From the Examiner..Jerry jordan
Port Neches-Groves on notice
A publicly funded entity should not be operated in arrogance and secrecy but that is precisely what is taking place in the Port Neches-Groves Independent School District.
This past week, Board President Russ Brittain and Superintendent Lani Randall made the decision to flagrantly disregard a legal precedent established by the Texas Attorney General by refusing to release a list of applicants for its athletic director/head coaching position.
Brittain cited privacy concerns of the applicants but the attorney general ruled in OR2000-0335 that applicants for athletic director/head coach positions cannot be withheld from the public.
The following is a quote taken from the the ruling that is directly on point to the information that PN-G ISD is trying to hide.
“This office has previously concluded that the public has a significant interest in the names of applicants for public positions and these names are not confidential,” stated Yen-Ha Le,
assistant attorney general, Open Records Division, in 2000.
The Examiner even provided this ruling to the school district but Brittain and Randall still chose to turn their nose up at open government.
Some have said that Brittain’s most recent actions are status quo and that PN-G ISD is notorious for cutting backroom deals out of the public eye. That might be true and it certainly makes one want to look further at the way PN-G ISD is operated — something The Examiner vows to do. But what is happening here is that PN-G ISD has its sights set on a particular candidate for the job and, come heck or high water, it is going to get him.
To say the fix was in from the beginning would be an understatement. Regardless who the applicants are, Brittain, who was the 1970 PN-G ISD class president, and his cohorts are going to do whatever they want. The rest is just window dressing.
This type of secrecy cannot be tolerated and it is the job of the media to ensure that any public entity is held accountable for its actions. That has always been The Examiner’s commitment and it remains so today.
Despite whatever Brittain and Randall might think, the names will eventually be released— they are only delaying the inevitable.
In the interim, they are showing their true colors and giving the public and the media even more reasons to suspect dirty deals in other areas of the district’s operations.
At present, PN-G ISD is tasked with spending millions of dollars in taxpayer money as part of a bond initiative passed in 2007. The first item of business was for the district to spend millions of dollars constructing a new football stadium and installing its second scoreboard in as many years. If the school board is being this secretive about a coaching contract that pays less than $80,000 a year, one has to wonder what kind of secrets the board is hiding regarding its stadium construction.
Port Neches-Groves on notice
A publicly funded entity should not be operated in arrogance and secrecy but that is precisely what is taking place in the Port Neches-Groves Independent School District.
This past week, Board President Russ Brittain and Superintendent Lani Randall made the decision to flagrantly disregard a legal precedent established by the Texas Attorney General by refusing to release a list of applicants for its athletic director/head coaching position.
Brittain cited privacy concerns of the applicants but the attorney general ruled in OR2000-0335 that applicants for athletic director/head coach positions cannot be withheld from the public.
The following is a quote taken from the the ruling that is directly on point to the information that PN-G ISD is trying to hide.
“This office has previously concluded that the public has a significant interest in the names of applicants for public positions and these names are not confidential,” stated Yen-Ha Le,
assistant attorney general, Open Records Division, in 2000.
The Examiner even provided this ruling to the school district but Brittain and Randall still chose to turn their nose up at open government.
Some have said that Brittain’s most recent actions are status quo and that PN-G ISD is notorious for cutting backroom deals out of the public eye. That might be true and it certainly makes one want to look further at the way PN-G ISD is operated — something The Examiner vows to do. But what is happening here is that PN-G ISD has its sights set on a particular candidate for the job and, come heck or high water, it is going to get him.
To say the fix was in from the beginning would be an understatement. Regardless who the applicants are, Brittain, who was the 1970 PN-G ISD class president, and his cohorts are going to do whatever they want. The rest is just window dressing.
This type of secrecy cannot be tolerated and it is the job of the media to ensure that any public entity is held accountable for its actions. That has always been The Examiner’s commitment and it remains so today.
Despite whatever Brittain and Randall might think, the names will eventually be released— they are only delaying the inevitable.
In the interim, they are showing their true colors and giving the public and the media even more reasons to suspect dirty deals in other areas of the district’s operations.
At present, PN-G ISD is tasked with spending millions of dollars in taxpayer money as part of a bond initiative passed in 2007. The first item of business was for the district to spend millions of dollars constructing a new football stadium and installing its second scoreboard in as many years. If the school board is being this secretive about a coaching contract that pays less than $80,000 a year, one has to wonder what kind of secrets the board is hiding regarding its stadium construction.
