Update: read my December 17, 2023 update at the bottom of the page.
At last, Irion County ISD has gone back to publishing its check register on the web. You can find it here. I have recommended before that the District be more forthcoming with its financial data, and I even recommended it this week here at paragraph d. There has been 5 years of darkness. Well, almost 5. Since my September, 2021 Public Information Act request, I have been requesting and receiving the check register for each individual month.
Much of the information I have learned about the 2019 bonds has been sourced directly from my specific monthly requests for the District's check register.
Sometimes you have to dog your government like a good border collie who can't let his eyes off the sheep...or horse your government like a good quarter horse who has cow and can't let its eyes off the cows. Man, it is a lot of work, but there's little choice. Has to be done. In this instance I am especially glad to see the District post the document on its website. There was never any need for my having to have made so many requests because this data is very much a public document. Indeed, this was no doubt an obstructionist effort by the District during the DeSpain years to make me dog for the data in hopes that I would relent and go away. I didn't...
So, why in the world would you read a school's check register? Here's a reason, from a recent conclusion I was able to make that comes directly from attending board meetings and my PIA requests for the District's check register and the documents behind a check:
With my September 26, 2023 request, I have concluded that there is no final audit report of WBK Consulting done by R.L. Townsend. The Board approved the audit on August 15, 2022. I have asked on 5 separate occasions for an update and final report. See PIA requests on November 15, 2022; January 26, 2023; March 8, 2023; April 24, 2023; and, finally on September 26, 2023. For the September 26 request, the District provided me with 2,111 pages of non responsive materials.This request has been a priority, thus my many stabs at it, because without a response it is readily transparent that the Construction Manager At Risk was able to perform under the contract without any formal auditing of how public dollars were spent. And, so when you open the check register, on page one no less, one thing you will find is this:
Sure enough, during the tenure of Superintendent DeSpain not only did the Board approve and pay RL Townsend over $5,000 for the construction audit, but the final two payments to WBK for their performance under the contract were made well before the audit was paid for. Which is to say that WB Kibler never had any incentive to cooperate and complete the audit - they had already been paid in full! The few behind the scenes emails that I was able to obtain about the audit indicate that Townsend found WBK noncooperative. No wonder there is no final audit report by Townsend that can be provided to me. WBK had already been paid and had left town.
Superintendent Moore should be applauded for posting the check register. She doesn't know where the skeletons are when the sun comes out because she is new to the job. That takes a lot of courage and dedication to open government. (The Board appears to have hired a new kind of administrator, and so I reiterate my opinion about her pay here.)
The great American screenwriter Norman Lear recently passed away, and in this Sunday Morning interview was quoted as saying, "The cost of freedom is citizen participation." There's a lot of meaning in those words, and I contend that Lear meant more than participating at the ballot box. He was a vocal advocate for First Amendment rights, and he even owned a rare copy of our Declaration of Independence that he put on tour throughout the US. All of that, and especially his writing in the All in the Family series, was a form of citizen participation.
So, I encourage you to protect your freedom by your own brand of citizen participation. Part of my brand, tailored specifically to address the oppression of stormwater from government facilities, is to attend school board and city council meetings, use the open government laws and publish this website. These things count. Here's an advocacy tip for you and your brand: it may be painstaking at times, but you may have to dog your government as a cost for your freedom, and I mean dog it. This takes real effort on your part.
*
Below is an example of one of my recent Public Information Act requests specifically addressing information that I have sought from the Irion County ISD check register. Feel free to customize this request to a particular check that you may want more information about. It is a worthwhile exercise to go behind a check for more information. I regularly ask for invoices, contracts and correspondence all tied to a particular check. The register itself only scratches the surface of what is available.
Please provide... A copy of the invoices submitted by Carl J. Cahill, Inc. for the following two checks:
A. for payment via check number 025564 dated 05/25/2023 for $22,700 with the check memo “set up and poured wall”, and
B. for payment via check number 025064 dated 04-21-2023 for $67,070 with the check memo “paving road on Juanita”.
December 17, 2023 UPDATE: I testified before the Texas Senate Public Education Committee back in May, 2022 on their interim charge on bond reform. My recommendation 17 was "Audits: Require random state auditor or independent auditor audits of the construction manager’s and district budgets. (My review of the budgets of Irion County ISD and their construction manager at risk is that there is so much budgetary slack that Education Code 44.0411 on Change Orders is rendered meaningless. Prudent fiscal management of tax dollars requires regular auditing, and bond related budgets should be subject to audits.)" I provided a copy of this testimony to ICISD to inform them of my concerns about how the 2019 bonds were being used. The Senate, however, dropped this interim charge I presume because the Uvalde school shooting took priority. My testimony was the same afternoon as the Uvalde shooting, May 24, 2022, and it was a surreal experience to witness the committee take in the news live during the meeting. I hope the Senate will once again take up school bond reform, as no doubt this blog is testament to how badly things can go for taxpayers when bond funding is abused by a school district.
Copyright 2023 G. Noelke