Lynn Walsh

Story written for Texas Watchdog:

Video: Houston ISD Trustee Larry Marshall says to beware of federal government, calls magnet school plan ‘overly ambitious’
Fri Mar 26 13:52:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

The Houston Press and Houston Chronicle have been reporting on a plan to open five new magnet schools within the Houston Independent School District. HISD Superintendent Terry Grier presented his plan to convert the five schools, and seek $12 million in federal tax dollars to pay for them, at a board workshop meeting Thursday. The plan would create or improve magnet programs at the following schools: Jones High School, Garden Oaks Elementary School, Fondren Middle School, Dodson Elementary School and Whidby Elementary School.

Trustee Larry Marshall said converting entire schools all at once may be “overly ambitious.” Marshall said the district has seen success with a model that employs a magnet school format for some students within a larger campus where other students follow a traditional model. But Grier said the rules governing the federal grant moneyHISD is seeking bar the district from using such a school-within-a-school approach.

See Marshall’s comments — including a caution against getting too involved with the federal government — in the video clips below.

Texas Watchdog Blog Chat:

Blog Chat with Texas Watchdog: Here’s a wrapup of the links featured today
Mon Mar 29 16:41:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Energy efficiency, “Enron” the musical, and an analysis of media coverage of the Texas governor’s race: Texas Watchdog explores the blogosphere and brings you these and other highlights for the last Monday in March. Here is a complete list of what was discussed on the latest edition of Texas Watchdog Blog Chat:

Stimulus program to make low-income homes energy-efficient struggling nationwide; see Texas Watchdog’s coverage of the $78K-per-home program in Texas

KTRK-TV: Houston makes top ten list for energy-efficient buildings

Slampo likens his new CenterPoint ‘smart meter’ to ‘three dollars and twenty-four cents per month of stupid’

Follow Sunshine Review’s FOIAchat Fridays (#FOIAchat)

KVIA: El Paso constable charged with assault

Grits for Breakfast riffs on the Dallas Morning News story about police officer who had informants sign blank pay sheets

The Galveston Daily News: Police ask AG to block release of date of births from FOIA requests

Rasmussen Reports: Texas media coverage favors White over Perry

Charles Kuffner posts audio interview with Houston Federation of Teachers head Gayle Fallon

Time: Enron Play Coming to Broadway?

Texas Watchdog: Follow @texaswatchdog on Twitter

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

State attorney general: Texas Education Agency can keep massive grant application confidential
Thu Mar 25 20:39:23 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

What does 800 hours of grant writing look like? You’ll just have to keep wondering.

According to an article by the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday, the Texas Education Agency does not have to release its application for a federal “Race to the Top” grant, which is funded through stimulus money. TEA never submitted the grant because Gov. Rick Perry prohibited the agency from competing for the federal money back in January.

Abbott’s office said TEA does not have to release the document because the state education agency is planning on applying for round two funding; releasing the grant, the AG’s office said, “could put Texas at a competitive disadvantage.”

The U.S. Department of Education has already posted first-round Race to the Top applications on its Web site. Applications submitted by 40 states and Washington, D.C., are already available online; so, can Texas be put at a competitive disadvantage if other states’ applications are already viewable?

And after spending around 800 hours on the application, doesn’t the public deserve a look or at least a peek at it? The Texas AG doesn’t think so.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

New ethics rules going into effect for Houston ISD trustees, employees working with E-Rate vendors
Thu Mar 25 19:39:26 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Houston ISD trustees are banned from accepting gifts — including certain campaign contributions — from technology vendors doing business with the school district under a federal program called E-Rate.

The new ethics rules on gifts also apply to the more than 200 employees and consultants who have contact with E-Rate vendors, the new HISD official in charge of E-Rate compliance said Thursday. The rules come after the district paid $850,000 to settle a lawsuit with the Federal Communications Commission, which was brought after HISD employees were accused of improperly accepting gifts from technology vendors in 2006. The school district also agreed to adhere to a compliance agreement drafted by HISD and the Department of Justice.

The compliance agreement prohibits any E-Rate program employee and HISD trustees from accepting certain gifts — specifically, “any gifts, meals, entertainment, or any other thing of value from any outside entity (or any consultant or other individual representing such an entity) that provides or seeks to provide goods or services pursuant to the E-Rate Program either directly or through a joint venture or resale arrangement.”

But the details on the rules are still fuzzy, and the official in charge of compliance, Richard Patton, punted on many of the answers board members had about the specifics during a training session for the board members on the rules. Patton said he’d have to get HISD’s lawyers to answer questions such as: Can a phone company donate to a golf tournament a trustee organizes? Can a trustee accept a meal from an HISD parent employed by the school’s phone company? What about stock holdings?

“We are trying to anticipate and establish controls so we can react in a positive way and comply with the compliance agreement,” Patton said. “The agreement is very gray. Do the same policies apply to sister companies of HISD E-Rate Vendors?”

The ceiling on a campaign donation — at $500 a year — is much higher than the cap for other gifts — described as anything that would be worth more than a greeting card or a writing pen, a detail that elicited some laughter from the trustees.

Trustees are also banned from doing more than $2,000 in business with any individual or company on the list of E-Rate vendors Patton provided. He said the list would be updated.

“Once a name is on the list, it will not be taken off,” Patton said. “If someone was the head of a company last year but is not two years from now, their name will still remain on the list because they are still considered an E-Rate vendor.”

Patton said HISD would establish controls to help board members meet the requirements.

One recommendation is for trustees to allow HISD to research each individual campaign contribution before a trustee formally accepts it by depositing the money or cashing the check.

But that could bring with it a heavy administrative cost, one legal expert said.

University of Texas School of Law Adjunct Professor Steve Bickerstaff also said he has not heard of any other school district overseeing individual campaign donations.

“I understand why, given the history with the program, that HISD would want the board to be very careful of accepting money,” Bickerstaff said. “I will not say whether it is good or bad. But, whether it is legal, I am not aware of any precedent.”

Bickerstaff is a former election law litigator and said school boards have a fair amount of power to allow their campaign donations to be regulated in this way. But the tab could get expensive, he said.

Trustee Harvin Moore said his campaign treasurer could do the research for him as long as an updated electronic list is provided. No decision on how trustees would hold themselves accountable to the policy was made, but trustees ultimately have the final say on whether HISD will scrutinize every campaign donation.

HISD hired Patton in February. Patton was an auditor with Duke Energy and was recruited by a headhunting firm that reportedly charged $67,200.

E-Rate funding was frozen in 2006 after three HISD employees were accused of of accepting meals and other gifts from E-Rate vendors. Patton said due to this prior incident the compliance policy for HISD is much more stringent.

Patton said he was glad to see so many questions raised by the trustees.

“It shows that they are taking it seriously,” Patton said. “That is a positive sign.”

HISD trustees have to sign the certification form by the end of this month, Patton said.

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Houston school system offers bonuses to lure teachers from California, Michigan, Florida, Louisiana
Wed Mar 24 16:48:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Houston ISD is looking outside Texas for new teachers and offering cash bonuses to get them here.

The district is looking specifically for teachers who specialize in any of three areas: bilingual education, secondary math and secondary science. These are areas in which, according to an HISD press release, the district has critical shortages.

HISD recruiters will be in Los Angeles, Calif., Thursday. In the coming months the HISD recruiters will head to Louisiana, Michigan and Florida to look for more qualified teachers.

Teachers have an incentive to move to Houston and teach in HISD thanks to new teacher recruitment and retention incentives approved at the March school board meeting.

If a teacher transfers to HISD and teaches in one of the three critical areas the bonus is $6,000; a special education teacher who transfers to HISD receives a $5,000 bonus. On top of those bonuses, a teacher relocating for the position can also receive a $1,500 relocation check.

The district has offered teacher recruitment incentives since 2001, but this is the first time HISD has offered relocation incentives. According to the proposal passed by the school board, the total amount of bonus and relocation incentives paid cannot exceed $1.7 million.

Due to education budget shortfalls in the Golden State, the California Teachers Association says more than 21,000 California teachers have received letters informing them that they will not have a job for the 2010-11 school year.

Recruiters from HISD will be in California on Thursday to recruit from close to 5,000 of the teachers who have received pink slips.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Harris County District Clerk Loren Jackson puts court documents a mouse click away

Tue Mar 23 20:20:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Getting civil court documents in Harris County is as easy as clicking your computer mouse.

Harris County District Clerk Loren Jackson has revamped the document request process by creating an online database of civil court documents in Harris County.

“Why not Harris County?” Jackson said. “We are the biggest county in Texas and third-biggest county in the United States. Why shouldn’t you be able to get court documents from an online database?”

Jackson felt it was important for everyone, not just news media or lawyers, to have access to the documents that pass through his office. Jackson remembers the time and money it cost him to travel to downtown Houston to look through court records when he was a practicing attorney.

“There is no reason that someone living out of state or out of the country should have a disadvantage when it comes to looking at court records kept here in Harris County,” Jackson said. “Now, anyone can look at the documents the same business day they are filed with our office from the comfort of their home at any time of day.”

Any petition filed and processed in the Harris County civil courts before 5 p.m. is posted on the same day to the database, which was launched in August.

Although Jackson said his office has received lots of praise for the online database, there is still more that can be done.

His current plea to judges across the county is to mandate e-filing for lawyers. E-filing would eliminate the need for Jackson’s office to scan and image court documents into the system. Instead, the lawyer would submit the document online to the district clerk’s office, which would verify the information and make it available to the public in the database in short order.

Not only would documents be available more quickly, but it would save Harris County a lot of money, Jackson said. According to an internal cost-study by Jackson’s office, e-filing would have saved the county more than $700,000 last year in processing costs.

Mixed in with the praise Jackson has been receiving for transparency is a recent lawsuit filed against Jackson and Deputy Clerk Wes McCoy by Courthouse News Service.

Texas Watchdog previously reported:

The case filed by the San Francisco-based legal journal accuses Jackson and McCoy of violating its civil rights by obstructing its ability to get immediate access to new case filings. In its complaint filed in U.S. District Court last summer, CNS charges that the defendants are “scooping” them.

From the lawsuit:

[The clerk's office] indicated they are in the process of implementing a new system of electronic scanning of new court filings, but instead of this new procedure expediting access to court filings, the opposite is true. … [The news service] must wait anywhere from two to five days to access the vast majority of new petitions.

In an interview with Texas Watchdog, Jackson said his office had curbed access to Courthouse News Service following a county auditor’s recommendation that non-employees should not be allowed access behind the office counters and in areas where cash was stored.

“This company used to be able to come down, behind the secure areas, behind the counters, and essentially just pull anything off of a clerk’s desk,” Jackson said. The county auditor recommended in October 2008 that only district clerk employees and sworn deputies should be permitted in certain areas of the office.

“Obviously, the company was not happy with not being able to come back behind the counters and grab things anymore.”

The case was settled by the county agreeing to pay $253,000.

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Coming soon to Texas Watchdog: The Texas university where officials enjoy flying — and seeing your money fly away
By Trent Seibert

Tune in soon to see Texas Watchdog’s latest featured report. This time, we’re taking a look at a major Texas university and how officials there enjoy using the state’s airplane fleet to travel. The catch? These folks used the expensive state planes when, in many cases, they could have easily driven or used a commercial airline to travel much more inexpensively.

Come back to Texas Watchdog soon to see the story of school officials who got the travel bug using public money.

A video for Texas Watchdog:

Texas Watchdog looks at how the powerful lobbying firm Hillco Partners has given thousands of dollars’ worth of free office rent to the state Mexican American Legislative Caucus and its nonprofit foundation despite state laws that prohibit campaign contributions to lawmakers during the state legislative session. Read the entire story at www.texaswatchdog.org. Story by Steve Miller, Steve@texaswatchdog.org. Video by Lynn Walsh, Lynn@TexasWatchdog.org.

A video for Texas Watchdog:

For more than a year the Texas Lottery has been operating without an Executive Director. Now, annual salary for the open position may be increased by 32%. Lottery commissioners have asked state budget officials for the increase but no decision has been made. Check out www.texaswatchdog.org for the entire story. Video by Lynn Walsh, lynn@texaswatchdog.org.

A video for Texas Watchdog:

State Rep. Todd Smith left this voicemail for a Tarrant County Republican leader in 2009 during the debate over whether to require photo ID at the polls. Smith says he was irritated at the leader, who was opposing Smith’s move to a compromise bill. Smith said his comment was not directed at Republican women at large.