Lynn Walsh

An investigation for Texas Watchdog:

Back story on HISD’s travel habits; Texas Watchdog found wasted taxpayer dollars, poor planning, toothless travel rules
Mon Jun 14 20:18:00 2010 CST
By Steve Miller and Lynn Walsh

Our Friday story concerning the often unbridled travel habits of HISD employees was one of those serendipitous projects, akin to a kid finding a rare coin while picking up slugs at a construction site. (Hey, we used them in coin-operated machines, and they worked.)

In this case, last fall we were perusing Houston Independent School District credit card statements as part of a story on the issuance of district cards to employees with bankruptcies on their credit records. As part of our review of spending on these district cards, known as P-cards or procurement cards, we became interested in the way the cards were used to pay for travel.

So we requested a handful of receipts and records that might further illuminate the district’s travel habits. The records were requested under the Texas Public Information Act, a law aimed at guaranteeing the public’s right to access public documents.

We noticed flights purchased on extremely short notice. And it kept happening, sometimes for trips lasting three or four days. This led to a request to further inspect travel records, which ended up as Friday’s story.

As we wound this story down, we found we had numerous unanswered questions. Who is this Advantage Travel, and why are they working for HISD when the district has two dedicated travel staffers?

So we asked for any contract with Advantage and any documents surrounding the related bidding process.

We also wondered what kind of budgeting is done for travel. Is there a pot of money for each school? We asked for details.

We did not receive this information in time to include in our initial story. We will have more on these questions and any others that arise.

As the story progressed, we also realized that travel by higher-level officials, including trustees and Superintendent Terry Grier, was not included in these records. So we have a new avenue to explore. What about higher-ranking officials? Do they fly first-class?

The district has an obligation to be accountable for the money it spends on travel. We have found some abuses of common sense, which means we want to continue checking into things.

If you have additional questions we should ask, please contact us at news@texaswatchdog.org or 713-980-9777.