Haggerty's Haul - Profiting Off the Public

In yet another case of Are You Fucking Kidding Me?, YISD Trustee Shane Haggerty is yet again getting public tax dollars from a political subdivision in which he oversees the budget. 

Focus on the word again. 

El Paso Matters wrote a story about this recently and indicated the YISD Board unanimously approved the expenditure. Thats factually accurate - but there were two board members that were not present at the meeting - Trustees Lucero (who previously voted against this) and Bustillos. 

This is the second time that Haggerty receives tax dollars for his robotics company for services provided to the school district where he serves as a Trustee. The first time was for $70 grand, this time it was much less, but that doesn't matter one bit. Why this is allowed is beyond me - and no matter what story someone comes up with - this is a story of a trustee doing business with a board he's a part of. 

This absolutely does not pass the smell test. Somehow its technically legal - though I don't honestly understand how - but it is absolutely unethical by any reasonable standard. In fact, its always a best practice to avoid anything that even appears to be a conflict of interest. Board members are taught so in workshops. 

And it doesn't matter than he abstained from the vote - that isn't by choice. He's not ALLOWED to vote on the item so he doesn't get credit for abstaining. 

Robotics is great, I've seen first-hand how much the kids enjoy the competitions. Completely NOT the issue. 

Its the fact that a sitting trustee of a school district is doing business with the district he manages the finances of. By any measure - this is unacceptable. And Haggerty's justification for the contract is a heaping steamy pile of absolute bullshit. 

Haggerty says he doesn't make any money off of it. Well if that were the true then why does the board need to pay him anything at all? He should do it on a volunteer basis, eat the cost, and write it off. 

No one is in business to NOT make money. And if Trustee Haggerty were providing this service on a volunteer basis I would be singing his praises. 

Last time as I recall the justification was that Haggerty's company provided a needed service that they couldn't get somewhere else. Now he's talking about how he keeps the fees low to increase participation - which sounds a lot more like limiting competition to me.  

This never should have happened the first time - much less allowed to happen a second time. This is the exact kind of thing that undermines public trust. 

And let me make something absolutely clear - robotics is cool. This kids love it. There's a benefit from it, like lots of extra-curricular activities. But this isn't a mandatory or critical service. 

Even if it were a critical service - YISD would be better off paying MORE for the service to someone who isn't on the school board in order to preserve public trust in the allocation of public dollars. 

While I'm at it - let me ask the question I know for a fact that a lot of frontline workers at YISD ask - would this type of program even be a priority if not for the fact that Haggerty sits on the Board? That question alone should be a reason that trustees at YISD should NEVER vote for something like this again. 

Haggerty will also make the argument that the item didn't have to even be put on the agenda because it was under a certain amount of money. Well ladies and gentlemen, I think we need to expect more out of leaders than the absolute bare minimum. Quite frankly, every district should have a policy that whenever a trustee is getting any amount of public dollars allocated to them, that it be an agenda item for public scrutiny. 

As I mentioned before, he has done this and gotten away with it previously, which is a lesson to us all that we should scrutinize agenda items so that we can oppose measures like this when they come up. But this isn't the only time he's supported things that for most people are an obvious conflict of interest. If you recall, he was basically the only person that spoke in support of EPISD Trustee Leah Hanany, when it came to light that her boss was in contention for the EPISD Superintendent job and she didn't disclose it to the public and continued to be a part of the hiring process while he was a candidate. 

No matter how you frame the issue - an elected official that has authority over the political subdivisions budget should never be in the position of financial gain from that entity's publicly- funded resources.