try and stop it… But failed.
But it was that lawsuit that dug the hole deeper for the city attorney. One of the plaintiffs along with Salinas and the mayor was the city of Donna…
One problem… Only the council can give authority for the city to sue anyone. Councilman Gonzales accused the mayor of misconduct.
“Who authorized the city to sue?”, asked Wayne over the phone. “Nobody, nobody nobody. I filed charges against Moreno for abusing his power. Authorizing the city to sue us with no authority”, responded Gonzales.
Early in October a public notice for yet another council meeting to discuss firing an employee didn’t mention Salinas by name…
“Good morning city of Donna, this is your mayor David Moreno coming to you live”.
The mayor had to know it was Salinas on the chopping block we had talked about it days earlier… but Moreno went on social media like he was suddenly clueless about what was about to happen.
“The city manager didn’t know, your mayor didn’t know”, tells him on video.
He had to know… the axe finally came…
Garza: “I’m going to make a motion to terminate Robert Salinas and further remove to appoint Ramirez as the interim”.
Salinas calls the whole thing retaliation… He may have been right about the date elections should be held but Salinas was wrong to get so involved in city politics…
Campaigning with the mayor… Now sponsoring a campaign event this month for the mayor’s brother just days after his firing was finalized…
It adds to the suggestion this election change was engineered to benefit the Moreno family.
Councilmembers claim Salinas and the mayor double crossed them… That the Salinas contract was approved after the mayor had agreed that elections would be held in 2025…. It involved a voter decision back in 2021.
“The debate comes from proposition a the proposition extends term limits from three to four years”, announces the TV news.
Councilmembers Gonzales and Garza were elected that year… so they didn’t plan to run for reelection until next year.
After he got the Donna contract Salinas decided the election must be this year not next.
“Ultimately four members voted against holding the election with the mayor being the sole election vote. All in favor aye… Opposed…”
Council voted to delay the election… Salinas challenged the delay.
Salinas: “Well to us it looks like they didn’t want to face the vote of the people in the confidence of the people to be honest with you”.
The 13th court of appeals agreed there should be an election this year… But the decision came August 16th… a Friday, the deadline to file to run was the following Monday.
The TV story on Channel 5 announcing the news hadn’t even come out yet. So, who knew about this court ruling….
“You’d probably have to know a public official to get that news… like your brother the mayor…”, expresses Wayne.
Manuel Moreno waited till the last minute and jumped in the race… and Councilmembers believe that was always the plan for the mayor.
Wayne: “So you believe what the mayor did in pursuing and changing his mind was part of some scheme to get his brother on the ballo correct?”
Gonzales: “That is correct, correct”.
Wayne: “No doubt in your mind…”
Gonzales: “No, sir”.
It’s no surprise the mayor is actively campaigning for his brother… But electing another Moreno would raise conflict of interest questions.
We’ve taken a look at Manuel Moreno’s background as part of this investigation… He was promoted to Athletic Director for Donna ISD back in 2012… But clearly got in trouble. DISD documents show Moreno was put on leave in 2014 pending the outcome of the PFAN internal investigation.
In July of that year internal memos show the school board was prepared to terminate Moreno as Athletic Director…
Based on evidence he had misused District resources and misappropriation of District/student funds.
In 2017 Moreno announced he was retiring from the school district.
“That corruption investigation not part of the documents we’ve been given but could be a problem for a guy now want to spend city tax dollars… Voters deserve an explanation”, declares Wayne.
Besides, do Donna residents really want family members on City Council when at the same time Moreno is mayor?
“That wouldn’t be nepotism, I’m not hiring if the citizens of Donna want him, they will vote him in”, says Moreno.
He’s right, it’s not against the law… But maybe it should be.
And then there is the question of Moreno’s niece Jazmin Moreno…. When hired by the city as an administrative assistant in Donna ESD in 2018 she had been washing windows and watching kids as a lifeguard at $7,25 an hour… she has been working there for six years. But after Moreno was elected last December, she was promoted to a $75,000/year job as Planning Director for the city.
The mayor may have paved the way for his brother to run this year, but he’s batting zero on his plans to change the city’s towing ordinance…
It would only allow wrecker companies with an office in the city of Donna to tow cars.
But more than half the wrecker companies operating in Donna would be out of luck… out of business in Donna…
“I think it’s safe to say that you guys are real busy, you know? So, having more is good, especially if they’re qualified, right? In this case, it doesn’t minimize it to ten”, said Assistant Chief Administrator Hidalgo County Pct 1 Jorge Peña.
“Do we believe that this attempt to narrow is to benefit any particular company?”, asks Wayne.
“Based on what we’ve heard and what we’ve seen. Absolutely. And I think that’s a question for Mr. Mayor”, completed Peña.
And it all stems from that goes back to that DWI video we have… When the mayor asked for a particular wrecker company to tow his car before he went to jail.
“So what wrecker do you want to call?”
“Ito’s”.
Ito’s wrecker… In business in Donna for 35 years.
Months later mayor Moreno wanted Ito’s to get a $28,000 EDC Grant to reimburse him for repaving his parking lot.
But it sounded like the owner of Ito’s was ready to pay someone off to get it.
“The words that were mentioned were ‘if I can help you with anything moneywise here I am’… And I absolutely refused that, said ‘no, I can’t do this, this is my job, this is my income, and I never have and never will do that kind of thing”.
And like a lot of places in the valley Donna already has a troubled history with the EDC paying money for work never done.
The council voted to deny the money… The mayor voted to still give it to Ito’s…
Mayor: “We have a motion on the floor for denial. We have a second by commissioner Lugo. All in favor? I vote against”.
Made us wonder if Moreno had to pay for that wrecker that night of his DWI bust… Or was it a gift… Stay tuned.
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