
Good news for Tom Bazan: He now has an ally in his fight to get timely TxPIA requests out of METRO:
David Mincberg, Ed Emmett’s Democratic opponent, wants to know why the ethics reform task force the county judge appointed in February hasn’t delivered its recommendations.
According to this story about Emmett’s announcement of the task force, the panel was supposed to report back within three months, i.e. yesterday.
“I’m surprised Ed Emmett failed to follow through on this promise,” Mincberg said in a statement. “He’s simply dropped the ball. We need an independent Board of Ethics that is both free of politics and gets the job done.”
Finally someone will tell Frank “Procurement Disaster” Wilson to stop stalling on TxPIA’s.
Just curious, though. Back in 2007 the City of Houston dropped the ball in releasing a critical budget report, missing a deadline by months:
Houston Mayor Bill White is under scrutiny concerning last year’s city budget report, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.
The chairman of the Harris County Republican party wants to know why city leaders are already looking ahead to next year’s budget when last year’s report still has not been released.
Party officials said it’s taxpayer money and it’s time residents knew how their money was spent in 2006. But they said the mayor’s office has still not completed an audit of the annual financial statement.
[snip]
There is nearly a four-month-long grace period after the October deadline.
But the city missed that and is now in violation of local code.
[snip]
The mayor said Houstonians should expect to see results soon.
“It’s going to be out any day now. Not in response to the letter, but in response to me and the controller saying repeatedly, ‘We need to get this thing wrapped up.’ And that was an estimate that was given some days ago before I saw this letter,” White said.
Let’s see Mincberg’s correspondence with Mayor White demanding the release of the 2006 budget report. I mean, he’s a stickler for deadlines! I imagine he was all over Mayor White’s case for what ended up being a multi-month delay in releasing information that is required by law.
And why doesn’t he release his communication with Mayor White where he chastised the agenda-setter for handing over a NO-BID, long-term airport concessions contract to a company whose owner, coincidentally, of course, had donated generously to city councilmembers and the mayor?
But above all else, let’s see have a look at Mincberg’s business dealings, both as an apartment complex developer, and as the city’s $1 per year head of Department of Housing and Community Development, to get an idea of his own personal code of ethics.
By the way, if Mr. Mincberg is interested in helping, Tom Bazan’s latest TxPIA request is actually a third request for information about all consultants on METRO’s payroll. We know of two: Frank Wilson’s buddy, Frank Russo, and former Houston councilwoman Carol Alvarado. I’m sure Bazan would appreciate some assistance in getting that information released.