Suspended auditor at HISD files complaint

He alleges retaliation for bringing to light possibly illegal activity

The Houston school district’s chief auditor alleged in a complaint filed Monday with HISD that the board suspended him in March for blowing the whistle on potential illegal activity, including problems with construction spending and questions about a trustee’s residency.

Richard Patton, who remains on leave from his job as the Houston Independent School District’s top internal watchdog, also requested that the board reinstate him “with reasonable measures put into place to ensure no further retaliation.” Patton’s filing lays the groundwork for him to follow up in court with a whistleblower lawsuit against the nation’s seventh-largest school district. The school board has two months to rule on his request under state law.

The Chronicle reported in May that Patton told the school board in November, four months before his suspension, that he had reported potential violations of state law to HISD’s police chief. His audit team had found several work orders that he believed were improperly split to avoid state-

mandated spending caps on certain construction projects.

The Chronicle also reported that Patton, in the days before his suspension, told district staff that he had responded to unspecified questions about HISD from federal authorities.

In his complaint filed Monday, Patton cited his communication with the HISD police chief and the FBI as evidence that he was a whistleblower. In addition, Patton revealed in the complaint that he or his staff had reported to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office an allegation concerning board member Diana Davila’s residency in the east-side district she represents.

Records obtained by the Chronicle show that the concerns centered on whether Davila inaccurately reported on campaign paperwork the length of time she had lived in District 8 when she filed to run for the board seat in August.

Davila said in an interview that she did not know the auditor’s office was investigating her residency until a Chronicle reporter called her in May. Davila said she accurately reported that she had been living in District 8 for two years and eight months, first in a property owned by her husband’s parents and then in a new townhouse.

Questions about Davila’s residency were brought to the audit department’s attention through a call to its tip line, according to Patton’s complaint.

“Apparently some people don’t like the way I’m voting so they decided they want to create a story for me,” Davila said. “I have nothing to hide.”

Davila, who took office in January, added that she was not at the board’s closeddoor meeting with Patton on March 10, the day he was suspended.

During that March meeting, according to Patton’s complaint, board members Rhonda Skillern-Jones and Jolanda Jones “aggressively cross-examined” him about some personal documents that he had asked his assistant to scan for him using district equipment.

Skillern-Jones declined Monday to comment, citing the pending complaint. Jones did not respond to a text message for comment.

Patton said in the complaint that he believes the scanning situation is the alleged misconduct that the board hired a local law firm to investigate. The board for three months has refused to publicly specify the reason for the investigation.

The district’s general counsel, Elneita HutchinsTaylor, confirmed Monday that the investigation was recently finished, but she would not release a copy. She said district officials would consider whether or not to release the report after receiving a written request under the Texas Public Information Act. The law gives public entities up to 10 days to release information or to seek permission from the Texas attorney general to withhold it.