UPDATE: EPISD Superintendant In Legal Trouble – The Why You Should Care Edition

UPDATE: EPISD's school board did NOT fire Garcia.  He is placed on unpaid leave.  We'll find out why tonight on ABC 7 at 10.

Perhaps you've heard about a little legal issue Dr. Lorenzo Garcia is facing.  He's the Superintendant of the El Paso Independant School District, and the feds say he tried to steal 450 thousand dollars of YOUR money. 

Yes, you see, when the district signs a contract with anyone who does business with them, they are using your tax dollars to pay that contract.  And if you are a homeowner in EPISD, almost half of your property tax bill is made up of taxes from EPISD.  So why is only Dr. Garcia in trouble?  There is a school board full of trustees who also saw the contract that Dr. Garcia is in trouble for.  The school board is going to meet this afternoon, Thursday, at 5 o'clock.  The meeting is a closed door session because it is a personnel matter. 

Sorry, EPISD, I don't like closed doors.  Part of the 300 thousand dollar paycheck that Garcia has been getting has been coming out of my pocket, and I'm tired of matters concerning my money being discussed without me. 

If you don't want district taxpayers to be a part of the Garcia personnel matter, you should have done your homework before you signed the contract with the woman "with whom he had a personal relationship".  How tough would it have been to Google Tracy Rose, the woman who was apparently the only person on the payroll at Infinity Resources, the company that got the 450 thousand dollars of taxpayer money.  Did board members do any digging at all before they handed huge sums of cash over to Ms. Rose, or did they just sign the dotted line and go on about their day?  The school board got duped by some guy from out of town who, allegedly, blew into town and within months of becoming one of the highest paid school district officials in the entire city AND state, got a sweetheart deal for some woman who's business address is a house!  And if you watch the story, you'll find out that she was going to bring posters into the classroom.  POSTERS!  And she got paid 450 thousand dollars of your money! 

Please EPISD, don't give Garcia paid adminstrative leave.  Fire him.  Today. 

If he's found guilty, he'll be in prison for a very long time.  If he's found innocent, he can reapply for his old job, or get another one somewhere else.  But he has given the city a black eye, and people can see that all the way from Washington, DC.  Don't make us look any more buffoonish than we already do, and by we, I mean you, EPISD school board.  Show us that you really are concerned about our kids, our taxpayer dollars, and the citizens of El Paso.

Call EPISD right now and tell them you want Garcia out, just like all the other officials who are calling for him to step down or be fired.

Here's a story done on Garcia last night by our news partners, KVIA.