When many of us hear the term “government corruption”, what do we usually think of? If you are like most people, you might think of vulgar lawmakers or dishonest presidents in Congress. In some cases, you may actually think of some examples of state officials being arrested for criminal or unethical activities.
But people seem to seldom discuss corruption at the local level — improper behavior involving the mayor or city council members.What seems more unusual is School board Was found to be engaged in corrupt practices. But stories like this illustrate the importance of paying attention to the actions of our local officials. It is possible that many people are not very optimistic.
I recently had a conversation with Jeremy Story about my pure audio podcastHe is the leader of a non-profit organization that works with college students. He is also an entrepreneur and pastor of the Texas Republican Party.
In the past few months, he has been in conflict with the school board in Round Rock, north of Austin. The questions focused on hiring a new supervisor and the procedures involved in making that decision.
When the Texas school board prepares to make major decisions, such as hiring a new principal, they are required by law to allow the public to review candidates. They are not allowed to make these decisions unilaterally. Furthermore, the meetings to discuss these issues should be open. In short, school boards are not allowed to make decisions of this nature behind closed doors.
In our conversation, Story explained:
“When you recruit new superintendents on the school board, all you have to do is give the public a little more than two weeks to review who becomes your final candidate. They are just the final candidates. You have eliminated all others, Because you did this without telling anyone, no one candidate knew each other.”
He continued:
“You are in the final [candidate], And then the public began to censor that person because this was the first time they had heard of them. This is required by Texas law. Then at the end of that period, the board can vote’yes’ or’no’ or’let us further investigate who is the director candidate. ‘”
However, when you listen to Jeremy’s story, you will realize that this is exactly what the Round Rock School Board did when it hired Hafedh Azaiez. Later, it became clear that no matter what the residents believed, the board had decided to hire him as director, and it turned out that they had reasonable concerns. Story explanation:
“One of the concerns is that we found in the video that we found a restraining order that was issued against an approximately 68-year-old Hispanic woman in Donna ISD. Against him. As a result, she was also outspoken to some other officials. As a result, he used the school district police force to enforce a two-year restraint order against her, basically telling her that she could not walk on campus.”
When Story tried to resolve the issue at a school board meeting, officials took him away before he pointed out the fact that the organization violated the law. He said:
“When I spoke in a normal voice, they really grabbed either of my arms. I didn’t yell or anything, dragged me out of the room, then dragged me through the corridor, and then through the buffet The restaurant, push me out of the front door.”
Although this example of corruption is terrible, the situation actually got worse when the police later arrested Story and another person who bluntly opposed the school board.
When you listen to the interview, you will see exactly how bad this situation is. The battle is still ongoing, I will keep up with it and report new developments. If you want to hear my interview with Jeremy Story, you can do so below.
