Burnt Orange Report

Ever Wonder What Your Legislators Do For A Living?

By Vince Leibowitz

Glancing through one of Van Zandt County's five newspapers a few days ago, I ran across the name of a State Representative in a story about Canton ISD's search for a new superintendent. Only, it wasn't our local Rep, Dan Flynn. It was none other than Bob Griggs (R-North Richland Hills) of HD 91.

It seems Dr. Grigg's company, Bob Griggs & Associates, is conducting a superintendent search for the district--and for districts all across the state, of which 47 currently have superintendent vacancies.

For some reason, I have a problem with this. Everyone's got to make a living, and a lot of retired superintendents form consulting companies to do everything from employee searches to administrate controversial "retire/rehire" programs that are the bane of groups like the Texas Retired Teachers Association. In fact, my counterpart in Wood County, Democratic County Chairman Dr. Charles Thompson has his own company and forms superintendent searches, too.

What I question is whether a sitting state representative (or his company) should be doing business with school districts throughout the state in this manner. Granted, it's not lobbying, and the "& Associates" in the company name means he obviously has other people working with and/or for him. It's also oddly suspicious to me that there is no mention of Griggs' owning or any association with his company in his House bio.

Should Griggs not be required to file some special disclosure that he's working for and with other government bodies in Texas--especially since those governments recieve most of their money from the state?

Not surprisingly, the Texas Government Code is silent on this point.

The Government Code does, however, note the following about various activities by legislators and regulations governing the activities of legislators in various professions:

§ 572.025. INFORMATION ABOUT LEGISLATORS' REPRESENTATION BEFORE EXECUTIVE STATE AGENCIES. A member of the legislature who represents another person for compensation before an executive state agency shall report on the financial statement: (1) the name of the agency; (2) the person represented by the member; and (3) the category of the amount of compensation received by the member for that representation.

§ 572.0251. INFORMATION ABOUT LEGISLATIVE
CONTINUANCES. A member or member-elect of the legislature
licensed to practice law in this state who represents a party to a
civil or criminal case for compensation and on that party's behalf
applies for or obtains a legislative continuance under Section
30.003, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, or under another law or
rule that requires or permits a court to grant a continuance on the
grounds that an attorney for a party is a member or member-elect of
the legislature shall report on the financial statement:
(1) the name of the party represented;
(2) the date on which the member or member-elect was
retained to represent the party;
(3) the style and cause number of the action in which the continuance was sought and the court and jurisdiction in which the action was pending when the continuance was sought;
(4) the date on which the member or member-elect
applied for a continuance; and
(5) whether the continuance was granted.

§ 572.0252. INFORMATION ABOUT REFERRALS. A state
officer who is an attorney shall report on the financial statement:
(1) making or receiving any referral for compensation for legal services; and
(2) the category of the amount of any fee accepted for making a referral for legal services.

In fact, a while back, Texans for Public Justice made a big deal about legislative continuances, and even sued a couple of legislators to force them to disclose the continuances they requested.

So why is a State Representative (or his company) doing such cozy business with Texas school districts no big deal? I can't answer that. But, I know if I was a school board trustee, and a Democrat, I wouldn't hire a Republican legislator's search firm to shine my shoes because I'd be afraid of the reccomended candidates. Although, I must note that, by all accounts (and Griggs was Superintendent in Canton for a time), Dr. Griggs was an excellent school administrator, and I seriously doubt he'd do something like present a school board with a slew of right-wing job applicants.

Nevertheless, he's making a living off of (or at least supplementing his state retirement and legislative pay with) taxpayer dollars, since schools are funded with tax money. So, why shouldn't he have to disclose this?

Vince Leibowitz is County Chairman of the Democratic Party of Van Zandt County.