Captain Ridiculous in Brazoria County
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The Houston-based investigative media firm Dolcefino Consulting is announcing a brand-new award for public officials who fight the public right to know.
The inaugural “Captain Ridiculous” award goes to the office of Brazoria County District Attorney Tom Selleck.
More than three years after Hurricane Harvey, hundreds of Sweeny-area residents believe flooding was intentionally made worse by actions taken by the Phillips 66 refinery on Highway 35 to divert water to their neighbors.
Dolcefino Consulting has launched our own investigation into what happened. Our first act was to request public records detailing flooding complaints during and after the storm to Brazoria County officials and emails and phone records of county officials in the days following the hurricane.
Brazoria County taxpayers will just love this. Apparently, the District Attorney doesn’t know the meaning of the word “flooding.”
A letter from Brazoria County attorney Jesse Blakley Jr. asked us to clarify the meaning of “flooding,” even though it is the most common natural disaster in America.
Wait. It gets better. He also wants us to clarify the meaning of the term “complaint.”
“I wrote back to the Brazoria County District Attorney’s office that Mr. Blakley may have a future as a stand-up comedian,” said Wayne Dolcefino, President of the investigative media firm. “This deserves an award. I’ve named it the Captain Ridiculous award.”
Public officials sometimes use these clarification letters to stall production of public records. It is just one of the games played to hide the truth from taxpayers, and in this case hundreds of flood victims.
“Maybe they just don’t want us to see communications with Phillips during the storm,” Dolcefino said. “Did county officials know they were diverting flood waters to the neighbors? The guy in charge of emergency management won’t even return our phone calls. Neither will the County Judge. Makes you curious. You would think flooding would be something they want to talk about.”
Read the letter from Captain Ridiculous’ office below:
Letter-11-30-20 Keep up with us on social media:
