The president of the Houston schools trustees defended her friendships with people doing business with the school district at last week's school board meeting, while another trustee defended going on all-expenses-paid trips to Costa Rica arranged by the school district's flood insurance agent -- and said he planned to go on more such trips. 

Paula Harris, president of the Houston Independent School District trustees, said she had many friends doing work with the school district.

Her comments came after a presentation at Thursday night's school board meeting that she said was dedicated to all of HISD's teachers, principals, partners and vendors, "all of the folks that provide a great service and provide great added value to the Houston Independent School District. And I’m not ashamed ever to say that I’m friends with some of them." She pointed out a couple of them in the audience by name, volunteers with the nonprofit Project GRAD. 

"Sometimes it's hard to be my friend. They're gonna do a story every week about my friends, I got so many friends in this district, so many places I sit on this district," she said, smiling, prompting laughter from the audience. "But that’s fine. Just know, if you don’t deny me, I won’t deny you. I consider you friends, and I’m very happy to see (you)."

Texas Watchdog reported recently that Harris had voted four times on contracts totalling $28 million that included work for a company owned and run by a close friend. The friend's firms also had done a total of more than $100,000 in no-bid work for the school district that did not require a vote of the trustees.

Also at Thursday night's meeting, HISD trustee Larry Marshall said his trips to Costa Rica did not pose a potential conflict of interest and said he planned on taking more such trips in the future.

"The journey to Costa Rica was by invitation of the Costa Rican government, by invitation of the Costa Rican government, not by invitation of a vendor," said Marshall. "When you read the story in the newspaper there was the impression that there may be a conflict of interest. I did not go to Costa Rica courtesy of a vendor -- I was there representing the government as their guest, and I have received many other invitations from many Latin American countries as a consequence of that visit because many of those countries have excellent health care programs. 

"As a trustee, I need to ask myself, what do I bring to the table? How can I make a difference in terms of how we do business with health care industries? So, we’re moving on that.

"But that was my motivation for running for the board in 1997. I enjoy HISD. I enjoy the consultancy arrangements that I work under, look forward to future visits to try and make a difference in the Houston Independent School District, to be a resourceful board member and not be parasitic." 

The trips Marshall took were paid for by the Costa Rican government and were arranged by state Rep. Borris Miles, D-Houston, who is also an insurance agent and who services some of HISD's flood insurance. A representative of the Houston Federation of Teachers went on the trip as well. Miles extended the offer of the trip to a majority of the HISD trustees last year, and told Texas Watchdog he had extended the invitation in the past to other school board trustees from across Texas as well as fellow state House members and other influential people.