HOUSTON – On Wednesday the Houston Independent School District informed us that Superintendent Mike Myles remains, “not available.”
However, someone who is talking to KPRC 2 Investigates is a mother with a child in HISD. She reached out Wednesday morning in response to what our investigation uncovered regarding the district’s costly bond rollout, “I was not surprised at all with what you uncovered,” said Heather Golden.
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The $2-million dollar “key action” in the 2024-2025 budget was to “Ask voters for a bond election in November 2024.” We found that HISD used nearly $1.4 million to hire a consulting group that specializes in communications, governmental relations, and campaigns. Ultimately the district posted social media videos with the words “RENEW HISD” at the end of the highly produced thirty-second videos, “My reaction was, I think they should know better. This is not appropriate,” said Golden who went on to add, “They seemed to be pushing pretty hard for the bond.” When we asked about pushing hard to do what specifically? “To pass,” said Golden without hesitation.
Golden’s position may sound familiar, but multiple experts we have spoken with have had questions as well. One of them was State Senator Mayes Middleton who told KPRC 2 Investigates, “I think that’s electioneering.”
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Golden says she submitted multiple “electioneering” complaints to the Attorney General’s office last fall looking for answers but, “I’ve never heard anything back other than them confirming they’d received it.”
So ultimately who can hold HISD accountable? “Only the local District Attorney or County Attorney can bring charges in those cases and a lot of times they don’t,” said Middleton.
We asked the Houston-area republican senator if this was a litmus test for the new DA in Harris County. “Well they need to look at that I mean they need to do an investigation for sure to see if there was any illegal electioneering occurred,” said Middleton.
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Considering Middleton’s response, up to the plate steps Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare. The day after being elected last November Teare told KPRC 2 Investigates in an exclusive interview that he is not afraid of swinging for the fences when it comes to the misuse of taxpayers’ dollars, “I will prosecute any elected official or any public official if they violate the law regardless of the party, regardless of anything else. That is my job,” said Teare.
On Wednesday evening Teare’s office sent an email to reiterating they take public corruption seriously and will assist in investigating when reports are brought to them. Teare’s spokesman went on to write in a statement, “We don’t initiate investigations without a complaint from law enforcement agencies or members of the public.”
The statement then ends with one final sentence, “We encourage anyone who has information or concerns about public corruption to come forward.”
