Cell phone call logs show that Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) Deputy Superintendent Chris Farkas was also present in Augusta, Georgia and nearby Macon cell tower areas at the time of the Masters Golf Tournament.
At this past week’s school board meeting, Superintendent Van Ayres finally and publicly admitted that went to the Masters, more than 50 days after we first asked about the vendor-provided trip. Ayres claims that his was a “personal” trip, a claim that looks increasingly untrue given that Farkas traveled to the Masters as well.
Both Ayres and Farkas traveled to and/or from Augusta, GA on a private jet provided by Horus Construction, a major vendor to the district whose president Jonathan D. Graham receives millions of dollars of business from HCPS contracts each year. Horus was also the beneficiary of a highly unusual “real estate for construction services” swap within a month of the Masters.
Farkas’ cellphone records also show that while at the Masters, School Board Chair Karen Perez called Farkas twice, and that he probably didn’t answer. Instead, he called her back after he returned to Tampa. Perez and Farkas hardly every call each other — their last call on any cellphone had been in February.
“Based on my records that I reviewed, those calls [on April 12th] were probably related to a community agency who had a Spanish-speaking parent call them about concern involving Liberty Middle School,” HCPS Chair Karen Perez said. “Based on the one minute length of the calls, it looks like Farkas didn’t answer. In such cases, I don’t leave a voicemail.”
In May, three short calls took place between Perez and Farkas, the last one being on May 8th. The next call was August 9th when Perez called Farkas at 7:08 AM, approximately 3.5 hours after we had asked Ayres via email about both his and Farkas’ travel to the Masters on a private jet provided by Horus.
“The August 9th call was probably about school transportation,” Perez said. “because the first day of school was August 12th. Many parents, especially Spanish speaking parents, have questions about bus stops. Some of them call me, and I pass their concerns on to Chris Farkas.”
Did Perez know about the apparent bribery of Ayres and Farkas when we first asked Ayres about it on August 9th? Or already in April?
“I did not know about any trip to the Masters until I saw the article was shared with me in mid-September,” Perez stated.
“Yeah, it doesn’t look good,” Perez said about Farkas also going to the Masters under the same troubling circumstances as his boss Van Ayres. “I have taken today off to contemplate this matter.”
At last week’s board meeting, Perez made comments about Ayres’ trip to the Masters and said that her “statement does not imply that wrongdoing has or has not occurred.” Board member Nadia Combs, on the other hand, told Ayres that he was “very beloved by everyone” (video) in her comments. Combs had nothing but praise for Ayres.
Combs’ effusive praise is noteworthy because before the board meeting began, Combs told Sgt. Joe Amiel of HCPS to “not engage” with her frequent citizen critic Jason Ferger. Combs also called Ferger “just a dirtbag” (audio of the dirtbag comment).
Thus Combs heaps praise on corrupt HCPS employees while having contempt for a citizen working to expose corruption in HCPS. Ferger said he had “no comment at this time” about Combs’ statements.
We requested Farkas’s cell phone logs on August 9th, but only received them from the district the day after this past week’s school board meeting. We are still waiting for Ayres’ cell phone records, almost two months after we first requested them.
Joshua Wostal
County Commissioner Joshua Wostal’s letter to Governor DeSantis asking for an investigation is looking increasingly well-timed and warranted.
“I have become aware of a credible complaint of potential fraud in the office of the Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) Superintendent,” this September 18th letter from Hillsborough County Commissioner Joshua Wostal to Governor Ron DeSantis began.
“I write today to respectfully request a formal investigation into the matter,” Wostal continued, followed by questions related to private jet flights allegedly accepted by the school superintendent and his deputy. Those jet flights were allegedly provided by a vendor to HCPS.
Wostal’s letter seems well-timed as people as HCPS employees, contractors and others are now beginning to spill the beans. We recently reviewed a text message in which the owner of a major vendor to HCPS engages in what appears to be obvious bid padding, a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Without explanation or context, we showed that text message to a prominent member of the Tampa Bay area construction industry and asked “if you were just shown this text message between a contractor working for a public agency and his subcontractor, what would you think?”
“Bid padding,” was his answer.
There is also evidence of bid rigging, a practice in which straw bidders are the higher or less attractive bids, leading the district to select a bidder already secretly pre-selected. Bribes in the form of kickbacks then follow.
It is of relevance to note that whistleblower employees in public agencies are protected from retaliation by Florida law.
Similarly, there are federal and state laws that protect private sector employees who “engage in protected activities” to expose illegal practices of their employers. With this article, many more might now come forward, not to us, but by blowing the whistle.
Will the school board now publicly start asking tough question of “senior leadership” (the board’s term) employed by HCPS at taxpayer expense? We prefer to call all public sector employees “staff” instead, lest they think that some staff members are more equal than others.
As always….the Guardian reports and the readers decide. Please like our Facebook page to find out when we publish new stories.
READ ALL OUR REPORTING ON HCPS
