HOUSTON – Last November, Houston Independent School District (HISD) $4 billion bond proposal didn’t pass.
While looking at the districts adopted budget, KPRC 2 Investigates found legal experts questioning whether everything was done by the book, especially since this was all set up before the bond was even presented to voters.
HISD’s Budget
In the 2024-2025 Adopted HISD Budget Book on page 47 is a key action item for the district, “Ask voters for a bond election in November 2024.”
It goes on to state, “Cost related to putting the plan together and hiring a consulting group to support.”
Chris Tritico, an attorney for the Teachers’ Union tells us, “I don’t think it’s allowed.”
KPRC 2 Investigates Mario Diaz tried over a series of emails and calls to have a sit-down interview with Superintendent Mike Miles. When we tried to get answers about the $2 million initiative and the hiring of campaign consultants, the district chose not to make him available.
Last Wednesday, we showed up to a news conference held at its headquarters.
Mario asked, “Do you feel that everything was done right with regards to the rollout of the two-million-dollar initiative on the bond? The hiring of the campaign consultants, sir?”
Miles walked away.
The district had been advocating for security upgrades and HVAC improvements as reasons for the bond, with some schools needing complete rebuilds costing well over $100 million.
However, the way they allocated $2 million for planning and consulting has raised eyebrows.
Remember the budget stated, “Cost related to putting the plan together and hiring a consulting group to support.”
“That support word, that’s a big problem,” said former U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick. “If they are trying to be very clever and they are trying to follow the law with that one exception, you would want to be very careful and not say support.”
He’d go on to add, “To me that looks pretty sloppy.”
Why is this an issue at all?
First, we have to visit the law.
Texas Election Code Title 15, Section 255.003, prohibits using public funds for political advertising. The law does not apply if any advertising is factual and the communication does not advocate passage or defeat of the measure.
During early voting in October, HISD shared videos on social media, prominently featuring the phrase “RENEW HISD.” Some community members felt this was more than just informative, suggesting it was advocating for the bond.
“It comes across that if you don’t vote for it, it would be derelict of you to not vote for improving the conditions of our students” said Ann Eagleton, a parent of two children who are products of HISD.
We asked her if she felt HISD was taking a position before the vote. She said, “Yes, I definitely thought they took a position, even more than a couple of days.”
Patrick, who is no stranger to criminal investigations pointed out that using public funds for political advertising is prohibited unless it’s purely factual.
After watching HISD’s video he told us, “Sounds like advocating.”
“If I was investigating this, what I would want to know is – are there internal communications or is there somebody on the inside willing to say, ‘We saw some internal numbers, things weren’t moving well, we need to juice the language a little bit, we need something like renew’, maybe that doesn’t cross the line, but it sure sounds positive and those are the kind of things that can get government agencies in trouble in this area,” Patrick added.
Despite multiple attempts to question Miles about the $2 million expenditure, Miles quickly attempted to silence our inquiries by saying, “Thank you for that, but that is another time and another place. You’ll get your time when the time is right.”
HISD records indicate that nearly $1.4 million was paid to Outreach Strategists, a communications firm specializing in government relations and campaigns. The allocation of the remaining funds remains unclear.
In the meantime, KPRC 2 Investigates Mario Diaz will explore state plans with one state lawmaker on Tuesday.
