HISD ethics rules would ban shenanigans

Copyright 2012: Houston Chronicle | September 18, 2012 | Updated: September 21, 2012 2:48pm

With a colossal $1.9 billion school-bond measure on the ballot this November, the Houston Independent School District needs to assure voters that the money won't end up in the pockets of board members' family and friends. Last Thursday, the district took an important step in the right direction.

As we've written before, the most scandalous thing about recent school-board scandals wasn't that board trustees broke the rules by helping a best friend's pursuit of juicy HISD contracts, or by taking trips bankrolled by an HISD vendor. The most scandalous thing was that the board's rules didn't prevent such outrages.

But at the most recent meeting, the board voted unanimously to tighten those loosey-goosey rules. Among the highlights of the policy:

Campaign contributions that could sway votes? From now on, for instance, a trustee will have to abstain from votes involving vendors who contributed more than $500 to that trustee in the past year. And a vendor bidding on a school contract can't make a campaign donation to a trustee while the bid is still open.

Relatives employed by vendors? Under the new rules, trustees would have to disclose such jobs for a wide range of their relatives - those within "three degrees of consanguinity" - including brothers-in-law and grandchildren.

Gifts from vendors? The new policy says that, over the course of a year, trustees shouldn't accept baubles, meals, trips or sports tickets worth more than $50 from a vendor. And if they do accept, they must disclose.

Sweetheart deals for friends? Preventing those, everyone admits, is tricky. No one has been able to define "friend" in a way that's airtight. So the policy settles for urging trustees to avoid the "appearance of conflict." In other words: Don't do stuff that looks bad, stuff that would upset constituents, stuff that would make the news.

That's plain common sense. And soon, we hope, it'll be part of the rules, too. To HISD's board, we say: Congratulations. And don't water down those rules too much in the coming month's tweaking, before the policy is set in stone. That would look bad. And though your ethics rules don't yet require it, you should avoid even the appearance of conflict.