The team paid for one game in the amount of $5,718.50. But it seems the district gave out a coupon for buy one, get six free. As the Copperheads slink off to Cy-Fair’s Berry Center with their proverbial snake tail between their legs, they owe the district at least $26,000.

Scott reports that the Copperheads paid an invoice on March 11, 2006 for just under $6,000 for use of the facility for their first game. On March 18, the Copperheads sent a check for $7,313.95 to cover the facility use for their second game. It seems that LMC management held the check until May 3 when it was sent on to the district through intra-district mail. The check never made it to the district’s business office. The district claims it was lost in the mail. Where did this check go? Was it ever cashed?

Scott reports that it does not appear that the Copperheads issued another check to cover the $7,000 check it lost.

On June 2, the LMC management received three checks totaling about $19,500 for the next three games played between April 8 and April 30. These checks were held in the facility’s safe until June 22 when the district’s business office deposited them into a district account. On June 24, the Copperheads played their last game at LMC.

Then the bungling begins: The bank informs the district that the three previous checks bounced on June 29, five days after the last game. The alarm bells start going off. Scott reports that in a June 29 email from a district official to LMC’s general manager, the GM is urged to advise Leonard Merrell, the namesake for the LMC, that the checks bounced and that the district “lost” a check. The GM responded by saying, “Thanks – I will do so.”

When did the GM inform Dr. Merrell what was happening? What was Merrell’s reaction? When did Merrell inform the Board? If the Board knew prior to the November 2006 bond election, why did they not make this public? Why didn’t Merrell make this public?

To this date, the Copperheads have not reissued checks for the one lost, the ones that bounced nor for the last two games played after April 30.

Once again, the management of this district smells like three-day-old fish. It has no problem doing business with firms on no-bid contracts when those firms contribute to PACs that support the passage of district bonds – these same bonds that we, as taxpayers are on the hook for and that pay, in my opinion, the contractors inflated fees for services rendered.

Now, it looks like the district may have misappropriated funds (lost check), failed to practice fiscal responsibility (letting checks sit for a month before cashing them), and failed to reveal this vital public information until after the November Bond election. It also appears that once again, our School Board has failed to properly oversee the management of this district. Radio Free Katy has called for the resignation of Leonard Merrell. We reiterate this call.

Would disclosure of this information have altered the election results? Who knows? But because the election was near, one could see the temptation to withhold information until after this election.

You should remember that the campaign for the November bond election was paid for by special interests – primarily by developers of area master planned communities that need the new schools to attract new homebuyers – to the tune of $100,000. We’re no longer talking about what’s best for the community: This is about protecting investments and, what seems to me to be a casual partnership between the district and special interests. This is no longer a game of Go Fish;

it’s become No Limit Texas Hold‘em.

And we don’t have the chip count to compete.

© 2006 by Fred Hink. All rights reserved.

Fred Hink, Katy Citizen Watchdog$  Date: 12/18/2006