By Andy Sevilla.
A former Hays/Caldwell Emergency Services District (ESD) No.1 Commissioner is behind bars on abuse of official capacity and misapplication of fiduciary property convictions stemming from a Texas Rangers investigation into 2009 ESD expenditures.
Phillip Pete Ferraz, 59, was found guilty in September of overpaying a construction company by more than $20,000 with ESD money for repairs to district property, and then having that company make improvements to his home in Kyle.
After pleading not guilty on June 22, 2011, a Hays County jury found Ferraz guilty on both third-degree felonies on Sept. 20, 2013. District Court Judge Bill Henry sentenced Ferraz to ten years probation, plus a $20,000 restitution to the ESD, a $3,000 fine, 300 hours of community service and a 30-day stint in jail.
Ferraz turned himself in on Feb. 1.
“Him being found guilty was great, because now he cannot – with two felony convictions – be put in a position like this again,” said ESD Commissioner Pete Clendennen, who turned over evidence to authorities sparking the investigation.
Clendennen told the Hays Free Press that when he and other commissioners were elected to the board in May 2010, they noticed some anomalies in the ESD’s accounting. Upon further review, Clendennen said commissioners felt work by AT Construction “was overpriced and not done very well.”
Court evidence surfaced 12 checks amounting to $54,513.67 that the ESD paid to AT Construction for work on district property.
Clendennen said the firm put up a brick façade on over half of two of the ESD’s fire station buildings; they also painted three buildings, built a privacy fence and tore down a Niederwald home the ESD bought, but decided against remodeling.
The ESD, which oversees the Chisholm Trail Fire and Rescue Department, is an all-volunteer fire department and many of the firefighters offered to help, but Ferraz was “adamant” that AT Construction do the work, according to Clendennen.
He said when the ESD called AT Construction for copies of work receipts, owner Arturo Trevino said he did not have them because his computer malfunctioned, but he was willing to print new receipts for any amount the ESD requested.
Clendennen said that based on testimony in Ferraz’s trial, AT Construction and Ferraz had an agreement to overcharge the ESD and remodel Ferraz’s home with new sheet rock, new tile and new kitchen cabinets in 2009.
“It was just somebody that worked the system for personal gain and he got caught,” Clendennen said.
Before Clendennen and two others were elected in May 2010 to join the ESD, Clendennen said Ferraz bullied the other serving commissioners and ran the ESD at his pleasure, for which some commissioners quit in protest.
After the May 2010 elections however, Ferraz was removed from his president post and named vice president of the ESD and Clendennen became the treasurer.
Shortly thereafter, Ferraz stepped down from the ESD claiming a back injury, Clendennen said, for which Ferraz has collected workers compensation and missed a lot of meetings. It is not clear where or when Ferraz sustained a back injury.
Clendennen said he had high suspicions of wrong doing by Ferraz based on the ESD’s accounting books, “but then just the amount of info that came out (during trial) with all the witnesses that testified against him, I was just amazed by how long (Ferraz) was able to get away with this. When you do wrong things, you’re going to get caught.”
A deeper look into Ferraz’s criminal history in Hays County reveals charges dating back to 1990, including criminal trespassing, injury to a child, a terror threat, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, retaliation and other criminal acts.
New measures have been put in place at the Hays/Caldwell ESD to prevent any misapplication of funds from ever happening again, Clendennen said, including stringent review of bank statements by ESD members.
Clendennen said the ordeal was a learning experience for the seven-year old ESD. But, with the new oversight measures and new laws requiring more training, he said the department is safer and more protected from further felonious dealings.
“If you get people in there that understand what’s going on and know the rules, I don’t see how any of this could happen again,” he said.
