Citizen Staff Writer
MARY BUSTAMANTE
mbustamante@tucsoncitizen.com
Tucson Unified School District’s board will vote Tuesday night on canceling the contract of chief operations officer Rudy Flores, a key figure in a state Attorney General’s Office investigation that said TUSD purchasing employees rigged bids and violated conflict-of-interest laws.
The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at the board conference room in district headquarters, 1010 E. 10th St. It will be preceded by an executive session, closed to the public.
Flores, on paid administrative leave since the attorney general’s report was released in late January, was technology assistant director during the period under investigation.
He could not be reached for comment Monday.
A settlement agreement with the attorney general allows TUSD to avoid litigation, but it will pay a penalty of $7,500 to the Attorney General’s Office as partial reimbursement for the costs of the investigation.
The investigation began in 2006 at the request of the TUSD board.
Flores faces a lawsuit filed against him by the Attorney General’s Office. The lawsuit, which seeks $39,100 in penalties for procurement code violations, also is against former TUSD technology director Guyton Campbell.
Flores’ contract with TUSD expires July 1, as do all contracts with district administrators, said TUSD spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board will discuss having an override election for a districtwide master technology plan.
Much of the money needed would go toward bandwidth, which increases infrastructure to increase Internet access.
More than $11.6 million in federal technology funding, called eRate funds, was held up by a state attorney general’s investigation. District officials said it should be released after the investigation is completed.
The district barely lost a November 2008 override seeking a reduction of class sizes and the expansion of the fine arts program Opening Minds through the Arts.