Tejano Treasurer Troubles

The Tejano Democrats apparently have some major financial concerns and are even citing a section in the Texas Criminal Code in a letter sent to Tejano Treasurer Dr. Anna Perez.

The questions surround questions about expenditures while Dr. Anna Perez was treasurer and while Eddie Holguin was the organization's chair.

A letter was sent out from the organization's current Chair, Mary Bowles-Gasca to the Treasurer and copied to the membership asking Dr. Anna Perez to produce certain documents.

Apparently the concerns raised circle around possible financial impropriety. A specific allegation isn't made, but it looks like the organization is looking into the concerns and trying to ascertain if in fact, there was some sort of financial issue.

Concern#1, 
A payment was made from the Paso del Norte Tejano Democrats (PDN) Political Action Committee (PAC) account to Sun Circle Strategic Group located at 1401 Montana Ste H, El Paso, TX on November 1, 2018.  As you know, Sun Circle Strategic Group is owned by Mr. Eddie Holguin, former Chair of the PDN in partnership with Ms. Lily Limon, 1^st Vice Chair of the PDN. Mr. Holguin was still the chair of the PDN when payment was made to his company on November 1, 2018. Therefore, in order to ensure that there was no financial impropriety about expenditures made to Sun Circle Strategic Group in the amount of $1,919.32 for printing expenses for the Carl Robinson Campaign I am requesting the following information regarding this payment: 

1. Date the transfer of funds was voted, approved and authorized by the membership to be deposited from the general operating account to the PAC account.

2. Date the membership voted, approved and authorized the payment to Sun Circle Strategic Group for $1,919.32 for printing of a mail out for the Carl Robinson Campaign. This item and amount were reported and entered in the Campaign Report sent to the State Ethics Commission for transactions ending as of December 2018 and filed online with the State Ethics Commission.

This concern stems around the fact that while Eddie Holguin was chair, his firm was paid almost $2,000 by the organization he was the chair of. Many in the organization have taken issue with this expenditure because well a) its money being directed for the organization to the chair's pockets, and b) because no one remembers authorizing the expenditure.

But if there was no impropriety in that transaction, then the requested documents should be able to clear that up and exonerate Holguin.

The second concern surrounds the fact that there were many months were there was no treasurer's report made to the organization, which is required by the bylaws, so they want to get financial reports for that period, which I understand was pretty extended.

The final concern is the one that raises possible legal issues. The short of it was that within the Tejano  Dems, voting at the state level is done based on the strength of membership. So the more members you have, the more you can call the shots. Under Holguin's regime, the Tejano chapter here in El Paso suddenly added 400 + members. There were "renewals".

Problem is, a lot of people were automatically renewed without knowing - which means without consenting to being renewed as members. Essentially they were ghost members.

Anyone who has ever gone to a Tejano meeting knows there aren't 500 real members of Tejanos. There's like around 50-60 people that regularly attend and participate.

Here's the entire text of that portion of the letter:

Concern  #3, PDN Tejanos paid for the memberships of 513 members to the State Tejano Democrats. Questions have arisen about the manner and the amount in which the payment of memberships was made to the State Tejano Democrats. 
Under article III, Section 4 of the State Tejano Bylaws: Chapter Roster Reporting: states “ The Chair of each Tejano Democrats Chapter or an authorized representative shall submit to the Treasurer of Tejano Democrats a notarized roster of members of said local chapter in both hard copy and electronic version by first class U.S. Mail, postmarked at least thirty (30) days prior to a general membership convention.” Thus, the following information is needed from you ,the treasurer, as these fall within your purview;

1. Please provide the date during 2019 when the membership voted, approved and authorized  the payment of  $5,130 to the State Tejanos for membership fees for 513 members at $10 for each member. 

2. Please provide the financial report where the expenditure was made from the general operating account for the amount of $5,130. I am assuming the payment was made from the general operating account as there is no entry on the December 2019 report filed to the State Ethics Commission for a payment of this amount.

3. Please provide documentation that these 513 members either renewed their membership or were new members.  I believe that you should have the membership forms where these members authorized you, the treasurer, to pay their membership fees and  to submit their names, emails, phone numbers, and voter identification numbers to the State Tejanos organization. The membership list provided by former corresponding secretary, Linda Gonzalez-Hensgen, contains membership names without a phone number or an email address. Therefore, you should have the forms where these individuals consented and authorized you to pay their membership fees and to send their names to the State Tejano Democrats. I am requesting their physical mailing addresses so that a copy of this letter may be forwarded to them along with your responses to the concerns of the membership.  This issue is of utmost importance because of the following laws:

1. According to the Texas Penal code 32.51.2(b), A person commits an offense if the person with the intent to harm or defraud another, obtains, possesses, transfers, or uses an item of; 1. Identifying information of another person without the other persons consent. 

1. A felony of the first degree occurs if the number of items obtained, possessed, transferred, or used is 50 or more…

Eddie Holguin is no longer with Tejanos, but these are all potential financial issues that allegedly lead to him.

These issues have caused a lot of the membership to ask questions and there is growing concern about what has transpired under Holguin's leadership.