by JEN BIUNDO

Hays CISD officials say they’re trying to determine if the district acted improperly in making about $2,700 in repairs to the home they are leasing to trustee Joe Muñoz.

District officials say they’re taking the allegations seriously and have spoken with the Hays County District Attorney’s Office.

“There is nothing more important than the ethical behavior of our school district leadership,” said Superintendent Jeremy Lyon. “When you have a situation like this, it is imperative to provide full disclosure to the community of what has transpired. And this is exactly what we are doing.”

The district purchased the 2,663 square foot home and surrounding acreage in 2007 as a potential future school site.

Muñoz signed a six-month lease this March for the home on 2301 High Road in Uhland. The house had been unoccupied and fallen into disrepair, school officials said.

The lease notes that “the landlord does not intend to provide any maintenance or repair services for the premises” and that the rental rate of $750 for the four-bedroom house was discounted because the tenant would take on repair duties. According to the lease, the district would be required to repair only door and window locks and smoke detectors.

“The landlord makes no warranty of the habitability of the Premises…and each agree to lease the Premises on an as-is, where-is basis,” the lease reads.

But the 19 work orders on the property between Feb. 11 and May 15 total more than 120 hours, primarily to replace the rotten deck and install a new ceiling fan. About 22 hours of work were completed before Muñoz signed the lease.

Muñoz said he was responsible for repairs to the house, but not renovations for problems that existed before he moved in.

“The lease agreement is clear that the tenant repair anything that was damaged while occupying the home,” Muñoz said. “It’s silly to suggest that a tenant would be responsible for renovating the home to livable and safe conditions for problems that existed prior to move in.”

The lease was signed by Hays CISD Finance Director Carter Scherff when he was acting as interim superintendent.

Scherff said he didn’t see any conflict of interest in the school district renting out property to a sitting board member, and said the repairs were kosher.

“We’re going to lease the house out again,” Scherff said. “We looked at those as investments in the property. The deck was a safety issue. Most of it was rotted out.”

Bryce Bales, a former school board president, filed a series of open records requests seeking information about the lease.

“You specify in the lease that you’re responsible for repairs then you turn around and let the school district do it – it’s just wrong,” Bales said.

Bales questioned the ethics of renting out district property to a school board member and the way the leasing took place, calling it “if not illegal, highly unethical.” He’s especially critical of the fact that the district decided to lease out the property in closed executive session that Muñoz attended

In the March 4 edition of the Hays Free Press, the school district placed the anonymous classified ad for the four bedroom home in Uhland, providing a local contact number. A similar ad ran earlier in the week in the online classifieds. Muñoz emailed the district on March 4 expressing interest in the property, and signed the lease that day.

“Joe Muñoz had the inside track,” Bales said.

Bales is a frequent and vocal critic of the current school board.

“This is another misleading attempt by a troubled person who dislikes Hays CISD,” Muñoz said in a written statement. “When I heard this and found out who was behind this, I said to myself ‘consider the source.’”

Earlier this month, Muñoz announced his intention to resign his District 2 seat because he had moved to District 5. Though his wife still resides in the rental house on High Road, Muñoz said he is living in a trailer on the FM 967 property west of Buda where the family is constructing a house

Muñoz, a supervisor with the Austin Police Department, has previously expressed interest in running for the seat of Hays County Sheriff, but said recently that he would consider making another bid for the school board in his new district.