City Council - Honest Brokers or Influence Peddlers?
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Greasing the Wheels
by Micki Nellis
Given the tightly interlocked power structure between the City of Cleburne and the Cleburne ISD, is it possible for the City Council to be honest brokers when it comes to voting on CISD matters?
There are four councilman and one mayor. Three councilmen have filed conflict of interest statements that should keep them from voting on matters concerning the school. The mayor's wife also receives income from the school.
The City Attorney advised the council at the last meeting that since three out of four councilmen had conflicts of interest, then they could all vote. Does this make sense? If only one or two had conflicts of interest, they would have been excluded from voting. But since three out of four had filed conflict of interest statements, they all are allowed to vote!
This ruling was made just before the council voted to spend almost a million dollars in infrastructure improvements for new school sites which CISD chose to locate in sparsely populated areas without accessible roads and utilities. This vote brings the total for the three new schoolsites to about $6 million. The school does reimburse the city for 32% of that amount. However, a developer would have to foot the entire bill.
Let's look at these conflicts of interest. (All figures were obtained from CISD through Open Records requests. CISD vendor payment files and salary reports are posted online at CleburnePolitics.com.)
Councilman John Warren is on the payroll of CISD for $30,000 a year, and has been for several years. But that's not all he receives. He used to get $200 per month for "travel and subsistence" paid not out of payroll funds, but out of Federal Title 1 funds. This year his travel and subsistence pay was doubled. Now he gets $400 per month in addition to $30,000 per year salary.
Do you think Councilman John Warren will ever vote against anything the school wants?
Councilman Kyle Boles has a double conflict of interest. He has just been promoted to Principal at CISD, and his mother Donna Boles is president of the CISD School Board. Do you think that Kyle Boles will ever vote against anything the school wants?
Now for another interesting twist. Newly elected Councilman Sonny Russell owns the Pin Center Bowl. Last fiscal year he received $2,062.50 from the school for Special Olympics practice, according to the CISD vendor payment file. After he was elected to the council, he has already received $4,000 from CISD for Special Olympics practice through mid February, 2007, with six months still to go in CISD's fiscal year which runs from September 1 to August 31.
The rule on filing a conflict of interest statement is that if the income from the school exceeds 8% of your income, then you must file. That means that if the Pin Center Bowl only took in around $50,000 per year, then Councilman Russell would be required to file a conflict of interest statement. Surely the Pin Center Bowl takes in more than $50,000 per year. But Councilman Russell chose to file a conflict of interest statement "just to be on the safe side", he said.
At first look, one might think that was admirable of him. But in light of the City Attorney's advice that since three councilmen had a conflict of interest then they could all vote, one can wonder if Councilman Russell is in collusion with the other councilmen. By filing his conflict of interest statement, he insured that they could all vote on school issues. If he had not filed it, then Councilmen Boles and Warren could not vote on school issues.
But that's not all. Mayor Ted Reynolds' wife owns and operates the Lemon Sisters Cafe and Bakery. A look at CISD's vendor payment files for the past two years shows that in the 2005-2006 fiscal year, the school paid the Lemon Sisters $1960, including a $660 staff appreciation luncheon and a $1300 luncheon for new teachers orientation. In the first six months of year 2006-2007 (to February only), the school paid the Lemon Sisters $1693.00, including $800 for food for the press box for home games and $366 for a faculty Christmas party.
Another alarming fact is that the CISD has paid the Cleburne Economic Development Foundation at least $90,000 ($30,000 per year for at least the last three years). This comes from local school tax money. Perhaps by coincidence, CISD Superintendent Robert Damron and CISD School Board member Brad Allen both sit on the Executive Committee of the Cleburne Economic Development Foundation. Perhaps by another coincidence, that $30,000 is just about enough to pay for half of CEDF director Jerry Cash's salary. The Cleburne Economic Development Foundation is a sub corporation of the City of Cleburne .
Honest brokers, influence peddlers, or somewhere in between?