Adam McGough
Though questions about his family’s residency and his children’s Highland Park education have caused a stir, Dallas City Council candidate Adam McGough says he is forging ahead in his run for the District 10 seat, and he has the formal endorsements of city councilman Jerry Allen and former city councilman Bill Blaydes, as well as the moral support of his ex-boss, Mayor Mike Rawlings.
Allen, whose term ends this year, says his support for Adam “has not wavered and perhaps has grown even stronger.
“He is a good man who is well respected across Dallas,” Allen says. “He will represent our district well.”
Blaydes also confirms his continued support, dismissing what he calls “mud slinging tactics” by opponents.
“As to this school fiasco, I would not have enrolled my child in Northlake Elementary (the public RISD school to which Adam McGough’s home is zoned) at that time either. He made sure his child was in a school that best met the youngster’s needs and capabilities. Private schools were not an option financially at the time. Both of his school-age children are now in Scofield. There is more to the story involving extended family problems, but I will let Adam discuss that private situation as he and his wife Lacy see fit.”
While Rawlings says he has not officially endorsed any candidate, he says that — unless Highland Park ISD launches an investigation and presses charges — he will continue to assume his former chief of staff has lived honestly and with integrity.
“Of course, I always want to make sure everyone on my staff does everything legally. But you would have to ask the [HPISD] if he was doing it wrong. It was my understanding that he was doing everything correctly,” Rawlings says. “I will tell you that he is one of the most ethical people I know, and he did a great job for this city.”
Meanwhile, we contacted McGough’s opponent, Paul Reyes, through his publicist at Allyn Media and were told Reyes does not plan to comment on this issue and that “he is focused on the campaign and issues in District 10.”
Last week, after McGough addressed questions about his residency and children’s school attendance, not everyone was satisfied with his explanation. However, as we noted in an earlier online article about McGough’s candidacy, about 25 percent of the comments (25 of 106), using a variety of screen names, appeared to have come from a single computer emanating from a single IP address in a residential neighborhood well outside of the boundaries of Lake Highlands.
We haven’t been able to pinpoint who made the flurry of bogus comments, but once we discovered the issue, we closed commenting on the earlier stories, and we’ll be on the lookout for similar patterns here and in future election stories.
That noted, we continued to look into concerns and questions about McGough. (For background about the situation, please refer to last week’s article.)
Among the concerns: Concern about the McGoughs’ honesty related to the school choice issue.
“Are we to believe Lacy McGough and three children lived in a one-bedroom apartment while her husband lived in this spacious Lake Highlands home?” asked one commenter.
Yes, McGough told us, that is the case. It was a sacrifice, he said, but one made specifically in the interest of their child.
The Highland Park home, the Crestpark Condos on Lomo Alto, is a secure facility. Reporters cannot wander in and knock on doors and ask about past neighbors.
Were Lacy McGough and their children living in Lake Highlands when they were legally supposed to be living in Highland Park? We found no one in the McGoughs’ Lake Highlands neighborhood who wanted to talk about the family’s presence or lack thereof over the past three years.
What about concerns the McGoughs filed for a homestead exemption after they purchased the Lake Highlands home? Doesn’t that prove the family was claiming two residences, which typically is disallowed for the purpose of school attendance?
The Crestpark condominiums
Not necessarily.
A homestead exemption for the Lake Highlands home was filed in 2007. The condominium wasn’t acquired until 2012, and Lacy McGough didn’t file for a homestead exemption at the condo. As one neighborhood attorney explained to me, the McGoughs would have needed to notify the tax assessor of any change to their homestead occupancy eligibility. Most records related to home addresses are withheld, per Section 25.025 or 25.026 Texas Property Tax Code, due to McGough’s work as a community prosecutor. That’s something we can ask about when we talk with the candidates during a Q&A next month.
The biggest question seems to be: Did the McGoughs enroll two children in HPISD under false pretense?
In an attempt to answer this question — to determine whether the McGoughs were breaking the rules — the Observer pointed to this section of the Highland Park ISD website featuring Frequently Asked Questions:
“I’ve heard that a family living outside the district can enroll a child in HPISD if they lease an apartment and sleep in it during the week. Is that correct?
The situation described does not meet the residency requirement. The primary residence must be within HPISD. FD(REGULATION) defines residency as follows:
“A person resides in the district if the true, primary, physical place where the person lives with the intent to remain for a considerable amount of time is within the boundaries of the district. A person’s residence is the fixed, permanent, and principal place of habitation that is the center of the person’s domestic, social, and civic life. A person can reside in only one place at a time.”
But the same HPISD website also includes this question, which the Observer article doesn’t cite:
Our household situation has changed. One parent lives outside the district, and one resides in HPISD. How will that impact my children’s enrollment?
As long as the parent who resides in the district retains some level of conservatorship, the child may remain in school in the district. There is no restriction as to where the child must reside in this situation.
We asked HPISD communications director Helen Williams about the residency issues. Williams says she can’t comment on any particular student, family or situation, but she outlined in detail the protocol for determining and investigating residency.
The district makes it easy to report suspicious residency, she says, and HPISD investigates all reports it receives.
A residency investigator starts with paperwork — leases, water bills, driver’s licenses, Williams writes in an email to the Advocate — and talks with the administrators at the school of enrollment to identify unique situations or insight that will aid in the investigation. The investigator searches tax records to determine properties owned, both in Highland Park and elsewhere; if the records show properties owned outside HPISD boundaries, it could warrant further investigation to determine primary residence.
At this point, Williams tells us, “if the research doesn’t yield an explanation and the circumstances still seem uncertain, two options are considered: The residence is observed for indications that the subjects of the investigation reside at the claimed residence. Or, the parents/guardians are contacted directly to arrange a home visit to confirm their residency.”
HPISD doesn’t have a history of pressing legal charges in residency cases, Williams says. But the district has pursued tuition reimbursement (about $50 per day) charges in the past.
The McGoughs’ situation does not appear to have been investigated by HPISD; McGough says that he’s not aware of any complaint filed with the school district.
Based on the district’s MO for investigating questionable residency, and the fact that the McGough children have withdrawn from the HPISD and now attend Scofield, there’s no reason to believe HPISD will weigh in on the issue in the future, either.
We’ll continue to report any new information regarding the candidates for the District 10 City Council seat election in May. Sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter and be the first to know the latest about the election, as well as all kinds of other neighborhood news and events.
Both candidates have agreed to visit with the Advocate for a Q&A prior to the election. We’ll bring that to you as election day draws closer. If you have any questions you’d like to see the candidates answer, please post them here or send them to us at chughes@advocatemag.com.
And remember: If you have something constructive and rational to say about the candidates or their positions, we welcome your participation here. But please keep the discussion civil and honest.
