Curling Pounds Huberty Conflict; But It Was an Unpaid Position - Kingwood

The Susan Curling campaign continues to attack HD 127 rival Dan Huberty over a vote taken by the Humble ISD trustee for a deal to put advertisements on the sides of the district's school buses. The Curling campaign alleges that Huberty should have recused himself from the vote to award the contract to Steep Creek Media because of conflict of interest. A story written three months after the vote identified Huberty's wife, Janet, as a manager for the company.

After issuing a release on the issue last week, the Curling campaign sent out a mailer repeating the allegations this week.

Huberty and Humble ISD Superintendent Guy Sconzo told QR today that there's one main problem with the Curling attack pieces - they aren't true. Both men said that Huberty's wife wasn't tapped as a volunteer to provide outreach for the advertising program until six to eight weeks after the May 2008 vote.

Huberty said his wife was approached to help with presentations on behalf of the company because of her extensive background as a community volunteer. He said that he then approached Sconzo to ask about any potential ethical problems.

Sconzo and Huberty told QR today that they agreed that Huberty's wife could only work on behalf of the company in a non-paid position.

Sconzo said that he came up with the idea of selling ad space on the sides of district buses as a way to bolster revenue for the district. He added that superintendents are increasingly forced to think enterprisingly because of the increasing cash pressures at the local school level.

He added that he recalled telling Huberty, "Dan, I don't think you have to file a conflict of interest form because she's non-paid." Huberty ended up filing a conflict of interest form, anyway.

The local paper in Kingwood, The Observer, also took a look into the controversy around the advertising deal. The paper quotes Larry Shiflet of Steep Creek Media who also said that Janet Huberty did not begin her non-paid work until June or July - roughly two months after the vote to award the contract.

He also told the paper that she volunteered for several months but is no longer affiliated with the company.

Curling campaign consultant Ted Delisi said that the argument that Janet Huberty was a non-paid volunteer does not hold water because the law would only require Dan Huberty to file a conflict of interest affidavit if she was being compensated. He said that Huberty should release his tax forms to clear up the issue.

Huberty responded that he filed the affidavit because he wanted to make his wife's working relationship to Steep Creek Media publicly known in case she did future work for pay for Steep Creek Media or the company that owns it. But he reiterated that his wife received no compensation for her work on behalf of the school advertisement program, which he said raised $250,000 and saved five jobs in the school district.

"My wife was not paid a dime for the work that she did (on that project)," Huberty said. He said that he's shared tax return information with another media outlet to back up his claim and would be willing to share it with other media outlets as well.

By John Reynolds
 Copyright February 24, 2010, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com <http://www.quorumreport.com> , All rights are reserved

Reprinted with permission from The Quorum Report.