Texas Watchdog investigates The Houston (ISD) Way

Houston ISD trustees president Paula Harris voted on millions of dollars in contracts involving close friend's firms - Lynn Walsh, Texas Watchdog

Those business contacts would suggest that [Nicole] West is a person of many interests and talents. Perhaps fittingly, a 2008 profile of West in a local magazine said she “ascribes her success to her ability to multi-task (and to) generate multiple streams of income.”

But she's also one of the closest friends of the president of HISD's board of trustees, Paula Harris. Harris is the godmother of West's children.

Harris has voted four times to approve millions of dollars in school district contracts involving Westco, a Texas Watchdog investigation has found.

Be sure to read the entire investigative piece, and also check out some of the comments on the version that Chron.com posted under Texas Watchdog's Creative Commons license.

The big question is why Paula Harris wouldn't simply recuse herself from some of these votes (it's not clear that the votes were particularly close). Of course, that leads us to wonder if the other trustees knew of the close relationship between the two women.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/09/11 09:33 PM | Print |

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