Bring back transparency to PSJA ISD
After the recent PSJA ISD election, which will change the board majority and hopefully bring transparency back to this district cloaked in mystery for approximately the past two years, maybe we can finally learn something about the health insurance contract handed to a new vendor last year.
In the run-up to the election, an anonymous Facebook page claimed that it had the skinny on what went down with the insurance vendors, courtesy of a confidential source. According to that info, if indeed valid, PSJA ISD paid more than double in disability broker services than what it could have by going with another local vendor with longstanding ties to the district, while the new vendor had no previous ties with the district.
To get at the truth, media outlets need access to public information. Over the last two years, however, under the tutelage of Superintendent Jorge Arredondo, school attorneys with O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo, and the board majority comprised of Jesse and Jorge Zambrano, Rick Pedraza, Jorge Palacios, and Jesse Vela, that access has been sorely lacking, using the AG’s office as cover to rule against the dissemination of public info. (My personal opinion.)
Hey, it’s only taxpayer money, so why should taxpayers be privy to how it’s spent?
After hearing rumors that the health insurance contract handed to a new vendor in 2021 should be further reviewed, The Advance filed a public information request with PSJA ISD Aug. 16, 2021.
What we asked for was indeed public information, was it not? See for yourself:
• A copy of the RFP (request for proposal) for the health insurance contract voted to approve during the Aug. 9, 2021 board meeting.
• Copies of the RFPs submitted by the seven (health insurance) vendors who didn’t get the work.
• The list of the people (names) who sat on the district’s selection/rating committee.
• A copy of the list showing how the vendors were rated by the committee in sequential form: 1-7.
• A copy of the health insurance contract between the district and the winning vendor, Puro Aseguro, Inc.
• A copy of the consulting contract PSJA ISD has in place with the health insurance consultant who spoke at the Aug. 9 board meeting and who recommended that Puro Aseguro Inc. be awarded the health insurance contract.
• A copy of the “Disability Agent Commissions.”
• A copy of the Agent Commissions PEPM/ Medical Administration.
• Any and all emails between PSJA ISD staff and the consultant who spoke at the board meeting regarding the board vote Aug. 9, 2021.
Unbeknownst to us, the attorneys sent the public information request (PIR) to the office of the Texas AG, seeking an opinion.
Shield the Info?
With too many public entities today, not all, but too many, that’s become the standard default position – send the PIR to the AG, knowing that the “10-business days to respond” requirement written into the Texas Public Information Act becomes null and void.
If that happens, however, the requestor, in this case, The Advance News, is supposed to be notified that an AG opinion is being sought. We were never notified of that.
Six months later, Jan. 27, 2022, the office of the Texas AG sent The Advance a letter stating that the information we had requested in August of 2021 was indeed subject to public disclosure. Some of it anyway.
PSJA ISD had claimed that releasing the info we had requested may “implicate the proprietary interests of (the vendors that bid on the work.)” The Office of the Attorney General also wrote in the Jan. 27 letter that PSJA ISD had not provided information pertaining to all nine requested categories. Meaning, the district was not objecting to the release of all documents; just some.
As such, read the letter, the AG assumed that the categories not in dispute had already been turned over to The Advance.
Uh, guess again. Nothing had been turned over to us. And indeed, nothing ever was turned over to us.
Approximately a week ago, The Advance placed a call to an attorney who works with O’Hanlon et al, asking whatever became of the public info we requested pertaining to the health insurance contracts (requests for proposals) back in 2021?
“Let me check,” we were told.
A week later, still, nada. Now in all fairness, the information that the AG ruled was indeed public may have been sent to this newspaper in January of this year, but if so, we have no record of it in our possession.
With the change of the board majority, who has said they want transparency in place with regard to all school business, hopefully things will change.
The taxpayers can only hope.
Indeed, maybe Puro Aseguro, Inc. offered the best health insurance deal to PSJA ISD, but without the chance to compare the seven or eight RFPs submitted, it’s hard to say with any degree of certainty. For that, one needs access to public records as opposed to a confidential source, which have their value at times, but can never fully lay the matter to rest.
Shielding public information from public scrutiny only gives the public reason to suspect something is amiss, no matter what public business is being discussed. It’s not fair to the vendors, and it’s not fair to the public.