A politician’s payday
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Metro confirms it has made payments to at least one of Sylvester Turner’s companies, adding to the growing list of local government agencies Turner has tapped to make money while representing Houston in the State Legislature.
Documents released by the transit agency detail 24 invoices totaling $50,625 over 16 separate months to American Title, Turner’s title company on Louisiana Street.
Last week, Channel 13 questioned $144,000 paid to American Title, part of a real estate deal made possible by the 2012 HISD bond election that Turner helped pass.
The Houston Housing and Community Development Department says American Title handled $3 million dollars in affordable housing funds transactions.
The City of Houston also acknowledges the law firm of Barnes and Turner has been paid about a quarter of a million dollars to handle legal matters on city housing projects.
Turner’s law firm has also been paid more than $800,000 to collect delinquent tickets for the City of Houston Municipal Courts. The firm was also listed on the Linebarger contract with HISD, but new records show the firm isn’t sharing any of the contract with minority firms any longer. Turner has remained silent.
Fox 26 has questioned hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to Turner’s firm from charter schools under investigation by the State of Texas for fraud and safety issues. It is not known if Turner disclosed he was on the payroll when he met with the Education Commissioner. Personal financial disclosures by the State Representative only detail retainers, so the full amount of money made by Turner is a mystery.
“Mr. Turner’s business interests have received millions of dollars from taxpayers, or companies under state regulation while he has been in office,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting.
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