| Is anybody following the story of the Fort Worth attorney who was indicted last week on felony charges of falsifying campaign records in the 2009 Arlington school board race?
The attorney, Mario Perez, seems to have a history of skirting the law, getting school board friends to steer lucrative contracts to his (now former) firm, Linebarger & Associates.
The story caught my eye because after Arlington ISD shifted its tax collection contract to Perez’ firm in late 2009, Fort Worth ISD followed suit a few months later. According to Fort Worth Star Telegram reports on the decision, one of Perez’ “close friends” on the Fort Worth school board -- Carlos Vasquez -- led the push to rebid the contract to Perez’ firm.
Linda Campbell of the Star Telegram called the 2010 dump-n-hire “behind-the-scenes collusion involving a trio of trustees,” one of which is Vasquez.
If the Star Telegram account is correct, the “frequent contact” between Perez and Vasquez in the lead up to the vote, at the very least, appears to violate the board’s prohibition against contact between bidders and board members about the decision.
This raises some questions about Texas House member wannabe Vasquez’ role in the affair: Was this the only potential legal violation in the contract re-bid, or were there others?
What exactly is Perez’ relationship to Vasquez? What else has “piqued the interest of the Travis County district attorney’s office” about the decision, who is implicated, and perhaps most importantly, is there something here voters should know before heading to the polls later this month? |
