Campaign records: healthy outlook for Katy ISD bond push
Voters in Katy will be go to the polls in November to vote on a $748 million bond for new schools, renovations and a new stadium and below are the reports showing who is funding the effort promoting the bond as well those pushing the campaign to vote 'no.'
The Katy Independent School District does not post those reports online so ABC-13 asked for the documents so we could post them here. The links are below.
ABC-13 also asked for other campaign finance reports, including those for sitting Katy ISD trustees.
A 2012 state law says trustee campaign reports must be posted online. The law, however, says nothing about taking those reports down, but Katy ISD chose to do that for most of those trustee reports. They can be found here, too, and are also linked to below.
We asked for those records back in mid-September.
After not getting some of these records quickly, we posted a story about Katy ISD not having this information on its website.
After a couple of weeks of back and forth, a letter to ABC-13 from an attorney hired by Katy ISD complaining about the "tenor" of our last story and a check for $217 from us for a Katy ISD worker to dig up the documents, district officials sent the records.
Katy ISD brass said the delay in getting our public records was due to employee changeover.
"There was a breakdown in communication," Assistant Superintendent Bonnie Holland said. "We're not making excuses."
Officials also said they would consider more transparency when it comes to campaign finance records.
As far as those records, here's what we found:
First, there isn't a lot of money in the campaigns for KISD trustee compared to, say, HISD.
Second, as far as the One Katy PAC, which supports the bond, it's raised $118,000 so far. That's more than 10 times what the pro-bond PAC raised during the entire bond election last year. We're guessing the folks who want this bond passed don't want waste this second bite at the apple.
Most of the PAC donations, $67,500, come from home builders and community owners such as Cinco Ranch.
The next biggest chunk is $29,500 from current or potential district vendors who might benefit from a district building spree.
The rest comes adds up to around $22,000 in other donations.
The PAC opposing the bond? The Put Katy Kids First PAC is not quite as flush. They've banked $957 so far.
There are more filings to come. These recent bond election reports are called '30-day reports,' showing how much money has been raised and how much spent 30 days before the November 4 election. The next reports are due October 27.
All the campaign finance reports are linked to below. Give it a read and let us know if you find anything we should report on.
You can contact us by using the online tip line to the right of the video or Tweet us @TedOberg.
The pro-bond One Katy Political Action Committee
The 'vote no' Put Katy Kids First Political Action Committee
Katy ISD Trustee campaign finance reports:
Bryan Michalsky
Henry Dibrell
Rebecca Fox
Charles Griffin
Courtney Doyle
Joe M. Adams
Ashley Vann
