SAN BENITO — The San Benito school district is hiring a lawyer to monitor media coverage focusing on the district, its officials and operations.
Earlier this week, the board’s majority voted to hire an outside attorney to review media reports after President Ramiro Moreno cited what he described as biased, inaccurate reporting carrying “misinformation” into the community.
Meanwhile, members of the board’s minority as well as an official with the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas questioned using taxpayer money to pay a lawyer to scrutinize the district’s news coverage.
For about six months, Moreno has criticized the Valley Morning Star’s coverage of the district, claiming biased, inaccurate reporting.
ATTORNEY’S DUTIES
During a meeting, Moreno requested Superintendent Theresa Servellon search for an attorney to review media reports.
“I’m going to make a motion to delegate authority to the superintendent to locate and engage legal counsel to represent the district’s interests in all ways regarding media reports pertaining to the district and district officials and to take other steps if necessary to promote fair and accurate reporting regarding the district and its operations,” he said during Tuesday’s board meeting.
Then, board member Janie Lopez asked him, “Can we discuss? Do you want to say why we want to do this — what’s the reason?”
In his response, Moreno apparently referred to the Star’s coverage.
“For the past year-and-a-half, we have many reports being printed in the newspaper that appear to be, again, this is my opinion, but basically, if you read it and you know the factual information, information being presented to our community is misinformation and it always seems to be very biased information,” Moreno said.
“So we want to make sure that we have a legal counsel in place that can review these messages being sent out to the community and make any corrections as needed, possible retractions if needed,” he said. “It’s time that we make sure that our community is getting correct information about our district and the district’s affairs.”
‘WASTE OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS’
Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas in Austin, questioned the board’s use of taxpayer money to fund a service offering no benefits to students’ education, urging the Star to find out the amount of money the district will pay the lawyer to scrutinize media reports.
In nearly 10 years as the foundation’s director, she said she had never come across a case in which public officials hired a lawyer to monitor news coverage.
“I have not heard of a public entity hiring an attorney to scour stories looking for problems,” Shannon said. “This sounds like a questionable use of taxpayer dollars. I wonder how much they’re paying the lawyer. If the school board has a complaint, bring it up. But to hire a lawyer to look for problems, it doesn’t look like good use of tax dollars. The school board is using taxpayer dollars in a way that’s not serving the students.”
Meanwhile, board member Orlando Lopez called the attorney’s hiring a waste of taxpayer money.
“I think it’s unfortunate that they’re wasting taxpayer dollars,” Lopez, who did not attend the meeting, citing a conflict, said Thursday. “They call themselves good stewards of taxpayer dollars and here they are hiring more lawyers and consultants.”
Members of the board’s majority are trying to suppress news they believe is unfavorable, along with minority members’ views, he said.
“I think you’ve done a tremendous job of doing research, asking questions and writing facts,” he told the Star. “You’re giving everyone a chance to speak their piece. It’s very clear they’re not pleased. It’s not to their liking.”
Board member Rudy Corona also called the board’s decision a waste of taxpayer money while describing the Star’s coverage as important to the community.
“That’s crazy — that’s just wasting taxpayer money. Let’s concentrate on our kids, our faculty and our district,” Corona, who did not attend the meeting, also citing a conflict, said. “When you publish the truth, they have problems with it. In my opinion, you have never published anything that’s incorrect. Everything you have written is good information that needs to go to the public.”
