Tulsa Public School Board votes to sue a former employee and his business

The Tulsa Public School Board voted Monday in a special meeting to sue a former employee and his business.

A state audit says Chris Hudgins's company got work with a school vendor while he was working in an administrator role with the district.

Related: Tulsa Public Schools audit released after 2 weeks: Here's what we learned

The audit says TPS paid more than $8,000,000 to the company that hired Hudgins' business as a subcontractor.

Board members say it's important for them to try and get back any taxpayer money that was potentially misspent.

Working double

Chris Hudgins had worked for the district for 10 years until he resigned in February, the day after the state audit came out of Tulsa Public Schools.

The audit says Hudgins was working for TPS as Executive Director of Bond & Energy Management, where he made decisions about construction projects and chose vendors.

It also says Hudgins owned a consulting business, and that business was hired by a TPS vendor called Allied Engineering.

A conflict of interest

TPS paid Allied more than $8,000,000 over nearly nine years.

"In the immediate, it's our families and our students who pay, because those are dollars that aren't in the classroom," said Calvin Moniz, TPS Board Member.

The audit says that in 2019, TPS paid Allied more than $800,000, and Allied then paid Hudgins more than $300,000.

The audit says Hudgins was also getting paid $120,000 in his TPS salary.

The audit also found Hudgins's company's five largest projects in the past five years were jobs for TPS, where he earned $290,000.

"It's incredibly important to know that even before the publication of the state audit, that we have continued to enact practices, changes, by hiring an internal auditor, new CFO, new purchasing process, and bond oversight process," said Moniz.

TPS taking action

The school board said it can't sit by when potential wrongdoing is found, so it will take legal action against Hudgins.

"To show that Tulsa Public Schools is not an organization that you can take advantage of," Moniz said.

The board wants taxpayers to know TPS can be trusted.

"We can admit when we're wrong, but we can also make the decisions to do the right thing and move forward in a way that's healthy for our families and for our students, supports our teachers and our support staff," said Moniz.

News On 6 tried to contact Hudgins but didn't have any luck.

Another wrong to right

The TPS board also voted to settle with the Oklahoma Teacher Retirement System, after the audit said the district owed the fund $1,200,000.