DISD pays extra for administrator to steal

Steal $1 million and Dallas ISD will pay you $65,000 in severance pay. It’s a scam and a shame.

We could not write it any better – Dallas Morning News reporter Scott Parks penned a news article which ran last week on a school district which continues to be the “poster child” for what can go wrong with a monopoly school system.

“Ruben Bohuchot lived like "a rock star" during his five years as Dallas ISD's chief technology officer, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday. In January, he will report to a federal penitentiary and start living like an inmate.

“U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay sentenced Mr. Bohuchot to 11 years in prison for participating in an elaborate bribery and money-laundering scheme involving lucrative computer contracts. Mr. Bohuchot showed no emotion as the judge announced the sentence and chastised him for his crimes.

"In doing this, somewhere along the road, something went bad," Judge Lindsay said.
“Federal investigators calculated that Mr. Bohuchot took almost $1 million in illegal gifts, gratuities and cash payments from Houston computer vendor Frankie Wong. In return, Mr. Bohuchot made sure that Micro System Enterprises, Mr. Wong's company, won two contracts to supply computers and other technology services to the school district for more than $120 million.

“The most sensational aspect of the bribery scheme involved two deep-sea fishing yachts named "Sir Veza" and "Sir Veza II." Testimony during Mr. Bohuchot's three-week trial last summer showed that Mr. Wong purchased the 46-foot "Sir Veza" for $305,000. After Mr. Wong won a second big DISD contract, he bought the 58-foot "Sir Veza II" for $800,000.

“Mr. Bohuchot, an avid fisherman, named the boats and controlled their use, according to testimony.”

At Americans for Prosperity, we were well aware of the allegations even before they hit the news as at one of our grassroots training sessions in Dallas, an activist had met with and shared much of this information with us.

Certainly, DISD is a poster child for what is wrong with public education. We’d like to think this is unusual, but fear that with as much money as is spent on public education, there are likely many other abuses.

It is important to note that the Dallas Morning News may be largely responsible for the investigation which lead to conviction. Their investigative reporting first challenged a trip the DISD official took aboard the computer company’s yacht.

It is important to note that, in typical style of school districts, the financial officer who stole at least $1 million from ISD was put on paid leave for 8 months then received a $65,000 “buyout package.” His salary is $143,492. So again, a school district pays one of their own (a thief). It’s a scam and a shame. Taxpayers, students and parents deserve better.

Read the full article here: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/111308dnmetbriberysentence.4a3707f.html


-- Peggy Venable, AFP-Texas director

Dallas City Council Passing Go, Collecting $550 Million Taxpayer Dollars

By: Allison Miller

Dallas City Council members believe a new convention center and hotel will serve as a centerpiece for their efforts to revitalize the city’s downtown area. But several taxpayer advocacy groups say the project is a waste of public money and won’t meet Mayor Tom Leppert’s expectations.

Leppert has said he believes the Convention Center hotel is essential to the city’s growth and will allow it to compete with other top convention cities like Las Vegas and Orlando.

The hotel will be connected to the Dallas Convention Center on land currently owned by Cincinnati-based Chavez Properties Ltd. The City Council already approved spending $500,000 on an option to buy the Chavez Property for $42 million, which is estimated to be twice the size actually needed for the development. The hotel will be publicly financed, costing the city an estimated $550 million. 

The group Citizens Against the Taxpayer Owned Hotel collected more than 60,000 signatures calling for a referendum on the issue in May 2009. But developer Jack Matthew said that before the vote takes place, the city will have already spent $10 million on construction costs. City Council members plan to hurry the project along, hoping voters will see their tax dollars already in use and vote to complete the hotel so their money is not wasted.

The Dallas City Council has repeatedly claimed that Dallas must build the hotel in order to stay competitive in the convention center business with other cities that have added hotels. This includes the cities of Austin and Houston. 

Furthermore, Leppert has treated the hotel as an economic generator, saying it will bring new revenue, generate new business, and create new jobs in Dallas. The City Council adds that Dallas stands to lose several businesses if they can’t keep their convention center booked. They say that consistent bookings of the convention center can only occur if they add the extension.

A study by Dr. Heywood Sanders for the Brookings Institute on the economic impact of convention centers finds these grounds given by Mayor Leppert and the City Council to be erroneous and misleading to the public.

According to Dr. Sander’s study, all three rationales can be disproved by the fact that the trend of large convention center events has been in decline since before the post-9/11 economy. Existing convention centers have lost large amounts of business within the past decade, while newly constructed centers and expansions have not been able to gain or keep consistent business.

This trend doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon, and it seems like convention centers and their expansions, like the hotel in Dallas, will become a drain on taxpayers’ wallets. Even a turnaround in the industry would not create a substantial increase in business for any given city. 

A testament to the failures of Dallas’ plan is the St. Louis taxpayer-owned hotel, which was largely financed the same as the planned Dallas hotel. The St. Louis hotel is now missing its second mortgage payment and projects business to deteriorate even more this year.

If the Dallas hotel fails, taxpayers will be the ones incurring the debt. Taxpayers deserve to know the real facts that surround the taxpayer-owned hotel.

Links:
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2008/10/hey_look_theyve_alrea...
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20050117_conventioncenters.pdf
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-04-17/news/demanding-answers-as-the-d...
http://www.notaxpayerhotel.com/
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/mound-city-money/uncategorized/2008/11/...

Secondhand Smoke: The Phantom Menace

We received an excellent column from Dr. John Dunn, a physician from South Texas, who says the American Cancer Society should re-check the "facts" they've been spreading about the effects of secondhand smoke.

Of course, we know the ACS's true agenda has nothing to do with secondhand smoke. They want to ban smoking altogether, and they're chipping away at the issue through smoking bans, "for public health reasons," they say.

We call this back-door prohibition.

Here is the column from Dr. Dunn, which pokes holes in the pro-smoking ban argument:

I can say with confidence that second hand smoke may irritate some, but it does not kill. Those claiming thousands of deaths from second hand smoke to the Dallas City Council and the public are deceitful for a political goal.

I have been a Texan for 22 years, and a physician specializing in emergency medicine for 36 years. I am familiar with the public health science on second hand smoke.

Public health studies cited by the American Cancer Society and the Surgeon General claim thousands of deaths result from second-hand smoke. These are weak, cherry-picked studies. Their supporters compound the deceit by ignoring studies by the World Health Organization (Buffetta 1998 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute), Stranges, 2006 in Archives of Internal Medicine, and Enstrom 2003 in The British Medical Journal – all of which show no effect from second-hand smoke.

In science, one study that disproves a scientific theory is more important than a pile of studies that are slightly positive. Anti-smoking advocates and fanatics ignore that basic rule and ignore any study they don’t like.

They are propagandists, not scientists.

The crusaders are willing to do and say anything about second hand smoke, including making public statements about thousands of deaths from second hand smoke. Those claims are diverse and duplicitous—they are lies. Second hand smoking, even for the spouse of a smoker is one cigarette or less per day—which has no effect. The second hand smoke scare is a phantom menace conjured up by the High Holy Church of Smoke Haters to support the anti-smoking crusade.

Smoking Bans violate the Texas tradition of minding your own business. If the City Council thinks it has a role in telling people how to live, they should get a Divinity Degree and find a congregation. Folks in Dallas can easily avoid second hand smoke, and employment in a bar or restaurant is voluntary. Smoking is legal. Avoiding smoke is easy.

John Dale Dunn, MD, JD

Policy Advisor American Council on Science and Health, NYC, and the Heartland Institute, Chicago.

McAllen officials dump more debt into the lap of taxpayers

Apparently McAllen officials would rather fund fluff projects instead of paying off the current city debt.

Officials in McAllen are planning to build “outdoorsman's oasis”, which will include a 6.4-acre fishing lake and camping grounds at Fireman's Park in addition to 11 acres of park land. The park will include a playground, pavilion, restrooms, showers, concession building, trails with bridges, fishing piers and a sand volleyball court.

The City of McAllen is adding $800,000 from its coffers to fund the project.

While the idea of an outdoorsman’s addition to Fireman’s Park seems like a great idea, how is it that the City of McAllen feels like they have enough extra taxpayer dollars laying around for a frivolous project?

According to the Texas Bond Review Board website, as of 2007 the current outstanding debt for the city of McAllen is: $207,789,903.

And who stands to pay the city’s debt? – McAllen residents via taxes.

Ellis County's Lowest, Highest Taxed Cities

The Ellis County Press' Megan Gray compiled a list of Ellis County's highest taxed cities and the lowest taxed cities (she's working on a list for the county's school districts, too), and here are the results:

Top 3 Highest Taxed Cities
1.Italy ($0.937 per $100)
2.Venus ($0.801506 per $100)
3.Ennis ($0.70 per $100)

Top 3 Lowest Taxed Cities
1.Pecan Hill ($0.30 per $100)
2.Garrett ($0.328803 per $100)
3.Oak Leaf ($0.348544 per $100)

To view all of the Ellis County cities, click this link.

Sen. Kip Averitt Is Being Watched

State Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor, will have his every vote, motion and campaign visit monitored by the District 22 Blog.

The District 22 Blog - http://district22blog.blogspot.com - is published by The Ellis County Observer and seeks to eye Averitt on his liberal voting tendencies.

TEC Posts Declared Speaker Candidates

4 Republicans, 5 Democrats

List can be found on the TEC Website - here.

What does this mean for Speaker Tom Craddick? The big question is whether he will be re-elected or not; but, with 68 of the 74 House Democrats meeting to unite behind one D candidate and Republicans fracturing the Republican vote...

the votes for Tom Craddick are seemingly decreasing.

The fractured Republican support may just pave a way toward a Democrat as our next Texas Speaker of the House.

Smoking Ban Shenanigans

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert has made no secret of wanting to expand the city’s smoking ordinance. The new amendments would prohibit smoking in bars, pool halls and tobacco shops.

But at Wednesday’s city council briefing, he let his desires get in the way of fair and equal treatment of the people he serves: the citizens of Dallas. More than 20 community members – including bar and tobacco shop owners – took time out of their workday to attend the city council meeting to speak out against any expansion of the ordinance.

Discussion of the smoking ordinance was supposed to take place immediately following the council’s lunch -- which ended around 3 p.m. The local citizens had been waiting for the chance to speak to the council since 1 p.m. Ironically, the city council chose to re-open their briefing within an hour of the arrival of several pro-smoking ban activists.

When the meeting opened, these pro-ban individuals were given the opportunity to speak to the council. However, due to mixed messages from the city staff, including the city secretary, only one person was allowed to speak against the all-out ban.

AFP's Texas State Director Peggy Venable said these shenanigans "threw freedom-loving citizens for a loop.”

“Business owners should have the right to set policies for the use of their own properties, and they should certainly have a right to publicly speak at a city council meeting when government is threatening regulations which will hurt their businesses. Government doesn’t hesitate to take their tax dollars. It’s like telling businesses to shut up and pay up,” she said.

Americans for Prosperity opposes smoking bans as a violation of consumer choice and free market principals. The solution AFP recommends is simple: encourage business owners to post a sign outside their establishments that identify then as smoking or non-smoking.

Texas Remains Red

Here are the Election Results, Texas-style...

Texas November 4, 2008 election night highlights

Early voting was the winner with 47 % of the voters casting their votes before Nov 4.
With 13,575,062 registered voters in Texas, 59% cast their ballots this election cycle.

At the top of the ticket, McCain carried TX with 55%.

US Congress – Texas picked up one Republican seat and kept Sen. Cornyn.

Sen. John Cornyn was re-elected with 55% of the vote.

Republicans picked up a US House seat with Pete Olson defeating incumbent Nick Lampson who took Tom DeLay’s seat in a special election for HD 22.

So Texans will now send 20 Republicans and 12 Democrats to DC, a pickup of one Republican seat.

Texas Statewide elections saw no changes

Republican Michael Williams won re-election to the Texas Railroad Commission with 52% of the vote.

Each of the 3 sitting Texas Supreme Court Justices on the ballot won re-election with 51 and 52% margins. All 3 are Republicans.

Three Republicans on the Court of Criminal Appeals handily won re-election.

State Board of Education saw no upsets as the five Republicans and two Democrats won their re-election bids.

TX Senate – D’s gained 1 seat, one in run-off, now 19 R’s, 12 D’s

Of the seats up this cycle, only one incumbent lost as Republican Kim Brimer lost his bid for re-election to Wendy Davis in SD 10. That shifted one seat from the Republicans to the Democrats making the totals now 19 R’s and 12 D’s.

The special election for SD 7, Kyle Janek’s vacated seat, is in a run-off between Democrat Chris Bell and Republican Joan Huffman. They received 38% and 26% respectively.

TX House – D’s gained 3 seats now 76 R’s, 74 D/s

HD 11 – Republican Brian Walker came within .2% of taking out incumbent Chuck Hopson losing by 102 out of 52,830 votes cast.

HD 17 – Republican Tim Kleinschmidt beat Donnie Dippel for Robby Cook’s seat, an R pick-up.

HD 29 – Randy Webber, Republican handily defeated Kevin Murphy for the Mike O’Day seat. The seat didn’t change parties

HD 32 – Todd Hunter defeated Democrat incumbent Juan Garcia 50% to 47%.

HD 47 – Donna Keel failed to unseat Democrat Valinda Bolton.

HD 48 – Pam Waggoner failed to take Democrat Donna Howard’s seat.

HD 52 – In this open seat once vacated by Mike Krusee, this once considered safe Republican seat went to Democrat Diana Maldonado who beat Brian Daniel by less than 1%. The Libertarian candidate got almost 4%.

HD 55 – open seat - Republican Ralph Sheffield handily beat Democrat Sam Murphey
(this is formerly the Republican Diane Delisi seat)

HD 73 – Republican Doug Miller handily defeated Daniel Boone in this open seat after defeating Nathan Macias in the primary.

HD 78 – Republican Dee Margo who beat Pat Haggerty in the primary was defeated by Democrat Joseph Moody so this El Paso seat goes to the Democrats.

HD 81 – Tryon Lewis easily picked up the former Buddy West open seat.

HD 82 – Speaker Tom Craddick easily beat challenger Bill Dingus

HD 96 – Democrat Chris Turner unseated Republican incumbent Bill Zedler 51-47%.

HD 97 – Republican Challenger Mark Shelton defeated incumbent Dan Barrett 55-45%.

HD 101 – Democrat Robert Miklos defeated Republican Mike Anderson by 1.2%
(The Republican incumbent Thomas Latham was defeated in the primaries)

HD 102 – Democrat Challenger Carol Kent defeated incumbent Tony Goolsby 53-47%.

HD 105 – Incumbent Republican Linda Harper-Brown narrowly defeated challenger Bob Romano by a mere 25 out of 40,700 votes cast.

HD 107 – Conservative Bill Keffer failed to unseat incumbent Democrat Allen Vaught to win back the seat he lost last cycle. The vote was 50-47%.

HD 112 – Republican Angie Button won this seat with 56% of the vote against Democrat Sandra Vule. The Libertarian candidate earned over 4% of the vote in this open seat.

HD 130 – Republican Allan Fletcher beat libertarian candidate William Gray Junior to keep this seat Republican after defeating Corbin Van Arsdale in the primary.

HD 133 – Incumbent Republican Jim Murphy lost to Democrat Kristi Thibaut by 464 votes.

HD 144 – Republican Ken Legler defeated Joel Redmond for this open seat formerly held by Republican Robert Talton.


Bond Initiatives

A total of 37 School districts had bond initiatives on the November ballot. Only 11 failed, bringing the total debt passed in one day in Texas to a startling $1.4 billion. The largest was for $219 million in Allen, Texas. It appears even in this tough economy, most passed. The listing is here: http://s3-texasisd.s3.amazonaws.com/Public/Nov08_bond.pdf


Tax Rollback Elections

It appears that around 47% of the tax rollback elections in 49 ISD’s passed. That means that half the time, voters didn’t allow the taxing authority to take in more revenue. Six are slated for later this year. We thank the Texas ISD website for this information and for the bond initiative data: http://s3-texasisd.s3.amazonaws.com/Public/Nov08_TRE.pdf


Harris County

218,182 registered voters and 62.6% of them participated in this election
47% of the Republicans voted straight party ticket compared to 53% of the Democrats; but 59% of the early voting Democrats cast straight party votes; 119,484 cast a vote in the open senate seat SD 17 (Chris Bell and Joan Huffman are headed to a runoff)

Republican County Judge Ed Emmett won handily with 54% of the vote; Republican County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt won with 54% of the vote, Pct 3 County Commissioner Steve Radack won with 60%.

Almost 16% under voted down ballot, and a number of local judges were unseated. Even though Obama won big in this Houston area, Republicans Ed Emmit was re-elected as County Judge and taxpayer advocate Paul Bettencourt kept his seat as Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector.

Dallas AFP Action Item

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert will hold a council briefing tomorrow to talk about amendments to the city's smoking ordinance.
Click here to view Dallas City County Agenda

These amendments, if passed, would make Dallas completely smoke-free. Bar and tobacco shop owners would no longer have the ability to let customers smoke on the premises, which violates their property rights.

We know that smoking bans hurt local businesses and economies and tells these small business owners that the government knows better how to run their businesses. We need your help.

Please e-mail or call the mayor and city council TODAY to tell them know we oppose any further action to restrict these private property owners' rights. The smoking ordinance briefing will happen at 1:15 p.m. on the sixth floor of City Hall, 1500 Marilla Street. The council plans to put the amendments to a vote at their Nov. 19 regular meeting.


CONTACT:

TOM LEPPERT, MAYOR

tom.leppert@dallascityhall.com

214/670-4054

DR. ELBA GARCIA, MAYOR PRO TEM -- Place 1

elba.garcia@dallascityhall.com

214/670-4052

DWAINE R. CARAWAY, DEPUTY MAYOR PRO TEM -- Place 4

dwaine.caraway@dallascityhall.com

214/670-0781

PAULINE MEDRANO -- Place 2

pauline.medrano@dallascityhall.com

214/670-4048

DAVID A. NEUMANN -- Place 3

david.neumann@dallascityhall.com

214/670-0776

VONCIEL JONES HILL -- Place 5

vonciel.hill@dallascityhall.com

214/670-0777

STEVE SALAZAR -- Place 6

steven.salazar@dallascityhall.com

214/670-4199

CAROLYN R. DAVIS -- Place 7

carolyn.davis@dallascityhall.com

214/670-4689

TENNELL ATKINS -- Place 8

tennell.atkins@dallascityhall.com

214/670-4066

SHEFFIE KADANE -- Place 9

sheffield.kadane@dallascityhall.com

214/670-4069

JERRY R. ALLEN -- Place 10

jerry.allen@dallascityhall.com

214/670-4068

LINDA KOOP -- Place 11

linda.koop@dallascityhall.com

214/670-7817

RON NATINSKY -- Place 12

ron.natinsky@dallascityhall.com

214/670-4067

MITCHELL RASANSKY-- Place 13

mitchell.rasansky@dallascityhall.com

214/670-3816

ANGELA HUNT -- Place 14

angela.hunt@dallascityhall.com

214/670-5415

YRs Demand "Change"

While the political realm heats up and our presidential race ends tonight, two Young Republicans took it upon themselves to inject a little humor and get their political message across last night.

You might have seen Nathan Glass and Matthew Kidwell out on the corner 2222 and Shoak Creek in Austin last night; but probably didn't recognize them.

That's because they dressed up as homeless men carrying home-made, politically driven signs to inform others of the tax hike we'll be receiving if we allow an Obama administration.

From their reports, they surprisingly received positive responses from their audience.

Conservatives can be mighty creative.

Way to go Nathan & Matt!

Maldonado admonished by her pastor

Diane Maldonado is running for Texas House Seat 52. Much controversy has arisen over her out-of-district, even national funding from pro-abortion groups.

This email was sent to some HD 52 residents from a Moldonado fellow church member.

"A woman who is registered at our parish is running for State Representative on the Democrat ticket. She appears to be very misinformed about Church teaching on the primacy of defending innocent life and marriage, despite the best efforts of our pastor to meet with her. Because of her apparent failure to respond to his pastoral efforts to form her Church teaching, our pastor wrote the following letter to every family in the parish. Awesome!"

http://www.devinrose.heroicvirtuecreations.com/blog/2008/10/31/our-brave-pastor/