in Houston, Texas

Some politicians owe political favors to fellow politicians. In Amarillo, they owe a bit more than that: All the city commissioners owe money to Amarillo National Bank, where one commissioner is an executive.

That's part of the findings from a joint review of city commissioners' ethics forms by Texas Watchdog and the Amarillo Independent newspaper. A snippet:

All of the commissioners live in homes worth at least $250,000 and all have loans from Amarillo National Bank, according to information from the Potter-Randall Appraisal District and the state-required disclosure forms filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.

And at least three had inadvertent omissions from their forms, filed in April 2008. The Amarillo Independent, working with the public interest organization Texas Watchdog, examined the commissioners' statements that list their financial holdings, business associations and loans with an eye on any possible conflict of interest with city business. Ahead of the next round of city elections approaches in May, their personal financial statements will be filed no later than April 30.

Commissioner Ron Boyd left off his part-ownership of jewelry stores in Austin and San Antonio; Simms' form left off his wife's home loan through his own bank; and Madison Scott left off some details of a stock sale.

Make sure to check out The Indy's Web site for more details. And if you see something on the forms that we missed -- let us know. Drop me a note at jennifer@texaswatchdog.org.

And don't forget that Texas Watchdog has also made public state legislators' disclosure forms and the Houston City Council's disclosure forms.



Amarillo Mayor Debra McCartt 2008 ethics form

Amarillo City Commissioner Jim Simms' 2008 ethics form

Amarillo City Commissioner Madison Scott 2008 ethics form

Amarillo City Commissioner Ronald Boyd's ethics form for 2008

Amarillo City Commissioner Brian Eades 2008 ethics form

Bank vault picture by flickr user Marc_Smith, used via the Creative Commons license.

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