The chief spokesman for San Antonio's troubled water provider offered to steer contracts to a state senator's title company soon after the senator helped the problem utility avoid additional oversight, the San Antonio Express-News reported Sunday morning.

Using more than 500 e-mails it obtained through the state's Public Information Act, the newspaper paints the relationship between BexarMet spokesman T.J. Connolly and state Sen. Carlos Uresti as a sort of unholy alliance that helped BexarMet's leadership retain power despite its various problems. The e-mails suggest a tangled web of deceit blocked the public from knowing what was really going on.

If you're not familiar with BexarMet, the press accounts I've been reading in the past several months make it seem like the water company from hell: The water you get might not be clean, and you might have to boil it first. They jacked up rates and have been raked by state auditors for mismanagement. The general manager has been accused of sexual harassment and indicted for wiretapping. The DA recently told WOAI-TV that "the place is an absolute mess."

Uresti's title firm never wound up getting any of the contracts Connolly referenced, but the senator pledged BexarMet leaders his support while telling the public he was neutral, the e-mails suggest. He's now co-chairman of a legislative oversight board for BexarMet, a board the Express-News says was created as a way to fend off rival proposals that would have dumped the utility's entire board.

From the story by Karisa King and John Tedesco:

Connolly’s role at the utility and his proximity to Uresti have come under scrutiny since recent Express-News reports showed that one of Connolly’s clients, Water Exploration Co. Ltd., donated $25,000 to Uresti’s campaign in September 2007. Uresti said he since has given the money to charity.

Connolly also tried to steer lucrative real estate commissions from BexarMet to Uresti and his title company. And when Uresti’s chief of staff, attorney Bobby Maldonado, left his position to strike out on his own, he soon picked up a hefty contract with BexarMet, which paid him $200,323 since July 2007 to be its liaison with the oversight committee that Uresti created.

This is just another example of why public officials' e-mails should be public. Look at the example set by Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is now headed to prison, who showed his duplicitousness so candidly via his BlackBerry. Just today, there's a fight continuing in New Jersey over Gov. Jon Corzine's e-mails that could shed light on a romantic relationship he had with a female union chief; Corzine is claiming the e-mails are protected by executive privilege (wasn't that one of Nixon's arguments?). Closer to home, we can't forget that not even a year has passed since Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal left office after the disclosure of racist, political and pornographic e-mails on his computer.

Express-News editor Robert Rivard has an excellent column this morning lauding the two reporters' work and the importance of journalistic digging -- and of the newspapers that do the lion's share of that work:

For those who have given up reading newspapers, I ask one question: What would happen to your tax dollars if there were no watchdog?

Can I get an amen?

For those wanting to look a bit closer at Uresti, we've pulled his 2008 campaign contributions from the state Ethics Commission's Web site. And his 2008 personal financial disclosure statement is here. (Anybody know who is the Ron Ray he reports having received more than $25,000 from? I found multiple Ron Rays from San Antonio via Google.)