The HAS Development Corp. is not subject to financial oversight by the city of Houston, the city controller’s office said Friday, but nonprofit spinoff of the Houston Airport System could be using its city ties in its marketing in disregard of city policy.

In a letter to Mayor Bill White and city council members, City Controller Annise Parker said that the organization is not a “component unit” of city government, but “we will continue to monitor this and at some point that may change.”

The nonprofit, also called HASDC, is the entity that enables Houston Airport System employees to build, run and consult for airports around the world. It is involved in building a new airport in Quito, Ecuador, while running the old airport there, as well as doing a major expansion of an airport near Costa Rica's capital city.

Parker also said that during her own review of the activities of HASDC, her office found that the nonprofit possibly violates the agreement that council members signed off on in 2001 to create the entity. She cited a section of the contract that prohibits the HASDC from representing itself as an agent of the city or the Houston Airport System.

“… Its marketing materials, employee business cards, corporate logo and Web site clearly indicate that HASDC is ‘affiliated with the Houston Airport System.’ Which creates the perception that HASDC is a representative of the city,” Parker wrote. She attached examples of this marketing to her letter.

The announcement comes at the end of a week during which Parker told White in a letter that the HASDC has “systemic problems.” The statement forced the airport system to amend bond documents to assert that the city is legally separate from the HASDC. The airport sold the bonds on Thursday.

The city is conducting its own review, which was launched shortly after airport system director Richard Vacar abruptly resigned in May. The review is being handled by law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, and the finding will be brought to the city’s chief administrative officer, Anthony W. Hall Jr.

In an interview Friday morning, Vacar predicted that the review will clear the HASDC of posing any risk to the city on any level.

“When this is all done going, you are going to find out there was nothing wrong here," Vacar said. “It was always done within the framework of what the city authorized and what the contracts demanded. Every decision made, all the way down the road, was honest and ethical. And every one of them was vetted by the general counsel for HASDC to make sure there were no issues with the city.”

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