Lynn Walsh

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Video: HISD’s Lee High School shuffles staff, extends class time under program for struggling schools
Tue Aug 24 10:32:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

The Houston Independent School District is starting the 2010-11 school year with a new program at some high schools and middle schools across the district. Lee High School is part of the Apollo 20 program aimed at increasing academic achievement at underperforming schools in HISD.

Watch and learn what changes students and parents can expect at Lee and how much it is going to cost the district.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

HISD says travel policy revisions still on track for start of school; timeframe won’t allow for required board approval
Thu Aug 12 16:40:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

While the Houston Independent School District has nearly doubled its payments to a local travel agency this year compared to 2009, a district official’s promise of a new district-wide travel policy by the start of the school year has not held true.

UPDATE (5:07 p.m.) But that official still maintains the revisions will be ready next week.

Poor planning, a preferences for costly direct flights, agency fees for flight bookings and a toothless travel policy have led to unnecessary costs for district travel, a Texas Watchdog investigation found.
Texas Watchdog has been asking HISD administrators and Superintendent Terry Grier about the high travel costs and sometimes disregard of the travel policy’s preference for driving short distances.

Grier has said the district would carefully look at “any issues you have with travel” and declined further comment. Responses from HISD administrators have generally been via prepared statements that leave some questions unanswered.

One thing HISD Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett did tell Texas Watchdog in June is that a new policy would be in place by the start of this school year.

“As a result of the new organizational change and elimination of the regional offices, many policies and administrative regulations are being reviewed. This includes travel. The district will have updated travel guidelines ready for schools and departments prior to the start of school.”

The start of classes for some schools is Monday.

The August board meeting for HISD trustees is tonight, the last opportunity before the start of school for trustees to approve a new policy. The agenda contains no mention of such.

Texas Watchdog asked both Garrett and Grier’s Chief of Staff Michele Pola about the approval of the new policy. Neither has responded.

UPDATE (5:07 p.m.): Garrett said in an e-mail this afternoon that the district is still on track to update travel guidelines in its finance procedures manual for distribution next week. But it’s unclear how they can do so without board approval tonight. These “travel policies are established and approved by the Board of Education,” the document says.

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, 1800 W. 18th St.

Texas Watchdog will be there and will again ask about the status of a new travel policy.

Follow @TexasWatchdog on Twitter for live updates from the meeting tonight or search #HISD on Twitter.

Editor’s note: Texas Watchdog published a brief item about Garrett’s statement around 4:45 p.m. That item has been incorporated into the update paragraphs above.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

HISD employee double-dips with contractor to earn $187K a year; Grier: ‘Probably an ethical issue’
Wed Aug 11 05:03:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

A Houston Independent School District administrator has had a lucrative side job for at least three years — running an education nonprofit that has a nearly $2 million contract with HISD, something Superintendent Terry Grier says is “probably an ethical issue.”

Ann Stiles’ job at HISD in recent years has been overseeing the school system program coordinated by her own group, Project GRAD Houston, which tries to prevent low-income children in HISD from dropping out of school. Project GRAD has a $1.86 million contract with the Houston district, which school trustees renewed in June.

As HISD teacher specialist for Project GRAD, Stiles is a full-time HISD employee, earning a salary of $67,318 this year plus benefits, district spokesman Norm Uhl said.

But that’s not her only source of income. Stiles is also the executive director for Project GRAD Houston, where, according to the group’s IRS form, she earned $120,201 in 2008 and listed an average 40 hours of work per week. The total paycheck for the two jobs comes to more than $187,000 annually.

Stiles’ moonlighting was revealed Monday by Grier to school system trustees and the public. “I want to bring it to the board’s attention as it is probably an ethical issue that should be discussed,” Grier, who took over as the school system chief last September, told the group. He didn’t elaborate.

However, school officials had previously known of Stiles’ two jobs, Uhl said, though he did not elaborate on how long the district had known.

Asked whether an HISD employee is allowed to also work for a nonprofit that contracts with the district, Uhl said in an e-mail, “there does not appear to be a violation of any policy and it was known that she worked for the district. I just don’t think the question of the possible appearance of a conflict had been asked until now.”

Project GRAD Houston’s IRS form and its Web site list HISD Trustee Paula Harris as one of the group’s board members. Her name appears on the group’s IRS form on the same page as the one identifying Stiles as executive director. Harris and another HISD trustee, Anna Eastman, had questioned Grier about Stiles’ dual employment at the Monday meeting, but Harris did not volunteer publicly that she is a Project GRAD board member.

Stiles has submitted a resignation letter to the school district, effective Aug. 31, Uhl said. A school district staffer told the trustees Monday that the resignation had been turned in, though it was unclear exactly when it was submitted.

HISD salary records show Stiles has been a district employee since August 1993. She was initially hired as a teacher at Jefferson Elementary School, Uhl said.

The first reference to Project GRAD in Stiles’ employee file at HISD is in 1997, Uhl said, where Stiles is listed as a math teacher at the now-closed Lamar Elementary serving as a “Teacher Trainer under Project Grad.”

She began working as Project GRAD’s teacher specialist for HISD in August 2000, earning a salary of more than $40,000, Uhl said. Salary records show her HISD pay increased each year, up to the $67,318 she earned last year.

It was not clear at press time when Stiles became an employee of the nonprofit organization Project GRAD. IRS forms for the nonprofit were available online as far back as 2006, and all three years’ forms describe Stiles as the executive director.

Texas Watchdog called the Project GRAD Houston office number, asking for Stiles. A receptionist said Stiles was in a meeting and took a message. As of print, Stiles did not return the phone call.

HISD’s headquarters at 1800 W. 18th St. is 8.5 miles away from the Project GRAD office at 3000 Richmond — a 25-minute drive in traffic, according to Google Maps.

According to its website, Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) Houston is part of a national program that works to increase high school graduation and college attendance rates for low-income students. The national program grew “from a scholarship program which began in partnership with (the) Houston Independent School District in 1989.”

The group was founded by former Tenneco oil chief James Ketelsen and his wife, Kathryn; James Ketelsen is Project GRAD Houston’s president and board chairman, while Kathryn Ketelsen is one of Harris’ fellow directors. HISD named an elementary school after James Ketelsen in 2002.

In June HISD trustees approved a renewal of the contract between the Houston district and Project GRAD Houston. The agreement for the coming school year, for $1.86 million, includes work at three high schools — Jefferson Davis, John Reagan and Jack Yates — and five elementary schools, Thomas Jefferson, James Ketelsen, Adele Looscan, Clemente Martinez and Sidney Sherman.

The possible addition of a ninth site, Phillis Wheatley High School in northeast Houston, prompted Grier’s mention of Stiles’ dual employment at Monday’s school board meeting. The addition of Wheatley and the additional costs of $59,221 associated with it are up for approval by school trustees Thursday (agenda item D-4).

Do you think HISD should have a policy that prohibits an employee from receiving a taxpayer-funded salary from the school district while at the same time working for a business or nonprofit that contracts with the district?

Let Texas Watchdog know what you think. Contact Lynn Walsh, Lynn@TexasWatchdog.org or 713-228-2850. On Twitter, @TexasWatchdog or @Lwalsh, and follow #HISD for stories, meeting highlights and more on HISD.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

HISD trustees accept $3,000 in campaign donations from vendor CEP during debate on CEP’s contract renewal
Tue Aug 10 15:04:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

More than $3,000 in campaign contributions were made to Houston Independent School District trustees from individuals with connections to a district provider of alternative schooling during the months trustees were debating the renewal of the provider’s contract, campaign finance records show.
Houston ISD trustees Mike Lunceford and Larry Marshall each received individual donations from Randle Richardson, the founder and current owner of Community Educational Partners, and Phil Baggett, a chief executive at CEP.

CEP is a company based in Nashville, Tenn., that develops alternative school options for school districts across the country. In June HISD trustees renewed a contract with CEP of around $13.7 million for the 2010-11 school year. The renewal came after debates in the community, between trustees and a performance evaluation that was paid for by CEP.

Richardson donated $500 to Lunceford on Jan. 11, according to the campaign finance records. That same day, Baggett also donated $500. These were the only contributions Lunceford received during the January-to-June reporting period.

“I met with Richardson sometime between Christmas and New Year’s, and that is when he gave me the checks,” Lunceford said. “They are both involved with CEP, he (Richardson) told me about CEP, I did not know what it was, so I went out and looked at it.”

Lunceford said he was approached about the meeting with Richardson by Vidal Martinez, an attorney who represents CEP, sometime around October.

When asked by Texas Watchdog if he thought the contributions were meant to influence his vote, Lunceford said, “I don’t know what his intentions were, I am sure they were, but it did not sway my vote. I only vote for the kids.”

“I got contributions from lots of people who do business with HISD,” Lunceford said. Lunceford, whose district includes Bellaire High School, was elected to the school board in November.

CEP did not return a call for comment.

Richardson donated $750 to Marshall on Jan. 30, according to his campaign finance report. Five months later, on June 24, Richardson made another contribution to Marshall’s campaign, this time for $1,000. Baggett donated $750 to Marshall’s campaign on Jan. 30.

“History is there that shows they have contributed previously,” Marshall said. “I think it could be perceived a conflict if it were the first time they had donated.”

Marshall recently defended a consulting gig with CEP during an HISD board meeting, saying he had been a “consultant in Atlanta assisting them business development.” Marshall told Texas Watchdog that he made sure his consulting contract with CEP only included areas outside of Texas.

According to Marshall, he is no longer working for CEP and quit his position as a consultant the day a board conflict of interest policy was approved in 2004. The policy said the district could not “contract with a business entity in which a trustee or anyone related to the trustee…has any pecuniary interest” — in other words, a monetary or financial interest.

HISD law firms’ donations

Trustees reported other donations from companies doing business with HISD. Paula Harris’ campaign finance report lists a $500 contribution from the Bracewell and Giuliani PAC Committee in February and another $500 donation from Thompson and Horton LLP. Both law firms can represent HISD based on a list of law firms approved by the district.

Calls to Thompson and Horton and to Bracewell and Giuliani.

Accepting these campaign donations does not break any federal, state or local laws.

But if the companies had been vendors in a federal technology program, accepting some of those donations would have violated board policy. Under the new ethics rules for the E-rate program, the cap on campaign donations is $500 a year.

E-rate is a federal technology program that awards money to schools and libraries across the country. HISD had to pay $850,000 to settle a lawsuit with the federal government stemming from allegations of employees accepting gifts, meals and personal checks.

It was because of a federal investigation that HISD had to adhere to stricter campaign finance rules. But should a federal investigation be the only reason HISD trustees agree to campaign limits from vendors or contractors?

We want to know what you think. Contact Lynn Walsh at lynn@texaswatchdog.org or 713-228-2850. On Twitter: @lwalsh. Be sure to follow #HISD on Twitter for the most recent HISD updates from Texas Watchdog.

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Metro outpaces HISD on transportation costs; Metro says trend is true nationally
Thu Jul 22 18:47:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Metro spends more than $270,000 per bus in its fleet, more than seven times the roughly $37,000 per bus that HISD spends, according to a Houston Independent School District analysis that was produced this month.
“I know the cost per bus number difference is quite huge, but to be fair to Metro, they run more routes than we do so that probably explains a good portion of the difference,” said HISD Government Relations Director Rebecca Flores, who produced the analysis. Flores said she included capital costs for both HISD and Metro.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority took issue with the numbers underpinning Flores’ analysis, and said its buses have more amenities, travel more miles and require maintenance that school buses don’t require.

The HISD report said it costs Metro more than $371 million to operate annually, more than nine times the amount of money HISD spends on transportation, just over $41 million annually, the report says.

But according to Andy Skabowski, acting senior vice president of operations for Metro, the operating figure should not have included costs such as rail and the MetroLift service to transport people with disabilities. The more comparable figure is $195 million to operate Metro’s fleet of more than 1,232 buses, he said.

“The operating cost utilized in the HISD report was incorrect,” Skabowski said.

Skabowski questioned the figure HISD used to calculate how many miles per year its buses travel, saying they travel 49 million miles per year. HISD used a figure of 55 million miles, which Metro lists in its 2009 Annual Report.

Still, HISD was right about its overall thesis. According to the report, HISD does spend less money on transportation costs than Metro.

Even using Metro’s figures, the cost per bus would be about $158,000, still higher than HISD’s.

Skabowski said that nationwide the cost to maintain a transit bus is higher than the cost to maintain a school bus.

Why? Skabowski provided the following reasons in an e-mail:

* School buses are not designed for the type of service a transit bus operates. No air conditioning, they have a very basic suspension and minimal interior amenities.
* The mileage a transit bus runs in its 12 year life, (over 500,000 miles), the power plant (engine and transmission will require to be rebuilt in its lifetime. School buses never reach that mileage threshold in the 10 yr design life due to the low miles they are operated (around 100,000 miles).

Flores compiled the report after a comment at an HISD board workshop back in April:

Hisd says they have more buses than Metro and travel more miles than Metro BUT spend less money on transportation than Metro #Hisdless than a minute ago via Ping.fmLynn Walsh
lwalsh

HISD trustees requested more details and received the analysis three months later. HISD used Metro data from the beginning of October 2008 through the end of September 2009; the HISD figures are from the beginning of July 2008 until the end of June 2009.

Contact Lynn Walsh at at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org. Follow news about the Houston Independent School District on Twitter, #HISD.

Photo of a school bus by flickr user Michael (mx5tx), used via a Creative Commons license.

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Lee High School to get up to $1 million in structural repairs
Fri Jul 16 00:15:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Lee High School will be repaired after Houston Independent School District trustees agreed to an emergency use of capital funds at the July board meeting earlier tonight.
The engineering firm Matrix Structural Engineers will lead the project, which could cost up to $1 million, after trustees passed the agenda item unanimously.

HISD administrators have said the school in District VIII is in need of structural repairs. A portion of the school has sunk 9 inches, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said Thursday night.

Grier said this would not be a permanent fix and told trustees that the building will eventually need to be replaced. Grier on Monday questioned whether adding a planned running track to the campus in northwest Houston is the best investment right now. Trustees did not discuss the track Thursday night.

According to HISD, Lee High School was part of the 2007 Bond Program and received $5.5 million for renovation or repair work. The district says some of the work has already been completed but most is still in the design process.

This stabilization project, according to HISD, cannot be paid for with that pool of money, which was for “major building systems/ADA improvements,” not structural renovations.

According to the contract, Matrix will be responsible for obtaining contractors to stabilize the structure, continually monitoring the structural stability of the high school and assisting HISD in evaluating contractor proposals.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, Trustee Diana Dávila resigned. Find more background in this Houston Chronicle piece, and view video of Dávila’s statement below.

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

HISD considers emergency structural repairs to Lee High School
Thu Jul 15 12:33:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Houston Independent School District trustees are set to decide whether to use emergency funds to repair Lee High School at a board meeting later today.

The school is in need of structural repair, HISD administrators said Monday at a board workshop meeting. The board will decide whether to use capital funds on an emergency basis to pay for needed engineering, consultation and construction work.

HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said this would not be a permanent fix and told trustees that the building will eventually need to be replaced. Grier said a new running track is scheduled to be added to the high school and questioned whether adding a track to the campus in northwest Houston is the best investment right now.

“There is only so much room at that site,” Grier said. “If a new school needs to be built, we want to make sure there is enough room for it.”

HISD needs to use emergency funds, because there is not any leftover bond money or a present bond allocation associated with Lee to do the work.

Houston ISD trustees will also vote on whether to approve several grants, including a $1.8 million grant for an algebra readiness program.

The board meeting begins 5 p.m. at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, 4440 West 18th St. Be sure to follow @TexasWatchdog or #HISD on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Gift-giving culture flourished at HISD; vendors lavished cash, dinners and tickets on employees
By Lynn Walsh

A private birthday party at an upscale steakhouse, Houston Rockets playoff tickets, checks totaling $30,000 and the offer of a personal loan for an undisclosed sum were given to Houston Independent School District employees by private companies seeking millions of dollars’ worth of technology contracts with the school system, public records show.
The gift-giving stretched all the way to the schools’ top office — then-Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra and his wife saw three Rockets playoff games in a vendor’s luxury suite at the Toyota Center in 2005. The gifts were said to have begun as early as that year and as late as 2008, according to a memo from an outside law firm hired by the school district.

The frequency of the gifts suggests a culture where vendors extended the type of largesse — including personal loans and just plain cash to help with family problems — that some people would be embarrassed to seek from close friends and family. Vendors schmoozed with school officials and the district’s top technology officers on a private yacht and may have paid for one school system worker to go to Las Vegas twice, the records allege; one firm with a $45 million tech contract with the school system paid for cellphones for 26 school system workers at various times during the given period.

Such practices brought federal sanctions, costing the district around $1 million in direct costs — that’s about how much the district may spend to rehabilitate Lee High School in northwest Houston — and the loss of another $105 million federal technology funding.

But the practices did not yield any criminal charges for anyone involved with HISD, even though some of the allegations look similar to those in the case that sent a Dallas Independent School District employee to federal prison in a bribery and money laundering scandal. The gifts given to the HISD workers involve the very same federal tech program, called E-Rate, as the one in the DISD case, and they even involve some of the same players, such as Frankie Wong, a Houston businessman who entertained both DISD’s chief tech officer as well as two of HISD’s top tech officers on his yacht. The DISD official is now in a federal prison in Fort Worth, and Wong is being held at a federal facility in Bastrop.

Two of the employees named in the memo continued to receive pay raises and promotions while allegedly violating HISD E-Rate ethics policies, records show.

The revelation of the depth of the gift-giving also sheds new light on public, but vague, comments made recently by Saavedra’s replacement, new HISD Superintendent Terry Grier, suggesting Grier may have concerns about how vendors and contractors are chosen by the school system. Grier described seeing names of private firms being put on, and then removed, from lists of potential school system vendors with “no rhyme or reason except, quite frankly, influence where influence has no business coming from.”

Grier’s comments came right before HISD trustees approved minor construction and repair contracts in May. In his comments Grier called into question the entire contract approval process at HISD, but in the last two months Grier has declined to elaborate.

Except for trinkets like gift bags and drink holders, such gifts had been banned under HISD’s policies dating back to 2004, according to the Sept. 3, 2008, memo from two Bracewell & Giuliani lawyers to officials with the Federal Communications Commission and the Universal Service Administrative Co.

A new policy adopted by HISD trustees in March of this year banned gifts and limited campaign contributions from E-Rate vendors. The policy is aimed at squelching any improper relationships between HISD employees and vendors in the E-Rate program, which could bring HISD close to $90 million.

Grier “is comfortable with the progress that has been made,” he said via E-Rate compliance officer Richard Patton. “He thinks the past is behind us.”

Federal officials were scrutinizing the district as early as 2006, and that year shut down funding that benefited the vendors under the E-Rate program and sued the district.
The gifts

According to the memorandum, Saavedra “and a guest attended three Houston Rockets playoff games in the Analytical Computer Services Inc. (‘ACS’) suite in 2005.” The district contracted with Analytical Computer Services for more than $45 million between July 2005 and June 2009, a contracts database shows.
Houston Rockets shirt

The Rockets played three home games at Toyota Center in the 2005 NBA playoffs — games 3, 4 and 6 against the Dallas Mavericks in the playoffs’ first round. The Mavericks took the 7-game series, 4 games to 3, and were eliminated in the conference semifinals.

A little less than a month after the May 5, 2005, game 6 playoff match, Saavedra sent a check for $300 to Frank Trifilio “as reimbursement,” the memorandum says. Frank H. Trifilio is listed as the owner of ACS in the settlement agreement between HISD and the federal government that ended the controversy.

In an interview Wednesday, the former superintendent said he attended basketball games with his wife “in a suite at the invitation of one or two board members” and said it was probably in 2005. When asked which board members invited him, Saavedra said he did not recall but remembered “two or three board members” being there. The former superintendent, who left HISD in August, now works as a consultant and plans to teach at Texas A&M this fall.

According to HISD trustee conflict disclosure forms none of the trustees accepted any gifts, meals or tickets worth more than $50 throughout all of 2005. In fact, in all of the trustee conflict disclosure forms from 2005 to January of this year, board chairman Larry Marshall was the only trustee who reported accepting anything over $50 during that time period.

Back in 2009, Marshall reported receiving game tickets to both an Astros game and two Houston Texans NFL games. During an interview with Texas Watchdog last year, Marshall said, “I can’t say that there’s a high degree of frequency, but invitations flow. Invitations flow, and you’re constantly being invited to something.”

The ethics loophole exempts board members from having to report meals, gifts and entertainment from a vendor if the vendor is present. The loophole — which results in a lower ethical standard than the one imposed on district employees — is in state law and applies to other local officials.

“I did not realize it was a suite of a vendor,” Saavedra said.

Saavedra said once he realized it was a vendor’s suite, he knew he had to reimburse the firm for the tickets.

“I did not know the value of the tickets, so I sent a check for $300 along with a letter explaining them to inform me if the check did not cover the cost,” he said.

Saavedra said he is not sure if the check was ever cashed, and said he did not know attending the Rockets game with his wife was against E-Rate rules.

“I knew some of the trustees and some of the staff members were attending, and I believe the (HISD) head of technology was there as well, but I did not know it was against the policy or a violation,” Saavedra said.

The policies in place in 2005 did not say whether employees can accept tickets, meals, etc. and then pay for them later. But the policy in 2005 explicitly banned “game tickets (i.e. football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and other sporting events)…” That policy specifically referenced “district employees” and did not make reference to HISD trustees or the superintendent – something Saavedra pointed out to Texas Watchdog during the interview Wednesday.

“If a full reimbursement is made by such recipient in a timely manner, the item ends up not being a ‘gift,’” Patton said by e-mail in response to a question from Texas Watchdog. Reimbursement is “probably not the best method to limit the appearance of a conflict. … But, the policy does not specifically disallow the practice.”

Saavedra is not the only HISD employee named in the memorandum, which was from Bracewell & Giuliani lawyers George Foote and Kristin Berkland. Steve Kim, one of three former HISD technology employees at the center of the federal E-Rate investigation, “may have taken” trips to Las Vegas on the dime of vendor Hewlett-Packard in May 2005 and Frankie Wong in February 2005, according to the memorandum.

HISD documents show that “an unidentified district employee” registered for a conference in May 2005 at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, the memo says. But HISD is “unable to confirm that Mr. Kim accepted a trip to Las Vegas from HP on any of these dates,” the memo says.

Kim worked as a manager of network operations in the networking department and as of 2006 he earned more than $89,000 annually. Kim was terminated by HISD in April of 2007 via a letter of resignation effective April 10, 2007. He had worked for HISD since 1997.

Texas Watchdog was unable to reach Kim at a phone number listed for a Steve Kim in Sugar Land.

Wong was at the center of another scandal in Dallas, and was sentenced to prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to launder money, and eight counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

The charges and convictions stem from business Wong, then president of Micro Systems Enterprises, conducted with Dallas Independent School District as an E-Rate vendor more than five years ago, according to an article in the Dallas Morning News. Micro Systems Enterprises also did business as Micro Systems Engineering.

In the settlement agreement between HISD and the federal government, Analytical Computer Services is listed as being a “joint venture or associated company” with Micro Systems. A company called Micro System Enterprises received more than $7 million through contracts with HISD from July 2005 to June of last year, according to a contracts database obtained by Texas Watchdog under the Texas Public Information Act.

The investigation appears to have been triggered, or at least helped along, by an e-mail sent anonymously from a whistleblower inside HISD.

The e-mail begins by accusing Kim of “taking cash and gifts and trips from ACS who also operates as MSE.” The e-mail, addressed to the school board, also names Laura Palmer, another of the three former employees accused of accepting gifts and meals from E-Rate vendors. Palmer was an assistant superintendent for technology and information systems as of September 2006, and had retired as of October 2007, public records show. Texas Watchdog left messages at a home number listed for a Laura Palmer in Houston since last week, but did not receive return calls.

“There are a lot of great people here that will get affected and more importantly HISD does not need to suffer any more negative media,” the whistleblower writes. … “I care about where I work and don’t want to work in a department that is led by a shady manager.”

“The only document we ever found was an anonymous e-mail,” Chris Gilbert, a partner at the Houston-based Thompson and Horton firm, told Texas Watchdog. Thompson and Horton provides legal services to HISD. “To this day we still don’t know who the author of the e-mail was.”

In February 2006, according to the memorandum, a birthday party for Palmer was held at Truluck’s restaurant. “Approximately 15 people were in attendance and Mr. Bill Froechtenicht of MSE (Micro Systems Enterprises) paid for dinner.” The Truluck’s seafood and steak chain has multiple locations around the country, according to its website, and it’s unclear which one was the location of the birthday dinner.

Payments and gits to Palmer did not stop there. The memorandum relays comments from HISD’s inspector general, who said employee William Edwards told him that Palmer accepted personal checks and a boat ride from vendors:
checkbook

“In or around the summer of 2007, Mr. Larry Lehmann [managing partner and owner of Acclaim Professional Services] wrote checks in the total amount of approximately $30,000 to Ms. Palmer to help her with her son’s personal issues. Mr. Edwards reported that he saw Ms. Palmer accept some of the checks. Ms. Palmer reportedly cashed some, but not all, of the checks and repaid the amounts she received shortly after receiving the money.”

The memo does not elaborate on the nature of the personal issues.

Edwards, a former assistant superintendent of HISD’s Technology and Information Systems department, is the third former HISD employee accused of accepting gifts and meals from E-Rate vendors.

The memorandum links both Edwards and Palmer to accepting a ride on Wong’s fishing boat, the “Sir Veza” — the same name of a $305,000, 46-foot yacht connected to the E-Rate scandal in Dallas. Wong had created a company, Statewide Marketing LLC, which together with Micro Systems Engineering kept up the boat and made it available for the Dallas ISD’s technology chief, Ruben B. Bohuchot, who was also found guilty in the bribery and money laundering scheme, according to the Justice Department.

According to the memorandum, Edwards was offered a loan from Lehmann sometime between Jan. 1, 2005 and Dec. 31, 2008, to repair Edwards’ airplane. Edwards declined the loan, and the document doesn’t describe the amount of the loan.

Edwards earned more than $132,000 as of 2004, salary records show. He was hired in 1993 and was terminated by HISD via a resignation letter in March of 2005. No working phone number could be located for Edwards.

The memorandum also lists these gifts:

* ACS gave cellphones to approximately 26 district employees at one time or another from approximately August 2002 to February 2007.

* ACS gave Palmer 100 fanny packs in and around February 2006.

fanny packs

* In August 2006, Hewlett-Packard offered HISD two complimentary passes, worth more than $1,000 each, to the 2006 HP Technology Forum, which was held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. District employees Mark Landrum and Carl Bradley attended the event. Calls and e-mails to both Landrum and Bradley were not returned. A voicemail message left for Hewlett-Packard’s media office was not returned.

* Hewlett-Packard in April 2005 sent a computer and printer to HISD technology employees Ken Eaton and Wayne Franklin as a thank you for serving on a panel. The computers were supposed to be donated to an HISD school but remained at the school district’s west region office. Calls and e-mails to Eaton were not returned. Franklin is no longer employed at HISD, a district spokesman said. From July 2005 to June of last year Hewlett-Packard is listed as receiving close to $20,000 from contracts with HISD, according to a contract database Texas Watchdog obtained from the Houston school district. Hewlett-Packard banned ACS and Micro Systems Engineering from selling its equipment in late 2006, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Palmer, Kim and Edwards

During their employment at HISD, Palmer, Kim and Edwards all signed conflict of interest forms acknowledging they were aware of HISD’s policies against conflicts of interest. According to Patton, if an employee is “offered” a gift, “the recipient should report such action to my office so we can log the occurrence and educate the vendor about our policies.”

For years, Palmer and Kim did not disclose receiving any meal exceeding $50 per meal or $100 annually to the district. One of Palmer’s disclosures was signed and dated just days after the birthday dinner in her honor.

Edwards did not disclose “any gift, service, favor, loan or remuneration in excess of $25,” from any vendors associated with HISD. When asked on district forms to report any gifts, all three employees wrote, “none.”

Within months of the federal government’s freezing of HISD’s E-Rate funding in 2006, Palmer got a 45 percent pay increase and promotion, according to HISD personnel records. Palmer was listed as an assistant superintendent for technology and information systems as of February 2006, earning more than $122,000, a big boost over her previous salary of about $84,000 in 2005. She was earning more than $126,000 in fall 2007 and had worked with the district since 1994.

Texas Watchdog placed calls and e-mailed HISD’s current Chief Technology Officer Gregory Valdez to ask him if the culture of accepting gifts and meals from vendors has changed. Valdez did not return any phone calls or e-mails.

After the Federal Communications Commission filed a lawsuit against the district in 2006, funding under the E-Rate technology program was frozen, causing the district to lose $105 million in federal funding.

More than three years after the lawsuit was filed against HISD, the district paid $850,000 to settle the suit, and is once again receiving money under the federal program.

In Appendix A of the settlement agreement is a list of companies for which HISD submitted “false claims for payment” to the Federal Communication Commission for E-Rate projects; ACS and several associated companies are included in the list.

On top of signing a settlement agreement, HISD signed a subsequent compliance agreement that required HISD to hire an E-Rate compliance officer, who makes $150,000 annually. HISD hired Patton in February using a headhunting firm that reportedly charged $67,200.

Patton has spent hours training employees and board members on stricter ethics rules to avoid a repeat of the earlier problems. He has recommended HISD spend an additional $10,000 a year on monitoring software.

Texas Watchdog was unable to get in contact with ACS, Acclaim Professional Services or Micro Systems.

A contact number associated with ACS in an HISD contracts database was disconnected Monday, and the number associated with Micro Systems in the same database rang to a company voicemail for a different company. Texas Watchdog left a voicemail message that was not returned as of the deadline for this story. ACS no longer exists, according to Texas Secretary of State corporate filings. A phone number associated with a company called Acclaim Professional Services with the same address listed in the federal settlement for a company by the same name was disconnected.

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org. On Twitter, @lwalsh.

Photos all from flickr users, used via Creative Commons licenses. Image of a birthday cake by Rob J Brooks, a checkbook by oblivion9999, a fanny pack by amerainey, a Houston Rockets T-shirt by user aJ Gazmen GucciBear.

The HISD travel investigation that Texas Watchdog published has been featured on the Investigative Reporters and Editors blog:

District’s travel practices prove costly
Posted on June 21st, 2010

A Texas Watchdog review of three years of the Houston Independent School District’s travel records shows a penchant for pricey, last-minute tickets, and a toothless travel policy that allows teachers and staff broad discretion over travel spending. Reporters also spotlighted the school district’s use of a travel agency that adds $30 to every ticket issued by the district, even though the school system has two employees, paid $50,750 each, devoted full-time to making travel arrangements. Texas Watchdog used paper records, a database of credit card transactions, and interviews to develop this story.

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Ohio soap box derby park founders, but Commissioner Steve Radack still optimistic about racing hill in Hockley Park
Tue Jul 6 18:43:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

He’s built it. Will they come?

No, this is not a remake of the movie “Field of Dreams,” and so far, Kevin Costner has not made an appearance. But after spending more than $2 million of public money on a new hill in Houston, Commissioner Steve Radack has high hopes for the new Hockley Park soap box derby track. That’s even as a very similar public-private soap box derby park in Ohio is facing a financial bailout.

“It will be good for the economy and good for people to have,” Radack said. “There are no hills in Houston. It is unique to Houston. This is the highest point other than a freeway overpass anywhere near Harris County.”
Racers at Hockley Park

More than 30 senior citizens raced down the track on a recent Saturday in one of the park’s first public racing events of the year. Radack said he hopes the new race track provides more recreational opportunities for senior citizens and children with disabilities.

According to Radack the new derby park in Houston is one that rivals the same track used for the All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship race, a distinction Radack thinks will help bring people to Houston.
“There are people who travel (the soap box derby) circuit around the country,” Radack said.

That world championship race is held in Akron, Ohio, home to Derby Downs. According to an article in the Akron Beacon Journal, Derby Downs and the Hockley soap box derby park have the same size hill and same amenities: concession stands, grandstands and a barn to house the derby cars.

Although Derby Downs is home to the All-American Soap Box Derby, the park has lately been mired in financial trouble.

According to the Beacon Journal:

“Akron’s Soap Box Derby struggles with more than $600,000 in debt and the lack of a national sponsor for the fourth year in a row.”

Another article in the Akron newspaper said the Akron City Council donated $60,000 to the the derby park last year and backed the derby’s loan repayment to a bank.

And last Monday, the city of Akron agreed to donate $60,000 to the race track once again this year, the newspaper reported.

With this in mind Texas Watchdog asked Radack if the new race park will really help the economy or even be able to sustain itself?

“We have warmer weather here. I think people will use this track 300 days a year. People in Houston go golfing when it is sleeting,” Radack said. “As we get more people who are interested, we will have more and more organized races. I think there could be dozens a year.”

Radack said the new hill is mostly being used for activities other than soap box derby racing. According to the Harris County commissioner, people are enjoying biking, skating and just walking up and down the hill.

Why aren’t more people racing down in derby cars? Part of the problem lies in the scheduling and availability of derby cars.

Parkgoers with their own cars can race down the track anytime Hockley Park is open. The rest of the public must attend a scheduled event to use one of the more than 50 derby cars purchased by the county at what Radack said was a $26,452 total cost. Some cars are outfitted to accommodate a second rider, with a second set of controls for assisting a youth driver or a disabled driver.

When are the scheduled events? That is where it gets complicated.

Currently Harris County does not post a schedule on its website.

The only way of figuring out when an event will be is through a local nonprofit, the Greater Houston Soap Box Derby.

The local nonprofit has been racing in Houston in for years, and, according to Secretary Harry Harwood, helped the county develop the track at Hockley Park and is helping run it. Watch the video below to find out how.

The scheduled event Texas Watchdog attended June 26 was listed on the derby group’s website, not the county’s.
“We are not quite ready to kick it off officially, but it will happen pretty quickly,” Radack said. “Soon there will be all kinds (of publicity), and there will also be a commissioner site with the schedule.”

In the meantime, if you would like to take advantage of a longtime American pastime and see your tax dollars at work, you may contact the Greater Houston Soap Box Derby group by phone, 713-871-1304, or e-mail, ghsbd@hotmail.com. The next scheduled event for the public is Saturday, July 10.

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org. Photo of racers at Hockley Park by Lynn Walsh.