AUDIT IS TROUBLE FOR DRUG DIRECTOR

The head of Gov. Rick Perry's Narcotics Control Program is being reassigned
and possibly demoted after showing "a lack of judgment" while running the
anti-drug trafficking effort.

An auditor this week reported that while overseeing grants to local law
enforcement agencies, Robert J. "Duke" Bodisch Sr. borrowed three cars from
a task force that gets money from the program. The auditor also said that
for five years, the narcotics program paid for awards, gifts, alcoholic
beverages and entertainment at annual training conferences. Such spending
"appeared to fall outside of the guidelines" set by the U.S. Bureau of
Justice Assistance, which provides millions of dollars that the narcotics
program distributes.

The audit results are being forwarded to the Public Integrity Unit of the
Travis County district attorney's office and to the Bureau of Justice
Assistance.

The narcotics control program is an arm of the Governor's Criminal Justice
Division. It has a $176 million budget in the current two-year state budget.

Barry McBee, Perry's chief of staff, said money spent at the training
conferences came from registration fees, not from the federal government.
But how those fees are spent still might fall under federal regulation. If
they were misspent, the state could face penalties, McBee said Friday.

Bodisch has been on a paid leave of absence since May 4 while policies and
spending in the program were reviewed.

McBee said the governor's office decided to reassign, rather than fire,
Bodisch because he did not personally gain from the questioned spending and
did not give special treatment to the Marble Falls Covert Operations
Response Team, the agency from which he borrowed the cars.

"Disciplinary action needed to be taken," McBee said. "However, looking at
the totality of the circumstances . . . we felt like it did not warrant
discharging him."

Bodisch did not return a call seeking comment. He will return to work
Monday and will be assigned a new job, McBee said. It will not be clear
whether Bodisch's $59,172.20 annual salary will be affected until his new
job is determined.

Bodisch, 50, has been a certified law enforcement officer since 1973 and
has been a reserve officer for the Marble Falls Police Department since 1997.

Members of the Marble Falls Covert Operations Response Team are licensed
via the Police Department but do not work directly for it. Bodisch has
never been a part of the response team, an agency that helps other law
enforcement officers with narcotics investigations.

From July 2000 to February of this year, auditor Paul Hagen said, the
response team loaned Bodisch three different vehicles and paid more than
$2,500 in repairs for them.

McBee said that as head of the Narcotics Control Program, Bodisch is
allowed a vehicle by federal guidelines. The governor's office, however,
does not provide vehicles for anyone other than the governor.

"One thing not noted is that these were all fairly old vehicles," McBee
said, adding that the repairs were all related to mechanical problems.
"These were not brand-new drug lords' Mercedes."

McBee and the auditor noted that the response team loaned the vehicles to
Bodisch at his request and brought the matter to the attention of the
governor's office when questions about insurance coverage arose.

"That represents a lack of judgment on his part," McBee said of Bodisch's
request.

The auditor also reported that from 1996 to 2000, the Narcotics Control
Program spent about $43,965 on awards, trinkets, gifts, alcoholic beverages
and entertainment at annual conferences. Law enforcement agents from across
the state pay registration fees to attend the training conferences.

Whether the program faces any penalties for how that money was spent will
be up to Richard Nedelkoff, who recently left the governor's criminal
justice division to become head of the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Nedelkoff is being replaced as criminal justice director by Jay Kimbrough,
the former head of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
Kimbrough will determine Bodisch's new assignment.

Bodisch joined the Narcotics Control Program in 1996, when George W. Bush
was governor.

Like others in the governor's office, Bodisch was asked to reapply for his
job when Perry took office.