MIKE MOSES AS SUPERINTENDENT HEADHUNTER AND DONNA GARNER'S OPINION ABOUT THAT:
“To
by
7.11.11
Not only has the Lake Travis ISD school board been
foolish enough to have paid Superintendent Rocky
Kirk
$351,222 (enrollment 6,974 students),
but they have turned right around and chosen Mike
Moses of School Executive Consulting, Inc. to find
the next superintendent for the district:
Austin American-Statesman,
7.11.11: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/education/entries/2011/07/11/lake_travis_school_board_names.html
For people who are new to
All of the following were uncovered by
The Dallas
Morning News during Moses’ years as the
leader of the district:
Allegations surfaced about out-of-control spending
with school credit cards, lost dollars for health
plans, abuse of federal e-rate funds, irregular
technology vendor contracts, misspent federal
bilingual education funds, costly deals with
Kinko's, apparent conflicts of interest involving
Voyager Expanded Learning, contributions by
computer vendors, questionable bond sales,
multiple teacher grievances, eyebrow-raising
private consultancies, lucrative Coca-Cola
contracts, and special privileges for vendors
participating in the Education Research and
Development Institute (ERDI) conferences.
Meanwhile, Moses received the highest
superintendent's salary in the nation ($340,000
per year, excluding benefits) even though eleven
school districts in the country were larger than
When the DISD problems began to surface in 2004,
Moses resigned and walked away with an additional
$480,850. Along with his
ongoing and lucrative superintendent search
business, he now receives a yearly TRS
pension of $224,400 per year. Note that
Moses' wealth comes from taxpayers' dollars.
During the years that Moses was the
How could Bohuchot, Coleman, and Wong have carried
out such an elaborate plan, including the many
contract negotiations, without Moses either
participating in the scam or having knowledge
about it?
I
personally believe that Moses was shielded from
the federal investigation. Maybe he threatened to
reveal something damaging about a high-profile
politician who had the power to make sure Moses
was kept out of the federal investigation. Who
knows?
Below are excerpts from the 7.11.08 article in
The Dallas
Morning News written by reporter
Richard Abshire
that gives the details of the federal
conviction of Ruben Buhochot and Frankie Wong:
Excerpts from Richard Abshire’s article:
The jury that took eight hours to reach guilty
verdicts in the bribery case against a former
The jury
decided that Ruben Bohuchot, 59, and Frankie Wong,
47, should forfeit $1.2 million, about half of the
$2.1 million the government had sought.
On Tuesday, the jury found Mr. Bohuchot, the
After that verdict,
The government accused Mr. Bohuchot of steering
two multimillion-dollar contracts to Mr. Wong and
his associates in return for thousands of dollars
in cash, trips, rounds of golf, blue-water fishing
outings and unlimited use of sport-fishing boats,
complete with a full-time captain.
After the jury's decision Thursday, Judge Lindsay set a sentencing hearing for Oct. 20. Mr. Bohuchot and Mr. Wong face a range of penalties, including a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of eight bribery counts…
The downfall
Mr. Bohuchot's downfall began after a July 2005
interview with a
When Mr. Bohuchot testified in his defense last
week, he admitted that he told the reporter that
he had paid his own way, but, in reality, Mr. Wong
had paid for everything. Mr. Bohuchot testified
that he was having health problems at the time and
that the reporter's line of questioning had caught
him off-guard.
Mr. Bohuchot also admitted that he lied again
about the matter days later to his superiors at
the school district.
At trial, the former administrator acknowledged
accepting Mr. Wong's generosity on numerous
occasions.
"In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good thing to
do," he admitted in court, while denying any
wrongdoing.
One prosecution witness, Dan Tingley, described
his role as captain of both Sir Vezas, saying Mr.
Bohuchot accounted for 80 to 90 percent of the
boats' use before allegations of improprieties
came to light in 2005.
Mr. Tingley said he went to Mr. Wong at one point
about banning Mr. Bohuchot from operating the boat
when drinking. But Mr. Wong said that if Mr.
Bohuchot didn't enjoy using the Sir Vezas anymore,
then he wouldn't need them.
"Mr. Wong was nervous on the ocean," Mr. Tingley
testified.
Defense attorneys tried to discredit the accounts
of prosecution witnesses, including William
Coleman, another former DISD administrator.
Mr. Coleman, who in the original indictment faced
charges of bribery, money laundering and
obstruction, testified for the government as part
of a deal in which he pleaded guilty to a single
misdemeanor and the government agreed not to
oppose probation.
Investigation
A few weeks after newspaper stories about Mr.
Bohuchot's relationship with Mr. Wong appeared,
federal investigators opened a public corruption
investigation into the school district's deals
with Mr. Wong's company, Micro System Enterprises.
The federal government froze funding on one of the
district's technology contracts with Micro System
pending results of the investigation.
The Bohuchot affair rippled across the district
for months. In December 2005, the district's
police chief abruptly resigned after The News
reported he was in business with a former employee
of Mr. Wong.
Mr. Bohuchot left the district in 2006, after
spending almost eight months on leave while
district officials also looked into questions
raised by the newspaper's findings. He agreed to
resign after trustees offered him a $65,000 buyout
deal to walk away.
In January 2007, Mr. Wong's company liquidated
after selling most of its assets.
The government filed the multicount indictment
against the two men on May 22, 2007, almost
exactly two years after Mr. Bohuchot's ill-fated
interview...
The defendants' backgrounds:
Ruben Bohuchot, 59, of
Frankie Wong, 47, of Houston was co-owner and
president of Micro System Enterprises, a computer
vendor that was, at one time, one of DISD's
largest suppliers. In January 2007, he sold Micro
System. Mr. Wong was convicted of eight counts of
bribery and one count each of conspiracy to commit
bribery and conspiracy to launder money.
[To read the July 10, 2008 press release by the