What began as a simple request about Mesa Vista School District hiring an investigator became a battle of hide the goofs. And the District has done a great job, with the help of our attorney general’s office.
The SUN requested documents to back up a voucher the District had paid to a Hugh Prather. We were trying to discover the particulars of the school Board’s paying Prather to investigate superintendent Robert Archuleta’s alleged drinking on the job.
The Board said it didn’t have to reveal such information because its lawyers had hired Prather, not the Board.
When did the Board authorize Tony Ortiz, of the law firm Scheuer, Patterson and Yost, to hire Prather? During an illegal “phone consensus.”
Since the Board claimed Ortiz hired Prather, we wanted to know what kind of latitude Tony had in his contract with the Board and how he’d be reimbursed for expenses, like hiring private investigators.
We asked for the contract in June. After much back and forth and stalling, attorney Ortiz finally admitted there was no contract. At least it, “had not been reduced to writing.” As a lawyer we’d hope he would know that’s what contracts are: words on paper, more commonly called writing.
This all leads back to a leg bone connected to the ankle bone story.
The SUN filed a complaint with our attorney general because the president of the Board admitted to giving Ortiz the go-ahead after holding a “phone consensus.” This is more commonly called a rolling quorum. It is clearly illegal. It is the same thing as holding a public meeting over the phone and not properly notifying the public.
Andrea Buzzard, of the AG’s office, did a fine job of investigating. She asked Board president Joe Gurulé if he did such a thing and shockingly he denied it. He said Ortiz “was empowered by the board through its employment contract.” Then he said SUN reporter Jose de Wit lied or fabricated Gurulé’s comments regarding the phone consensus.
We stand by de Wit’s notes. Gurulé said the Board held a phone consensus and that’s what happened. He had to change his story with the AG to avoid prosecution.
That Buzzard decided to believe Gurulé without even picking up the phone to ask de Wit his side tells the whole story about what the AG thinks of Open Meeting Violations. So after Buzzard’s exhaustive investigation, consisting of some signed affidavits by Mesa Vista board members, she concluded the Board did not violate the Open Meetings Act.
Enter the contract question. To be sure the law firm actually worked for the District we asked for the contract. Then came the stall tactics.
The end result is there was and is no contract.
When the SUN asked Ortiz for billing documents, he cried attorney/client privilege. We finally received Ortiz’ bill submitted to Mesa Vista, with much redaction. We’re not sure who he’s protecting. We know Prather was paid to investigate Archuleta’s alleged drinking.
Despite everyone saying nothing was wrong, everything was legal and above board, the Mesa Vista Board is now going to go out to bid on legal contracts and abide by the law, although they refuse to admit using legal services without a bid or a contract is wrong.
Our attorney general started out his term with guns blazing. Those fighting for more open government felt some real hope that Gary King’s office would start slapping scofflaws around. The last few “investigations” his office has conducted are weak and one-sided.
We realize violating the Inspection of Public Records Act or the Open Meetings Act is not a sexy thing for him to prosecute. It gets him better press to go after child molesters, drug dealers or dead-beat dads. But there are a lot of unsavory dealings being handled without the public’s knowledge. It’s our money and we want to know how politicians are spending it.
King should perform a proper investigation and hold these violators responsible. That’s what we elected him to do.