Information is currency for democracy.
- Thomas Jefferson
A day without sunshine is like, you know,
night. -
Steve Martin
Education is unique among consumer products;
when it fails to work as advertised, it's the customer that gets labeled as
defective. - Kevin
Killion
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Courage is the most important of all
the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other
virtues consistently. You can't be consistently kind or fair or
humane or generous, not without courage, because if you don't have
it, sooner or later you will stop and say, "The threat is too much.
The difficulty is ...too high. The challenge is too great. ~ Maya
Angelou
BOOSTER CLUBS
First, the policy ...
According to Eanes ISD board
policy GE in place when we requested the
following public information:
Booster
clubs who handle any monies through dues collections, fund-raising,
etc., shall have an annual audit. This should be approved by an
audit committee of the organization. An annual financial
statement must be filed with the Superintendent. This
statement must provide the following information for each fiscal
year:
a. Beginning cash balance.
b. Total revenue and expenditures by major
category.
c. Closing cash balance.
This report is due on or before July 1st of
each year. (Note:
Eanes ISD changed board policy during 2006 - new due date is
September 1.)
Protecting the status quo, good 'ol boy
network, business as usual ...
Speaking of "finagling," Buck Wood is also the
attorney/lobbyist who represented lobbyist
Thomas Ratliff (son of
professional lobbyist Bill Ratliff) in a very friendly
lawsuit "against" Eanes ISD back in 2006 ... timed just
before the legislature met in 07. Eventually, Ratliff
dropped the sweetheart lawsuit but not until a
law was passed to make obtaining public information
cost-prohibitive.
Ratliff lobbied hard for this bill, testified, and wrote a
congratulatory letter to the superintendent when it passed
and then, of course he and his attorney Buck Wood dropped
the lawsuit.
Interesting that just a few months before Ratliff filed the
lawsuit, KeepEanesInformed gathered Eanes ISD public
information, specifically Ratliff's emails between and
among a school principal and fellow booster club members.
KeepEanesInformed had already confirmed that Eanes ISD was
not complying with board policy that requires the provision
of a financial audit to the superintendent
annually from each booster club. The emails obtained by KeepEanesInformed
(immediately before Thomas Ratliff and his buddy
Buck decide to "sue" the district) indicated that
apparently $2900 was missing from one booster club bank account.
Further, there were multiple bank accounts and no one could
figure out who the accounts (and money) belonged to ... the
district or the booster club. In emails between and
among the school principal and booster club board, Ratliff encouraged the others
to "keep this under our hat." (Sorry, folks, Ratliff's hat
is "invitation only.")
Well, as 'ol Buck
would say, "This kind of thing has been going on forever."
"This kind of thing has been going on forever," Buck Wood,
an Austin ethics attorney and former Capitol worker, told
The Associated Press last week. Such misuse of funds is
outright theft, as it takes money from unwilling taxpayers
and diverts it from projects that might actually benefit the
public, instead of only those people who have finagled such
sweetheart deals.
