“I did wanna, um, you know, address some comments that were made today, addressing some misinformation that I talked to each of you about individually,” Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) Superintendent Van Ayres told the HCPS board at its meeting on October 1st. “I think it is important that I talk about this in a public forum so everyone, including the broader community, has accurate information.”
“In April this year, I took a trip to the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia,” Ayres continued. “I took this trip on my own time and paid for it out of my own personal funds. Some individuals are now saying that this trip is somehow connected to a land exchange between the school district and Horus that this board approved in May. Let me be that clear that it is absolutely not.”
However, it wasn’t a “land exchange” that the board approved in agenda item 7.11 on May 7th — it was a “Contract for Construction and Exchange of Property” between HCPS and scandal-plagued Horus Construction. In that highly unusual deal, Horus will receive school land with a Class A warehouse already on it. In return, HCPS will receive a shell of a warehouse on land it already owns that already has a warehouse on it. In effect, HCPS receives an expansion of an existing warehouse.
Ayres made other factually wrong or misleading claims in his carefully worded 90-second statement, a statement which boxes him in even more as additional facts about his trip to the Masters are confirmed through others means. Ayres was notably off camera when reading his statement. Why?
Even more notably, Ayres failed to deny that he traveled with Jonathan Graham, the CEO of Horus, on a private jet to the Masters. Ayres also failed to deny that HCPS deputy superintendent and procurement chief Christopher Farkas also traveled by private jet provided by Horus.
Via email, the Guardian first asked Ayres about his trip to the Masters on August 9th, more than 50 days before yesterday’s school board meeting in which Ayres finally publicly addressed the matter. We broke the news of a trip to the Masters with a vendor on September 13, almost 3 weeks before yesterday’s meeting.
Ayres statement did nothing to quell concerns about the May 7th swap or corruption more broadly in the district.
“Here are the facts,” Ayres said in his statement. He then spoke about how “the district would give Horus a property at Hanna and 50th that we purchased for $1.4 million. Let me repeat: the district would receive a custom-built warehouse worth in excess of $4.2 million in exchange for a piece of property worth $1.4 million.”
Rather than providing facts, Ayres’ statement falsely transformed a property purchased for $1.4 million into a property worth $1.4 million. However, the appraisal provided by the district to its board said the market value of the property Horus would receive is $1.8 million. Appraisers who specialize in warehouse properties of this kind say that the true market value is $2.2 to $2.3 million.
Ayres’ claim that “the district would receive a custom-built warehouse worth in excess of $4.2 million” is also deceptive. Although the property in question may be worth $4.2 million at the end of construction, Horus only adds a fraction of the value to this property that the district already owns.
As just shown, the language in Ayres’ statement requires careful parsing, yet the board had no questions for him. Instead, political posturing ensued during board member comments.
“I also want to make a note on item 7.10 that was on our consent agenda,” Hillsborough County School Board member Patricia Rendon said during board member comments at the October 1 board meeting.
Rendon was referring to this agenda item approving payment of $2.86 million for a newly built school in the Waterset area of Apollo Beach.
The payment is to Core Construction, a nationwide construction company with significant ties to the same scandal-plagued Horus Construction that Ayres’ statement referenced.
According to public records and this article in the Osprey Observer, Core and Horus worked together on the Waterset project.
“I think it’s important to recognize the reason it did not go to discussion,” Rendon continued, “is because it was something that was approved a while ago.”
However, board members may pull any item from the consent agenda if they wish to, and they can do so without giving a reason.
Rendon went on to make general statements about tightening board control over senior leadership. But Rendon wasn’t alone in trying to create a record of having provided oversight on behalf of the taxpayers when the opposite is true.
“On another note,” board chair Karen Perez said at the very end of the meeting, “as chair of this board, I also feel it is appropriate that I carefully and respectfully ask at this time as a district that we not allow any claims that may be on social media or in the community to become a distraction.”
“Let me be clear: my statement does not imply that wrongdoing has or has not occurred,” Perez continued without expressly referencing Ayres’ statement earlier in the meeting. Despite being unsure whether “wrongdoing has or has not occurred,” Perez did not call for an investigation or any further probing of the matter.
School board members appear to have circled the wagons, perhaps because a financial scandal could cause voters to reject a property tax hike for the benefit of the district that is on the ballot next month.
The Guardian has received credible allegations of bid rigging, bid padding, bribery of district employees, shell companies created to hide the true recipient of district funds, extortion, poolside prostitutes paid for by a vendor to the district, and much more.
In short: racketeering, which is a criminal offense under US federal law.
Yet a board that is supposed to oversee district staff shows little interest in what could be the largest statewide corruption scandal in decades.
Is our publication just making things up in order to influence voters ahead of a referendum? A referendum that financially stressed voters may nix anyway. Or is law enforcement already investigating the allegations?
As always….the Guardian reports and the readers decide. Please like our Facebook page to find out when we publish new stories.
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