I appreciate the Chron looking into the potential consequences of Mike Miles’ earning outside consultant money while serving as HISD Superintendent, in violation of a recent state law. I’m skipping over the part of the story where they recapped the earlier reporting done by the Texas Observer – click that link for those details – and jumping in where it picks up.
The state law barring outside education consulting does not name who is responsible for enforcement. But, generally, the Texas Attorney General has the default authority to enforce civil penalties and could pursue legal action after the office received a complaint, said Thomas Hogan, an assistant professor at South Texas College of Law Houston.
He said a citizen or entity could bring concerns of a violation to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, or the TEA could refer it to the attorney general if the agency was aware of a violation. From there, the attorney general’s office would decide whether to pursue it in the courts.
Hogan said when he was an advisor to government agencies and a prosecutor, he and others he worked with always made it clear who the enforcing agency was. He said that state lawmakers sometimes draft a law to curb certain behavior, but leave enforcement vague and assume agencies will figure it out.
“You want to specify it so that people don’t end up playing political hot potato with it,” Hogan said.
If a district administrator pays back any financial benefit, that does not change whether a violation occurred under the law, said Hogan, who was commenting about the law in general and not about Miles’ records of payment.
“It might affect the enforcing agency’s discretion as to whether or not they wanted to pursue the violation, but it’s still a violation,” Hogan said.
A school district or board could still take employment action, such as discipline or termination, if an administrator sought financial benefit for outside work in violation of the law, said Keith Butcher, a professor of educational leadership at the University of Houston.
“It’s interesting that this particular law creates a civil penalty, meaning liable to the state, but it doesn’t assign the enforcement authority,” Butcher said.
[…]
State Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons, a Democrat for southwest Houston, said Miles’ consulting payments raise questions about how to enforce the law in districts under a state takeover, where the TEA appoints the superintendent instead of an elected board.
“This may have to be something that we have to take another look at to say: OK, in special cases … does there need to be a third party involved in this aspect of it?” said Simmons, a former teachers union organizer.
[…]
State Board of Education member Staci Childs, a Democrat representing Harris and Galveston counties, said she hoped officials are “willing to pursue this to the fullest extent” and that, her constituents want an elected board and a new superintendent to run HISD.
“He should have just stayed at Third Future Schools, if that’s what he wanted to do,” she said.
Again, read the earlier reporting done by the Texas Observer for the background. My contribution was to look up the text of the law in question to find that “An administrator who violates this section is liable to the state for a civil penalty in the amount of $10,000 for each violation” and note, as this story does, that who enforces the law is not mentioned.
I would say, for those who might be interested in seeing some accountability here, that the first thing to do is to ask Nathan Johnson, the Democratic nominee for Attorney General, what he thinks about this. I hope that he would at least be willing to take a look at this once in office. You might also contact your State Rep and State Senator and ask them what their plans are. File a bill to clarify? File a complaint with the AG? Something else? And finally, ask your elected HISD Board member what they would like to do, both now – again, perhaps file a complaint with the AG, which should at least provoke some action – and later, when they have power. It may well be that in the end there’s little to nothing that can be done. But the more you talk about it now, the more options will be open later.