Texas Watchdog

Corpus Christi child care provider Beacon of Hope lacked documentation for $1.5 million in taxpayer money: Audit

Thu Sep 2 11:26:00 2010 CST

A report by the state auditor released today found that because of poor documentation it was impossible to determine how child-care provider Beacon of Hope Foster Care Agency Inc. spent its $1.5 million budget of federal and state funds in 2009.

The critique of Beacon of Hope, which last year served 218 children in Corpus Christi and Harlingen, was part of a review of five of the state's 232 child-care providers. The audit criticized Seton Home of San Antonio and Houston Serenity for failing to provide documents to support how they spent federal and state funds. Harmony Family Services of Abilene and Behavioral Healthcare Services Inc. of Arlington got clean financial bills of health from the auditor.

The audit criticized Beacon of Hope for lack of or poor documentation while preparing its report of costs in 2009. Revenue and expense records were inconsistent, and several expenditures were either not allowed or understated, the report said.

In a letter to the auditor agreeing in principle with the findings in the report, Adriana Orozco, executive director of Beacon of Hope, said changes would be made in documenting and reporting to address the Auditor's concerns. Orozco told the auditor that Beacon of Hope disagreed that its lapses constituted serious financial weakness.

Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of toy blocks by flickr user ladybugbkt, used via a Creative Commons license.

Residents thankful for federal stimulus assistance; Sheltering Arms boosts work quality in weatherization program

Wed Sep 1 15:46:00 2010 CST

Standing in Doris Solomons' cramped but cool living room as the sobs choked her gratitude, I couldn't help but think all of this should have happened months ago.

Here was a woman who had recently lost her son to skin cancer, who had almost lost faith in a system that had promised to help her, testifying before a touring party of state and local officials on a swampy Tuesday in Houston. Across the little room from her was a brand new, properly ventilated space heater. In the tiny kitchen, separated by just a sheer hanging sheet, was a new refrigerator and her pride, a stove with hinges that actually kept the oven door from falling off.

The new solar screens meant Solomons would no longer have to block the sun on the windows with aluminum foil. The doors were sealed, cracks were caulked and insulation blown in behind the walls. Blessedly brisk air poured from a new unit. And all "on account of you all and the good Lord," Solomons told her benefactors before tears shut her down. "Y'all don't understand. Oh, my God. I can't talk about it."

This, these officials told me after thanking Solomons for her graciousness, was what the Weatherization Assistance Program was all about. This was what Sheltering Arms Senior Services of Houston has been doing for people like Solomons for 30 or more years, Lynne Cook, the chief operating officer for the social services nonprofit, said. This is what the power of $326 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds was doing for people all over Texas, Michael DeYoung, a weatherization director for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, said.

This was as if to say that Texas Watchdog's dozens of stories and blogs over the past eight months were looking at the weatherization in only one way, in a detached and negative way. And in a way, it's true. Texas Watchdog has reported extensively on Sheltering Arms' $22 million stimulus weatherization grant. The problems with the program have brought national attention. This is what we do here: hold government accountable for how it spends yours and our tax dollars.

But it isn't all we do. Back in January, Housing and Community Affairs officials who were having trouble getting weatherization moving in Texas said Sheltering Arms contractors were leading the state in the number of low income housing units made more energy efficient. Texas Watchdog asked then to visit weatherizing sites and to talk to some of the people, like Solomons, fortunate enough to get their homes remade and their utility bills reduced with as much as $6,500 in stimulus money for each home. And by seeing for ourselves, as a free press is compelled to do, we thought we could provide a public service by independently evaluating the work.

Sheltering Arms did not follow through on those requests. Instead, their attorneys asked for and got a ruling from the state attorney general that allowed Sheltering Arms to keep secret the names and addresses where weatherization work was being done. Sheltering Arms was using the law to prevent Texas Watchdog from telling the weatherization story in the other, more human way.

Thank Michael Gerber, the director of Housing and Community Affairs, for convincing the people at Sheltering Arms to change their way of thinking. Gerber has been stung by the coverage of his department having to move quadruple time to efficiently put into the pipeline a weatherization budget more than 12 times what the department had been receiving annually before the stimulus.

Gerber has also been demanding of Sheltering Arms, insisting on administrative and monitoring changes to improve the quality of the work being done by its contractors. The nonprofit has taken the criticism to heart, hiring an internal inspection chief and seeing a steep drop in its administrative expenses.

Sheltering Arms continues to lead the way among the 44 agencies in Texas running weatherization programs, having weatherized nearly 2,000 homes through August. In its second monitoring report of contractor's work, state inspectors found 17 faulty weatherizing jobs out of 83 units inspected, by no means perfect, but a considerable improvement over a first state inspection that found that 60 percent of the jobs would require a return visit.

"Are they doing everything they should be doing? Not yet," DeYoung said. "But they have made a lot of improvement and have shown a willingness to work with our department to get better."

Sheltering Arms couldn't have had better spokespeople for its work than the people it enlisted to take part in the tour on Tuesday.

People like Ollie James, living in one of the 189 units that received new air conditioning units and extensive energy efficiency upgrades at the Cambridge Village apartments. James, who keeps his one-bedroom apartment at 73 degrees because of a heart condition, presented utility bills showing monthly reductions of between $100 and $150 compared to the same period last year.

"I sat right here watching them replacing my windows," James said from the corner of his sofa. "They done a wonderful job."

Lost in their insistence on protecting the privacy of their clients was the opportunity to tell the story of stimulus weatherization as part of what Sheltering Arms has always done to help low-income and elderly people live better lives, Cook said. Cook said she hoped that by "over-communicating" with clients as well as the public she could better convey their message -- even though Cook would not permit Texas Watchdog to bring a videographer on the tour to document the finished work.

"Some of it has had to do with quality issues, some of it with communication," Cook said. "But I am pleased with the improvements we've made. We know because we've been out there talking to clients. We want them to know we are committed. We are so committed."

Gerber joined the group at the end of the tour, eyeballing the outer walls of Lucille Goff's home in south Houston near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where a crew was in the middle of completing about $3,500 in weatherization work. He congratulated Cook on the improvements made by the Sheltering Arms teams.

He clearly enjoyed not only seeing how the money his department controlled was put to work but that others were seeing it, too, even if a few months late. "This," he said with a smile, "is where the rubber meets the road."

Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.

Read more about how the federal stimulus is playing out in Texas. Search STIMULUS at www.texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of electricity meters by flickr user Fatty Tuna, used via a Creative Commons license.

Investigating schools up for discussion during the next TrentTV | Sept. 28 on newmediatv.org

Wed Sep 1 14:02:00 2010 CST

Interested in digging into your local school system? Then please join us for the next TrentTV, when we'll be talking about strategies and tips for investigating schools, using examples from our coverage of the Houston Independent School District. The interactive webinar is free and open to the public. We hope you can join us at 11:30 a.m. CST on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at newmediatv.org.

TrentTV is a monthly training webinar for journalists, activists, citizen-journalists and bloggers. It's produced by Texas Watchdog and New Media TV.

Questions? E-mail news@texaswatchdog.org or call 713-980-9777.

Texas House delays shredding records that could aid investigation into Rep. Joe Driver's double-billing of travel expenses

Wed Sep 1 13:48:00 2010 CST

Texas House administrators agreed to delay its annual shredding of travel reimbursement reports in cooperation with a Travis County investigation into alleged illegal double-billing by state Rep. Joe Driver.

Driver, R-Garland, told the Associated Press he and his campaign have also agreed to cooperate with District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, who asked that the travel records for state representatives for fiscal year 2005 be preserved for her examination. House travel records are shredded after five years.

Lehmberg initiated an investigation after Driver told the Associated Press he had for years paid for his government travel with money from his campaign fund while billing for and receiving reimbursement for those same bills from tax funds. The AP's review showed he had double-billed for at least $17,431.55 in travel expenses since 2005. Driver, a state representative since 1993, said he never realized he was doing anything wrong.

According to a 1994 ruling by the Texas Ethics Commission, a representative receiving taxpayer-funded reimbursement for such expenses must return that reimbursement to his or her campaign fund.

The campaign earlier said Driver had put $49,426 into his campaign account, a figure calculated from reimbursements claimed on travel records that were not yet shredded. It is uncertain how much reimbursement Driver received between 1993 and 2004.

Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.

Members of HISD committee overseeing bonds told to re-apply as district overhauls committee

Tue Aug 31 18:40:00 2010 CST

A watchdog committee for the Houston Independent School District’s major building projects could be injected with new membership after sitting members were notified they must reapply for their positions and verify they have no personal or professional conflicts of interest.

The nine members of the Bond Oversight Committee were e-mailed the application, as well as a new charter for the committee, on Monday by HISD Chief Operating Officer Leo Bobadilla, who announced last month a plan to rid the committee of any entanglements. The committee reform comes after former Trustee Diana Dávila tried to get her husband appointed to the panel.

“A completed application provides a single process to know that (members have) reviewed the charter, have no conflicts and plan to continue to serve on the committee,” Bobadilla told committee members in e-mail correspondence obtained by Texas Watchdog.

According to the new charter, at least one member must have experience in engineering or building design, but none of the seats are reserved for specific community groups like the Houston Citizens Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Houston Partnership, which was the previous arrangement. The board oversees the district’s nearly $1 billion bond program.

The committee members are also barred from making decisions that would benefit themselves, their businesses or immediate family members. The charter puts in place a cooling-off period of one year between when a member’s service on the committee ends and when he and his company are eligible to bid on district construction project.

Tension between committee members and HISD as well as discord over the filling of open seats have kept the board in the news.

Last month, the Houston Chronicle reported that Dávila attempted to get her husband, Abel Dávila, on the committee last November. He is the former chair of the Houston Community College Board of Trustees and is at the center of a conflict of interest investigation there.

According to the article, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier ultimately denied the request, but approved Dávila’s second suggestion, Manuel Barrera Jr., who had been in charge of her campaign. In the last month, both Barrera and Dávila have stepped down from their positions.

HISD Board President Greg Meyers said he favors a review of the committee’s membership and possibly getting new members.

“We will be looking at them to see if there will be a conflict interest and want to make sure they are completely transparent,” he said in an interview with Texas Watchdog. “The active members who are in compliance --- meaning they have no conflict of interest on the personal or business side --- have the opportunity to stay on.”

Meyers said applications for the vacant positions will be available online.

“The best thing in the world would be to have people come in and serve,” Meyers said. “We want people to be involved.”

At least one member, former Houston City Council member Carroll Robinson, indicated he doesn’t intend to re-apply.

In an e-mail to Bobadilla, Robinson said:

“Does your request for current Bond Oversight Committee Members to file an application mean that our service has come to an end and is no longer needed? If so, I am happy to have served and do not wish to apply to be considered for reappointment.”

Robinson spoke out in the Chronicle article, apparently frustrated that for an oversight board, the members were given little power.

"The expectation was you just shut up, listen and go home. That's never been my experience when I'm responsible for exercising some fiduciary responsibility," said Robinson, an associate professor at Texas Southern University.

According to Meyers, if a member chooses not to fill out the application the position will become vacant, and trustees will appoint a replacement based on Superintendent Terry Grier’s recommendation. The new charter does not have to be approved by HISD trustees, Bobadilla said in an e-mail to a district spokesman.

Committee members have until Sept. 10 to fill out the application, according to district officials. Those who are determined by HISD not to have any conflicts of interests “may continue to be on the Committee for the remainder of their term (not to exceed one year),” district spokesman Norm Uhl said via e-mail.

Unlike the old charter, the new charter does not name any professional groups as receiving guaranteed representation, but it does give broad guidance on community involvement, characterizing the committee makeup in this way:

“1. Members active in a business organization representing the business
community located in the District.
2. Members who are parents or guardians of a child enrolled in the District and also active in a parent-teacher organization.
3. Members of the community at-large.
4. At least one member with building design and/or construction experience.”

Current members of the Bond Oversight Committee:

Terence Cheng, nominated by the Greater Houston Partnership
Edmund Gor, nominated by the Asian Chamber of Commerce
Chris Hudson, nominated by the American Institute of Architects, Houston Chapter
Mary Nesbitt, nominated at-large by Superintendent of Schools Terry Grier
Ber Pieper, committee chair, nominated by the Associated General Contractors, Houston
Carroll Robinson, nominated by the Houston Citizens Chamber of Commerce
Gary J. White, nominated at-large by Superintendent of Schools Terry Grier

HISD Trustee Mike Lunceford served as a member of the bond oversight committee prior to becoming a school board trustee.

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

Texas Rep. Solomon Ortiz' use of Congressional travel stipends under investigation

Tue Aug 31 11:38:00 2010 CST

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Rep. Solomon Ortiz has been contacted by House investigators who are looking into the use of overseas travel stipends, according to lawmakers who were also contacted. This follows the newspaper's reporting in March that stipends had been used for unauthorized purposes, and that some lawmakers were apparently ignorant of the rules governing use of the money.

Congressional rules say the daily travel funds, called a per diem, must be spent on meals, cabs and other travel expenses. But when lawmakers travel, many of their meals and expenses are picked up by other people, such as foreign officials or U.S. ambassadors. That can leave lawmakers with leftover money. Lawmakers routinely keep the extra funds or spend it on gifts, shopping or to cover their spouses' travel expenses, according to dozens of current and former lawmakers.

The articles do not accuse Ortiz, a Democrat whose district includes Corpus Christi, of any specific wrongdoing but quote his suggestion that it's routine for lawmakers on a trip to spend some of their allotment, then pocket the remainder. Some lawmakers (none noted from Texas) provided records indicating they return the difference to the U.S. Treasury.

The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which is conducting the investigation, is barred under House rules from making its findings clear until after the November election. The newspaper reports that the subjects of the investigation are split cleanly along party lines, three Democrats, three Republicans.

The use of taxpayer-funded travel by public officials has been in the news, with a California activist calling attention to lawmakers who pay for expenses related to their work in Austin from campaign funds while still accepting the taxpayer-funded $168 per diem. Dave Palmer alleges wrongdoing by 34 Houston and San Antonio legislators and filed complaints with the Travis County district attorney and the Texas Ethics Commission earlier this month, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

In a separate matter, an Associated Press investigation found that state Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, had double-billed the state and his campaign account for at least $17,431.55 in travel expenses since 2005.

Lee Ann O'Neal can be reached at 713-980-9777 or at leeann@texaswatchdog.org.

Harris County commissioners OK emergency voting machines plan after fire destroyed equipment

Mon Aug 30 17:26:00 2010 CST

Harris County officials will purchase and borrow voting machines after the Commissioners Court approved a plan to do "any and all things necessary and convenient" to be prepared to hold the November election.

The commissioners unanimously approved the order this afternoon, lifting the usual competitive bidding requirements that would govern the purchase of machines and authorizing county officials to make deals with other local governments to borrow from their stock. The measure was amended to specify that the county would seek eSlate machines like those destroyed Friday in a fire.

Nearly all the county's voting machines were destroyed in a fire early morning at a county warehouse, at 606 Canino Road near the Hardy Toll Road and Little York Road north of downtown. Early voting in the November election, in which voters will choose a governor, starts in less than two months.

County Clerk Beverly Kaufman said she had already received offers from other counties to loan equipment to Harris County, and that the secretary of state was helping spread the word about the county's need. She said it was too soon to estimate how many machines she could secure on loan, but "there's no way we're going to get more than we need."

Kaufman said she was not planning on consolidating polling places to compensate for the lost voting machines.

Public interest in the county's decision seemed high, with more than a dozen people listening to proceedings from the hallway because the courtroom was filled to capacity.

Kaufman cast a confident but urgent tone to the situation.

"We have no time in which to accomplish what's ahead of us," she said.

Also reporting: Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, KPRC Channel 2

Contact Lee Ann O'Neal at leeann@texaswatchdog.org or 713-980-9777.

Photo of an eSlate voting machine by flickr user kalebdf, used via a Creative Commons license.

State Securities Board failed to follow up on investigations into sellers of financial securities: Auditor

Mon Aug 30 11:45:00 2010 CST

A third of the inspections done by the State Securities Board in 2008 and 2009 have not been acted upon by the board, a review by the State Auditor's office found.

In a report released today, the auditor recommended the Securities Board develop a policy establishing a timeframe for closing inspections or risk undercutting their effectiveness.

The board, which registers some securities including mutual funds, registers and oversees securities sellers and monitors and investigates securities fraud in Texas, left open 157 of its 476 investigations over the two-year period. A response from the board can range from a notice of pending legal action to a notice of no action at all.

The board, however, had no plan for bringing investigations to a close, the report concluded.

Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.

Three-alarm fire destroys nearly all of Harris County's voting machines two months prior to Election Day

Fri Aug 27 19:03:00 2010 CST

Nearly all of Harris County's voting machines were destroyed this morning when a huge fire burned the Houston warehouse where the machines were stored.

The three-alarm fire at the county building at 606 Canino Road, near the Hardy Toll Road and Melrose Park north of downtown, destroyed thousands of voting machines with a little more two months remaining before the Nov. 2 election. The Houston Chronicle has video from the fire scene.

Harris County is the nation's third most populous county, and about 10,000 pieces of election-related equipment were warehoused in the building that burned, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett's office said in a press statement this afternoon. The cause is still under investigation, the statement said.

The Harris County Commissioners Court has called a special meeting for 2 p.m. Monday to make arrangements to buy and lease replacement machines for the November election.

More coverage:

Bond ratings downgrade of Harris County-Houston Sports Authority spurs one commenter's call for a 'professional sports salary' tax

Fri Aug 27 15:50:00 2010 CST

The declining outlook for the creditworthiness of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority has been taken by Houston Clear Thinkers writer Tom Kirkendall as one more reason not to use public money for a large-scale renovation of the Astrodome.

It's also sparked debate over the authority itself. One commenter on the Houston Chronicle message board suggests a truth-in-advertising approach to the taxes that build sports facilities. Let's call them "professional sports salary" taxes, the commenter suggests. It's doubtful the lawyers would let that one slip through.

There's more background on the issue in this Texas Watchdog post from October, when Bloomberg reported on the possibility that the almost $1 billion in debt would need to be refinanced after projections of tax revenue fell short (by double-digit percentage differences). The sports authority's financing relies on hotel/motel and car rental taxes. Maybe every Houstonian who is able should bring an out-of-town friend in for a visit and book them a stay at a swanky hotel?

In reporting on Moody's Investors Service's latest downgrading of the bonds, the Houston Business Journal captured the severity of the situation:

“Moody’s believes the liquidity reserves are sufficient to cover the November 2010 payment, but their depletion may result in a payment default from pledged revenues as early as March of 2011,” the report said.

BlogHouston casts what seems to be a rueful glance at the sports authority chairman's stubborn optimism even in the face of such news.

Contact Lee Ann O'Neal at leeann@texaswatchdog.org or 713-980-9777.

Cartoon illustration of an IOU bag by flickr user zolierdos, used via a Creative Commons license.

Houston Votes group: No voter fraud, just human mistakes being exploited by "partisan" Harris County Voter Registrar

Fri Aug 27 15:44:00 2010 CST

A Houston group accused of submitting thousands of faulty voter applications today called any errors "common, ordinary human mistakes" and said the charges amounted to politically motivated voter suppression.

Houston Votes also said it would call on the Justice Department to investigate possible voting rights violations by Harris County voter registrar Leo Vasquez, who "apparently intends to reduce his workload by intimidating people from registering" to vote.

Vasquez earlier this week questioned the legitimacy of thousands of registrations submitted by Houston Votes. Applications collected by the group were riddled with duplicate registrations, forms for voters already on the rolls and applications for people not eligible to vote because of age or citizenship status, he said at a press conference.

See Texas Watchdog's original story here.

See the Houston Votes press release here, as well as attachments to it.

Come back to Texas Watchdog later today for a more complete story -- as well as to read about the press conference held by the King Street Patriots, the group that helped find the duplicate registrations.

Trent Seibert can be reached at 832-316-4994 or at trent@texaswatchdog.org.

Right this way, folks, to see the federal stimulus; weatherization assistance program beset with delays, mismanagement and suspect work

Fri Aug 27 11:56:00 2010 CST

Like a carnival barker, Vice President Joe Biden continues to ask the nation to step right up and see with its very own eyes the most amazing, spectacular, reality defying $5 billion Weatherization Assistance Program. Heavy emphasis on reality defying.

A day after Biden blew through New Hampshire announcing the stimulus plan to weatherize 600,000 low-income homes was in high gear and A-OK, the Associated Press is reporting what the Vice President isn't telling Americans. As has been reported on extensively by Texas Watchdog, the AP story says that in its 18-month history of funding, training and regulatory delays, mismanagement and suspect work, weatherization is widely considered one of the least successful of all of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act programs.

Among the many problems, the story highlights the shoddy work done by contractors for Sheltering Arms Senior Services of Houston, first reported by Texas Watchdog. Alaska has failed to weatherize a single home. And a contractor in California who received $3 million to caulk homes failed to give two dozen of its workers any weatherizing training.

The weatherization program in Biden's home state of Delaware has been suspended since May as federal auditors probed for possible fraud.

And while Biden exudes endless optimism about the program meeting its targets, the top 15 state programs responsible for $3 billion or 60 percent of the program's $5 billion total have so far spent $793 million or just 26.4 percent of their total funding allotment.

Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of a carnival sign by flickr user SoStark, used via a Creative Commons license.

HISD parents and students will learn, then earn

Thu Aug 26 12:48:00 2010 CST

Some Houston parents and students will get paid for participating in a new academic incentive program after Houston Independent School District trustees approved the $1.5 million privately-funded program Thursday at a board workshop.

Parents will receive $20 up to nine times a year to attend conferences with their child’s teachers, Chuck Morris, HISD’s chief academic officer, said. Students will receive $2 for every objective they complete.

Morris said these objectives will be in the form of homework sheets the student would complete and the parents would sign. If all of the 200 objectives are completed, a student could earn $400. The students’ work will be based on skills measured by the standardized test TAKS, or Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

Twenty schools will be selected for the program, which is being funded by the Dallas-based Liemandt Foundation.

Morris said HISD is still working on developing a relationship with a bank or financial institution that would provide financial education to students as well as set up bank accounts for the students’ earnings.

HISD trustees approved the new program with a 7-0 vote. Trustee Carol Galloway was absent, and Trustee Diana Dávila’s seat is vacant.

Trustee Harvin Moore said he was intrigued by the new program.

“I know experts have looked at this, and this is not just an initial idea,” Moore said. “It’s been tried before, so I kind of trust them for the moment.”

Listen to his entire comments in the video below.

Morris said the elementary schools with the lowest math scores in the district will be selected for the program. According to HISD, none of the schools in a separate academic achievement program known as Apollo 20 will be involved. Elementary schools for that program have not been named.

In the planning phases for Apollo 20, Superintendent Terry Grier said students could get paid between $7-$8 an hour to attend tutoring sessions. HISD has put that plan on hold, but Morris said it could be discussed for the 2011-12 school year.

When the option of paying students at the Apollo 20 schools was being discussed in May, Texas Watchdog asked Grier if it was fair to pay some students and not others.

“It would be nice to have money to provide tutoring for everyone, but if you don’t have that type of resource then you have to provide tutoring with the resources you have for the students who need it the most,” Grier said. View his entire comments in the video below.

Do you think HISD should pay students to learn? Do you think parents should be paid to attend conferences with teachers? Let us know what you think. Message us on Twitter, @texaswatchdog or @lwalsh. E-mail Lynn Walsh at lynn@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of an abacus by flickr user Leo Reynolds, used via a Creative Commons license.

Planned Parenthood of North Texas PAC fined $3,000 for campaign finance violations

Thu Aug 26 10:56:00 2010 CST

The Texas Ethics Commission has fined Cary Jennings, the campaign treasurer for Planned Parenthood of North Texas' political action committee, $3,000 for failing to disclose spending $26,695 to support four political candidates in the November, 2008 state elections.

The Ethics Commission also found Planned Parenthood of North Texas Action Fund Political Committee had either failed to report or made mistakes with political contribution and expenditure totals on more than 17 monthly reports required by state law.

The action fund accepted the fine without protest and has improved its reporting procedures, fund director Kathryn Allen said.

The political action committee in a November 2008 report said it spent $26,695 for mass mailings the previous month. However, the report failed to say the mailings were made in support of Wendy Davis, who was running for state Senate and Dan Barrett, Carol Kent and Chris Turner, who were running for state House seats, according to the Ethics Commission findings.

The following month, the political action committee reported spending $15,410 in one day to the same company for a blitz of campaign telephone calls on behalf of Davis, Kent, Turner and Robert Miklos, who was running for the House. The Commission took note that this disclosure of candidate support was not reflected on the report's cover page.

The committee filed 17 corrected campaign finance reports on Sept. 14, 2009.

Allen said the committee made procedural errors in reporting because it is a relatively new group, inexperienced in proper campaign finance filing.

"This has all been a learning process for us," Allen said. "We have procedures in place now that should prevent us from making these kinds of human errors. I'm glad to have this behind us."

Davis, Kent, Turner and Miklos won their legislative races, while Barrett lost to Republican physician Mark Shelton.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 3:58 p.m. Aug. 26 to include comments from action fund director Kathryn Allen that were received after initial publication of the story.

Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of money by flickr user athrasher, used via a Creative Commons license.

Fort Worth ISD trustee formally requests public information when asking nicely doesn't work

Wed Aug 25 15:58:00 2010 CST

Apparently, it is easier for school board trustees in Fort Worth to file a Texas Public Information Act request to get information from their own administrators than it is to simply ask for it. And even then, the information highway sometimes remains stubbornly closed.

Trustee Ann Sutherland said she filed a complaint with the state attorney general's office to compel Fort Worth Independent School District officials to comply with a request she made six weeks ago to see some district legal expense records, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The Public Information Act says the district must within 10 business days either provide the records or a reason why they will not surrender them.

Sutherland, who ran for the board in part to get the district to make public an outside auditor's assessment of district finances, said she continued filing formal records request after her election in May because she had to.

"I have chosen to do that because I find that I get serviced better, and I still don't get it all," she said. ... "I believe this is my right as a citizen."

The newspaper reported that fellow Trustee Christene Moss expressed compassion not for Sutherland, but for school administrators who get "bogged down" by such requests "and take their eye off the ball, which is instruction."

Keith Elkins, executive director of the Freedom Information Foundation of Texas, told Texas Watchdog today he thought it a pity Sutherland was learning firsthand that many average citizens in Texas are similarly blocked when trying to get information from their public institutions.

"It sounds like the height of absurdity for an elected official to have to make a formal application for information she and the rest of the public have a right to and then be criticized for making the request," Elkins said. "Apparently, the administrators for this school district forget that they are working for the taxpayers of the district and that this trustee is a representative of those taxpayers."

Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of a school blackboard by flickr user woodleywonderworks, used via a Creative Commons license.

HISD alternative school provider Community Education Partners releases 2001-03 contract documents with Trustee Larry Marshall

Wed Aug 25 13:25:00 2010 CST

MARSHALL

Houston Independent School District Trustee Larry Marshall made at least $72,000 over two years from a company that will be paid $13.7 million this year to run an alternative school for HISD, documents show.

Contracts obtained from Community Education Partners show that Marshall worked for Community Education Partners, or CEP, as a consultant earning $3,000 per month from 2001-2003. Marshall’s work was performed under the auspices of his firm M Associates of Houston.

According to Randle Richardson, chief executive officer for CEP, Marshall was also working for the alternative school company in 2000 under similar terms, but he could not locate that document. With three one-year contracts, Marshall would have earned $108,000 from CEP from 2000 to 2003.

The figures conflict with the salary of $72,000 annually reported by the Houston Press in 2006 based on court documents, but Marshall has said the higher figure is incorrect.

The contract documents support Marshall’s earlier statement that he didn’t work on the Nashville, Tenn.-based company’s behalf in Texas, and that he resigned in 2004 when a policy was put in place to bar trustees from earning income from district contractors. In fact, Richardson said Marshall performed no work after the contract term was up in June 2003.

According to the contracts:

“The responsibility of the Consultant shall be to initiate contacts and perform duties requested in the normal course of the Company’s business development efforts. This responsibility only includes efforts outside of the state of Texas.”

Richardson said both Marshall and CEP wanted to make sure that Marshall “didn’t do anything in Texas.”

“At the time everyone patted it on the back for going above and beyond what was necessary,” Richardson said. “Lately when I have been contacted people act like this was a deep dark secret. It was not, we did not go behind closed doors, we disclosed everything to the board and did this in public.”

Marshall has acknowledged working for CEP as a consultant many times. At a board meeting in June, Marshall said he was a “consultant in Atlanta assisting them with business development and helped them to have a presence in Atlanta.” You can view his entire comments in the video clip below.

According to Marshall and Richardson, before Marshall signed a contract to be a consultant for CEP, it was discussed with HISD lawyers, the district and trustees “in order to avoid a conflict.”

Richardson said HISD lawyers allowed the arrangement as long as “the contract was disclosed openly, Marshall did not vote on anything dealing with CEP and Marshall did not enter into any discussions involving CEP or lobby district staff on behalf of CEP.” The standards are listed in the contracts.

Individuals associated with the alternative school provider -- which Superintendent Terry Grier in March said should be cut loose, then a few months later said should be retained -- have also donated to Marshall’s campaign. Marshall’s most recent campaign finance reports show that his campaign received $2,500 from individuals associated with CEP during the months of debate over whether to renew the contract. HISD trustees approved the contract in June, 6-1, with Marshall voting in favor. Trustee Anna Eastman voted against the contract renewal, and Trustees Paula Harris and Diana Dávila, who resigned earlier this month, were not present.

“If someone sends us a solicitation, we will send something. If there is a golf tournament and someone asks us to buy a ticket, we will,” Richardson said.

Marshall has said the donations did not create a conflict of interest because it was not the first time CEP had donated to trustee campaigns. Richardson and another executive at CEP gave $1,000 total to HISD Trustee Mike Lunceford, who voted to renew the contract.

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

Lottery winner sues AG to keep story of how he won a secret

Wed Aug 25 10:09:00 2010 CST

You would think that when you hit the lottery for millions, you’d be a little cheery. But when one man won -- he's known hereafter as John Doe -- he wanted his privacy. Enough so that when the Texas Attorney General ruled that the story of the winning Texas lottery ticket was a public record, Doe lawyered up and sued the AG, according to this item from Courthouse News:

“In his complaint in Travis County Court, Doe says the Lottery Commission asked him for 'a written statement describing his purchase of the winning ticket and the events that transpired prior to its presentation to the Lottery Commission for verification.'
After Doe provided the statement, the Commission claimed it received a FOIA request. Abbott's office replied by 'requiring release of the statement without redactions necessary to protect plaintiff and his family,' a ruling that Doe contests.
Doe says his statement to the Commission 'should be withheld in order to protect the common law and constitutional rights to privacy of plaintiff and his family.'"

So Uncle Ernie wants to borrow a few bucks. Is it worth a courtroom battle with the AG?

Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of a 'Play Lottery' sign by flickr user Jim Callender, used via a Creative Commons license.

Houston Votes group submitted false voter registrations in 'systematic attack' on voting rolls similar to ACORN strategies: Harris County voter registrar

Tue Aug 24 17:18:00 2010 CST

Two Texas activist groups, Houston Votes and Texans Together Education Fund, were accused Tuesday of an organized voter fraud campaign by Harris County Voter Registrar Leo Vasquez, who likened the groups to the now-discredited ACORN.

“The integrity of the voting rolls in Harris County, Texas, appears to be under an organized and systematic attack by the group operating under the name Houston Votes,” Vasquez said at a 2 p.m. press conference at his office, where he also released copies of applications in some of the most egregious cases.

Houston Votes is the get-out-the-vote arm of the Texans Together Education Fund.

Editors Note: See the full Texas Watchdog story on this by clicking here.

“Evidence shows that the Houston Votes and Texans Together organization are conspiring on a pattern of falsification of government documents, supporting perjury in a deliberate effort to overburden our processing system," he said.

Vasquez said he is turning evidence over to the Secretary of State’s office and the Harris County District Attorney’s office for further action.

Sean Caddle, the director of Houston Votes, admitted that there may have been “mistakes made” by his vote gathering team but said Houston Votes did nothing wrong and called it a legitimate program.

However, after Caddle was shown examples of Houston Votes workers registering one name – Carmella Bellazer – with the same date of birth six times on the same day, he said “that probably would be a clear case of fraud.”

Caddle is a former SEIU worker from New Jersey and also recently worked in Colorado as part of a voter registration effort there.

Texans Together head Fred Lewis said that he has worked with Vasquez to clear up any discrepancies until recently.

"He is a liar and a political hack," Lewis said. "We are going to the Justice Department to make sure he doesn't make a mockery of the voting process."

Look for more updates on this story later today at www.texaswatchdog.org.

Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org. Trent Seibert contributed to this report.

Photo of a 'Vote here' sign by flickr user Lester Public Library, used via a Creative Commons license.

Covering Elections: TrentTV | Aired August 24 via newmediatv.org

Tue Aug 24 12:50:00 2010 CST

View today's TrentTV episode on covering elections below. Hosts Mark Lisheron and Jennifer Peebles chatted with our live audience about backgrounding candidates, in-depth profiles, and issues coverage.

Texas Watchdog's Lynn Walsh, usually behind the camera producing the show, will host the next TrentTV, a live discussion of watchdog stories on schools to air at 11:30 a.m. CST Sept. 28.

TrentTV is a free monthly webinar for journalists, bloggers and citizen-journalists that airs live at newmediatv.org. Contact us at news@texaswatchdog.org or 713-980-9777.

Watch live streaming video from newmediatvorg at livestream.com

Video: HISD's Lee High School shuffles staff, extends class time under program for struggling schools

Tue Aug 24 10:32:00 2010 CST

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.

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