HISD’s new superintendent does have a blemish on his previous Corpus Christi superintendent record, but Houston’s one major daily paper has not provided readers with much information on it. Considering the powerful and important position he is now holding, and high salary he’ll be earning, Houstonians have a right to know.
Here’s a 1999 story from the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that describes the events that led to Saavedra’s leaving Corpus Christi:
The Oct. 11 [1999] meeting of the Corpus Christi Independent School District board came nearly a week after the Caller-Times had published a list of dinners that Superintendent Saavedra and board and staff members had eaten on district corporate credit card accounts over a six-year period. The tally came to more than $20,000. The public also learned of $14,000 paid with taxpayer money for maintaining Saavedra’s personal vehicles.
[snip]
He balanced the outrage of the community with the knowledge that the meals and the maintenance were minuscule parts of a district budget that in 1999 had a general fund of more than $71 million.
“When we budget, we don’t have conversations in the $20,000-$35,000 range,” Saavedra said. “We talk about hundreds of thousands, millions. Those are just simple facts. That’s where the taxpayers really get hit in the pocketbook.”
That’s a point of view that scares many taxpayers.
Here’s an AP/KPRC-2 story with the current take on the “minuscule” spending problem:
Saavedra worked as the district’s superintendent for seven years before he said he was forced to leave because the fallout from an investigation into his expense reports caused him to become ineffective in the role.
The investigation led to criminal charges against Saavedra, including felony tampering with a governmental record for falsely labeling two credit card receipts as meals in 1999 when he purchased alcoholic beverages.
He also was indicted on three misdemeanors involving services performed on his wife’s vehicle.
A jury cleared Saavedra of the felony charge and the misdemeanor charges were later dropped.
Saavedra said he made a mistake by not paying close enough attention to details and has since concentrated on moving forward and not looking back.
I’ll bet he has.
