Orange district got push on PC vendor: School Board member Rick Roach has continually pressed the district to purchase products from a campaign contributor, district records show.

Byline: Mary Shanklin

Apr. 3--For years, computer purchases in Orange County schools have been influenced partly by a School Board member advocating the products of a campaign contributor who once partnered with him in a nonprofit business venture.

The Orange County School Board's code of conduct says individual members have "no authority to insert themselves into staff operations except when explicitly authorized by the board."

Yet since 2001 School Board member Rick Roach has continually pushed the district's purchasing staff to give Orlando computer company Executive Source Quality more of the district's $20 million annual computer business, an Orlando Sentinel review of district records shows.

With no prior approval from the full School Board, Roach has acknowledged intervening at least 15 times when he thought ESQ was being treated unfairly by district employees. He has demanded that top officials push through ESQ orders that had been questioned by district staff and has complained when ESQ lost bids. And in an unprecedented move for a board member, he personally investigated the district department he thought was critical of ESQ.

Roach said he does not think he has overstepped rules that are supposed to prevent him from interfering in staff operations. He said he sees ESQ and its president, Ray Bazzi, as the underdog in a quest to win a piece of the district business from the dominant supplier, which is…