Houston City Council’s personal financial info made public online for first time

By Trent Seibert | Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

HOUSTON - Texas Watchdog placed online today records detailing Houston elected officials’ property holdings, business interests, travel and gifts.

Check out the story, written by Jennifer Peebles, here.

Almost nothing has been written concerning this treasure trove of information about our city leaders. And little wonder. Although these documents are public, city officials choose not to put them online, and that makes this important information less available to voters, taxpayers and residents.

“These are public records, but city officials certainly don’t break a sweat making them easy to get,” says Trent Seibert, editor of Texas Watchdog. “They sit in a file and can be examined during business hours - but that’s when most folks are working. In a time when everyone has access to the Internet through the public library, this is downright silly.”

The law requires these documents to be public, but doesn’t say that they need to be placed online.

Some items from the Texas Watchdog analysis:

• Mayor Bill White and City Councilman M.J. Khan reported receiving gifts worth more than $250 in calendar year 2007.
• The mayor has an extensive stock portfolio, and reported making more than $25,000 in sales of Exxon Mobil stock, as well as more than $25,000 from sales of Precision Drilling stock. On the flip side, he reported losing money on the sale of stock in Washington Mutual, the thrift that recently claimed the title of biggest bank failure in American history.
• Khan was the only official among the mayor and council to report travel expenses paid by an outside source, reporting three trips (two overseas and one to Washington, D.C.)
• Neither the mayor nor any of the members of the council reported owning any stock in CenterPoint Energy, though City Controller Annise Parker reported owning as many as 100 shares of the power company’s stock.

“We urge the city to put this information online, but in the meantime, we’ll do it so the folks at City Hall can see how easy it is,” Seibert said. “As the city makes important decisions about the budget, it’s important to see what financial interests the city council and the mayor have.”

Readers can view Texas Watchdog’s analysis of the financial disclosures and read the actual documents for each Houston city elected official here.

Texas Watchdog is a news Web site and training center that scrutinizes the actions of government agencies, bureaucracies and politicians in Texas. It is an independent, nonpartisan entity founded on the belief that our American democracy depends on transparency in government.

For more information, contact:

Trent Seibert, editor, Texas watchdog at 713-366-7974 or via e-mail at trent@texaswatchdog.org

(Photo of binoculars by Flickr user C.P. Storm, used via the Creative Commons license.)