Back a couple of weeks ago, we wrote that a couple of San Antonio businessmen -- whose towing firm had been busted by an investigative reporter for a local TV station -- were apparently graduates of the BP School of Public Relations. 

With all due respect to our friends in Houston reader-land who work for BP, we all learned back last year after the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the BP School of Public Relations has a strange curriculum. For one thing, they teach all their students that if you deny a problem long enough to the media, it will just go away -- which is a little bit like an elementary school teacher telling students that two plus two equals five. 

But those two dudes in San Antonio aren't the only BP School of PR alumni in the news lately. The folks at the Port of Houston Authority are also proud graduates of that program, and when they've sat down to talk with Wayne Dolcefino lately, they've been doing everything but wearing sweatshirts with the school mascot on the front. 

Port boss Alec Dreyer says he was not involved in doctoring public records to cover up the fact that he had arranged a filet-serving wine-and-dine cruise on the port's tour boat for a business partner. (So, if it wasn't you, then who was it, then?) Port Authority Chairman Jim Edmonds says it wasn't a gift when megabucks port vendor AECOM took him on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Saharan desert in Libya, where AECOM does big business, and then began paying Edmonds as a consultant. (And just how do you define "gift" other than "something someone gives you for free"?) 

Everyone is denying everything and, as best as I can tell, thinking it will somehow just go away. They don't offer any kind of legitimate explanation for what happened, and they show absolutely no remorse for the poor decisions they've made -- it's almost an "I don't understand why everyone is making such a big deal out of this" response. 

That was exactly how Tony Hayward played his hand right after Deepwater Horizon exploded. Guys, here's a reminder of something: Tony is now out of a job. And looking at Dolcefino's report that is today's featured video on the Texas Watchdog home page, it sure looks like there's some momentum for the port boys to become unemployed, too, if they don't fix this mess. 

"Alec Dreyer really needs a better answer for what happened there," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett told Dolcefino. Harris County Commissioner Jack Morman, the newcomer to the commissioners' court, says he's "shocked" and has asked for an outside review of what's going on at the port.

But Mayor Annise Parker sounds most pissed off of all of them. Some quotes: Edmonds has a "significant conflict of interest that has to be addressed ..." He "should give up the contract or give up  his job as port chairman." Of Dreyer,  "there can't be special favors ... Changing an official government record is a violation. There needs to be an investigation as to whether there was an attempt to deceive." 

Governmental authorities like the port authority, even though they have their own appointed boards to run things, are, in the end, accountable to the voters. The people on the port commission are appointed by people who include Harris County and the city of Houston. So, if Ed Emmett and Annise Parker aren't happy with how the port is running, they have some clout in this matter.

And as Dolcefino points out, the taxes the port authority levies on property owners have gone up while this largesse and luxury was being enjoyed. If Emmett and Parker don't put the heat on the port, they're likely to hear from their own constituents about it. 

Whether they teach that at the BP School of Public Relations, I guess we'll just have to see. 

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Spotted a good video example of watchdog journalism, or a report on Texas government or politics or government transparency or accountability? Shoot a note to jennifer@texaswatchdog.org. 

Photo: The Port of Houston's Bayport Container Terminal by flickr user roy.luck, used under a Creative Commons license.