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Nov 21, 2008 7:41 am US/Central
2 Former TEA Inspectors Sue Agency
(AP)
Two inspectors who were fired from the inspector general's office at the Texas Education Agency are suing the agency, alleging wrongful termination after they tried to investigate fraud and waste in the TEA, officials said.
James Catazaro and Jim Lyde want to be reinstated and are seeking unspecified damages in a lawsuit filed Thursday in state court in Travis County. The lawsuit contends that the alleged retaliation against and firings of the two men violated their rights under the state's whistleblower law and also violated their free speech rights under the Texas Constitution, according to online reports.
TEA officials have denied that agency officials prevented investigations. The Austin American-Statesman reported Friday in its online edition that Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said that she had not seen the lawsuit but that "we believe we had reasonable grounds to terminate those two employees."
She did not say why.
But in their lawsuit, Lyde and Catazaro say that after Robert Scott became TEA commissioner in 2007, they were systematically prevented from investigating fraud, waste and misuse, including allegations of:
-- Falsification of student attendance records.
-- Contractors who "may have been influenced to overcharge TEA and/or school districts."
-- A "suspect contract" involving the commissioner of education and an education service center.
-- Violations of law regarding job openings.
Both men worked in the inspector general's office until they were fired this summer, shortly after they discussed their concerns with a state representative and the attorney general's office.
Scott was appointed commissioner by Gov. Rick Perry in October 2007, replacing former Commissioner Shirley Neeley, who created the inspector general's office in the TEA in response to allegations of widespread cheating on the TAKS.
"Plaintiffs reported and spoke out that violations of contracting rules were going uninvestigated, that TEA policies were not being complied with, that public money was being misused, and that they were prevented from investigating these illegalities," according to the lawsuit.
"The hostility of their supervisors culminated when plaintiffs were each put on administration leave, as a precursor to their termination, on June 27, 2008, several days after they spoke out and reported what they believed to be improper and illegal activity to the Texas Legislature."
Catazaro, who was Lyde's supervisor, said they were fired based on job performance but that both had received excellent performance evaluations.
Lyde said he sought to investigate allegations of $3,000 a month payments by a charter school employee to a superintendent's wife. He was told another department at TEA would look into and that someone would contact him if his information was needed.
Nobody ever did, he said.
"Six weeks later, I got a little worried because you're not supposed to sit on federal felony allegations," said Lyde, a former law enforcement officer.
So he went to the attorney general's office.
"I was gone within the week," he said.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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