It’s not enough to pay the $1,000-a-month cell phone allowance of an indicted superintendent at the El Paso school district. Officials there apparently have to break the state’s open records law, too.
The El Paso Times sought records related to the El Paso Independent School District's dealings with a Houston company called Infinity Resources & Associates in December 2009. The district failed to comply and did not seek a ruling from the state Attorney General’s office, according to this story.
The district finally released the records following the July indictment of Superintendent Lorenzo García, a year-and-a-half later.
“From what I've heard, there is sufficient evidence of criminal negligence to warrant an investigation by the El Paso County district attorney," Houston First Amendment lawyer Joe Larsen told the newspaper for Sunday’s story. “The information was obviously there. You've got (a later) FBI investigation, so there is plenty of motive to try to throw the requestor off the track here. That's suspicious because, ultimately, this thing drew law enforcement attention."
The district declined to speak about the possible infraction, but a school board member told the Times that the problem could have been “human error.”
Garcia is accused of engineering a no-bid contract with Infinity, which is operated by former Houston Independent School District employee Tracy Ledford, also known as Tracy Rose.
“Tracy Ledford was employed with the district from 11/2/2009 to 9/1/2010," the district said in an e-mail to Texas Watchdog. She was hired as a curriculum specialist, and her position was eliminated Sept. 1, 2010, the district said.
The district finally released the records following the July indictment of Superintendent Lorenzo García, a year-and-a-half later.
“From what I've heard, there is sufficient evidence of criminal negligence to warrant an investigation by the El Paso County district attorney," Houston First Amendment lawyer Joe Larsen told the newspaper for Sunday’s story. “The information was obviously there. You've got (a later) FBI investigation, so there is plenty of motive to try to throw the requestor off the track here. That's suspicious because, ultimately, this thing drew law enforcement attention."
The district declined to speak about the possible infraction, but a school board member told the Times that the problem could have been “human error.”
Garcia is accused of engineering a no-bid contract with Infinity, which is operated by former Houston Independent School District employee Tracy Ledford, also known as Tracy Rose.
“Tracy Ledford was employed with the district from 11/2/2009 to 9/1/2010," the district said in an e-mail to Texas Watchdog. She was hired as a curriculum specialist, and her position was eliminated Sept. 1, 2010, the district said.
***
Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.
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Photo of money and magnifying glass by flickr user Images_of_Money, used via a Creative Commons license.
Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feeds in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, and tumblr.
Photo of money and magnifying glass by flickr user Images_of_Money, used via a Creative Commons license.
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