Celso Martinez was kind enough to call and give me the news personally.
Superintendent Michael Hinojosa has denied the DISD spokesperson and associate superintendent's waiver request to continue to live outside the district, capping a bizarre and bitter 10-day saga that called into question Martinez's common sense and honesty. Seeming chastened by his bosses' rejection, if not the criticism from every corner of the local press, Martinez says he'll now look for a house inside the DISD boundaries.
"I love what I do and I think I'm effective at it," he says. "And I want to keep doing it."
Earlier this month, Unfair Park broke the news that Martinez was in violation of the board's residency requirements that mandate that all members of the superintendent's executive staff live inside DISD's plentiful boundaries. Martinez, who lived in McKinney in Collin County, had six months to comply or ask for a waiver and had done neither until Unfair Park first called him about his living situation in January.
At the time, Martinez e-mailed Unfair Park that he was going to look for a house in the district and later in a conversation about why he was in violation of the board's policy, he reiterated his plans to move. What he conveniently failed to tell us was that he was planning to move to another house in Collin County , where he'd still be in violation of board policy, a revelation he confirmed under questioning from KTVT-Channel 11's Sarah Dodd. That told us that we couldn't take DISD's $140,000-a-year spokesman at his word and that when he wrote he was moving to a house inside the district, that actually meant he was moving to a house outside the district. Silly us.
If Martinez proved to be less than honest with this blog, he came across just as negatively in his interview with Channel 11 when he tried to whitewash his breach of district policy by claiming that people have died for his right to live wherever he choose. What battle exactly was it during which we fought for the rights of bureacrats to flaunt the rules of their institution? We must have been sick that day.
Martinez has until July to find a house in Dallas. It will take a lot longer than that to rebuild his reputation. --Matt Pulle
