The following editorial appeared in the Houston Chronicle many years ago, and yet.....   (This was nineteen years ago when the Chronicle's Editorial Board cared enough about ethical behavior by local governments to write editorials when something was amiss. Joe Adams was President of the School Board when the Board voted in Closed Session on these matters when it wasn't supposed to do that.)

Houston Chronicle Editorial    December 28, 1995

KATY SCHOOL TRUSTEES HAVE TO CONDUCT OPEN BUSINESS

Another matter of a school board restricting public information to private indulgence has surfaced, and the explanations for doing so ring as hollow as any such breach of openness in government.  In the latest, Katy school trustees voted in private, then much later in public, to award a $5,000 bonus to Superintendent Hugh Hayes.

On its face, there is nothing wrong with giving the school superintendent a bonus, assuming it was deserved based on the merit of his work.  There is a problem when trustees vote in public --a little more than a week ago --- as if they are doing the public a favor, when the deal was done privately nearly six months ago.

There is no comfort that these trustees understand the error of their ways when the attorney representing them asserts that arguments "could be made either way" on whether a public vote was required on the bonus, and that the board wanted to show good faith to its constituency by the public vote.

It seems the trustees did not learn any lesson from this attempt at secrecy.  They revealed the bonus and released a list of goals to be used in next year's bonus evaluation as a result of a taxpayer's legal action.  But at the same time, they directed the superintendent to draw up a confidential memorandum for an upcoming bond election (which is posted under "History of KISD Bond Committees" elsewhere on this web site as it in no way shape or form could have been considered as a "confidential memorandum.")

As is frequently the case, the Katy trustees' belated public action was forced by a concerned taxpayer [George Scott], who had to hire an attorney to make the school board come clean on the bonus payment.  There are approximately 22,500 pupils in the Katy Independent School District, which means there are at least 22,500 reasons why trustees have to conduct the public's business in the public light.