Airport: Despite public employees' labor, nonprofit says it's private

(Continued from page 4)

But the nonprofit does not want to be in the city fold at all. Its attorney, prominent public finance lawyer Hank Coleman of the influential firm Vinson and Elkins, has written a 10-page letter to the Texas attorney general, arguing that HASDC should not have to open its books to Texas Watchdog, or anyone, as it should not be considered a government agency.

Among other points, Coleman says HAS Development Corp. is a separative, private entity that "has not received any public support." He didn't mention, however, that HASDC's only salable commodity, by its own admission, is selling the expertise and labor of Houston Airport System employees, who then spend their time working on the outside contracting business -- sometimes from Houston, sometimes from Ecuador or wherever; HASDC then reimburses the city for the employees' time at a 180% rate. (Texas Watchdog intends to argue to the state attorney general that HASDC's records should be made public.)

Greenberg, who spent 10 years in the state House representing Austin, said the nonprofit and its subsidiaries sounded public to her.

"The way you describe it, these are city of Houston entities -- even though one's a BVI and one's a nonprofit, they are city of Houston entities," she said. "Taxpayers' or ratepayers' dollars, whichever way -- public dollars are going into these people's salaries, and hence, there is a right to know. Absolutely."

Such right-to-know issues often come up in public-private partnerships, said David Van Slyke, an expert on public-private partnerships and privatization issues who teaches at Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

"Transparency is always a critical issue, and that's why it's even more important for government to do due diligence because of the perception of the public," Van Slyke said. "Is money being misappropriated? What are the accountability systems like? Are the best people being appointed to the positions? Are the people who serve on the board, are they people of integrity, of reputation? Do they have expertise? It's in government's interest that this doesn't look or smell like cronyism or corruption."

Not only can you not get paper records from the development corporation -- good luck trying to talk to them.

We e-mailed a request to current HASDC President and CEO Gary Lantner to drop by his office and talk and look at the books; that request was eventually answered by Coleman's letter to the attorney general.

We tried to reach Potts, who is now interim boss of the airport system and HAS Development Corp., via cell phone and were unsuccessful; when we reached him at home Monday night, he blew up and told us to call him at work the next day. At 9:30 a.m., we left a message at his office. At around 2:30 p.m., we received a call from Roxanne Butler, the airport system's spokeswoman, who declined to make Potts available unless we submitted questions in advance. (No thanks.)

Calls to Aviles and Lawal, the HASDC board members, went unreturned. A call to Bartlett, another board member and the airport system's chief operating officer, was answered by an operator speaking only Spanish.

We reached Bob Maxwell, whose name appears on HASDC's tax forms as the person who keeps its books, but he refused to answer any questions.

“I understand there are a number of things going on, and (we) have an attorney who is handling the situation,” Maxwell said. “I’m not going to get in the middle of that.”

Previous pages: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Contact Jennifer Peebles at jennifer@texaswatchdog.org. Contact Steve Miller at stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.

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Jim Thursday, 07/09/2009 - 11:56AM Jennifer & Steve: Great work! You are truly earning your moniker, Texas Watchdog. I'm amazed with the "jaw dropping" reaction of Annise Parker. She's the CFO and former council member who approved (at least some of) the original structure. Getting the financial records: Mayor Bill White should order Eric Potts to immediately release those records. The charter of HASDC requires that the Chairman be the COH Director of Aviation. If Potts refuses to order the release he should be terminated. No question. No need for a lengthy wait on the AG's office. The Mayor, and any officials running for re-election or higher office will ignore this scandal at their peril. Keep Digging!