›› Former EPISD superintendent Lorenzo García surrenders state certifications

Two weeks after El Paso Independent School District interim Superintendent Vernon Butler asked trustees to hold off on appointing a temporary public relations director, he hired El Paso County commissioner candidate Vincent Perez to fill the job.

Perez, whom the district is paying $373 a day, started on Oct. 23 and his job will end in late December.

The school board discussed the interim public relations executive director position at an Oct. 9 meeting, which Perez attended at the request of some trustees but he was not interviewed for the job that day.

Hayley Kappes

Butler then hired Perez as a "temporary professional" to essentially work as the public relations executive director.

The superintendent denied that the move was an attempt to bypass transparency and said he didn't see it necessary to announce Perez's hire.

Butler said he requested the board refrain from filling the position because he had not determined what was best for the district, which has been without a public relations executive director for nearly two years.

District trustees on Tuesday did not return phone calls seeking comment.

"There were so many different ideas of what direction to go in, I wanted to be able to evaluate it for the board on what would work best overall," Butler said.

Employing temporary professionals offers a cost savings because it does not require the district pay benefits to that person, Perez said.

"When the board was initially considering the interim executive director spot, that would have been almost like a full employee, but temporary professionals don't get any additional benefits, like retirement and health care," Perez said. "Ultimately, it was a better deal for the district."

Perez and Butler have known each for a long time. When Butler was principal at Bel Air High School in the Ysleta Independent School District in the late 1990s, Perez was one of his students.

Perez said his hiring was "not underhanded."

"If it was under different circumstances where the end date wasn't defined or the position was filled on a long-term basis, perhaps there would be more cause for concern," Perez said.

His goals will include increasing transparency for the district, advising trustees and administrators to be more available for answering questions and improving the organization's social media presence.

In August 2011, Perez resigned as communications director for U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes to run for the Precinct 3 commissioner seat formerly occupied by Willie Gandara Jr., who was arrested Feb. 22 on five federal charges of marijuana trafficking.

Perez, a Democrat, is running against Republican Fred Chavez for the position that represents the Lower Valley.

He argued that his roughly $46 an hour compensation is a bargain compared to what the district has paid in recent years on public relations work.

Houston firm Drive West Communications received more than $13,000 in April to develop a public relations strategy just before the district released thousands of documents to the El Paso Times through an open records request, which sought the same documents the district provided as part of the U.S. Department of Education audit.

Former interim Superintendent Terri Jordan hired the company, which billed the district $200 an hour to prepare her to comment on the records and for an April 24 press conference in which she acknowledged that some of the cheating allegations at Bowie High School were true.

Former Superintendent Lorenzo García less than two months later admitted that he schemed to rig federal accountability measures by putting low-performing students at struggling schools in the wrong grade, kicking some students out and denying enrollment to others.

The district also paid Montoya PR of El Paso more than $258,000 in the last five years, according to records obtained by the newspaper.

Before Perez was hired last week, district spokeswoman Renée de Santos, who makes more than $57,000 a year, led in-house public relations.

Perez's bid for the County Commissioners Court and his job at the school district does not present a conflict of interest, said Max Sherman, a former dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and a past commissioner with the Government Ethics Center of the Josephson Institute of Ethics.

"Just the fact they're both government entities should not disqualify him," Sherman said. "It's not that unusual for someone to have a job for one governmental entity and hold an elected position in another."

Perez said that since his job with the district ends in December it wouldn't present a conflict of interest if voters elect him to Commissioners Court because he would be sworn in Jan. 1.

His campaigning also declined after the primary election several months ago.

"I'm not actively campaigning like I was in the primary," Perez said. "That was our tough race."
