Drain It!
Have you ever noticed that once a government agency is created it never goes away? Never! That’s ridiculous! Like the decades old drainage district along Clear Creek. We say – DRAIN IT! And we are not alone…
Drain It!
“Hi, this is Terry Dolcefino, I’m Wayne’s wife. And I am out here in Hurricane Eye. If you can see, I’m barely able to stand up.”
Wait a minute. That’s not my wife. I don’t even know that woman.
On YouTube, she was spoofing some of my enthusiastic coverage of dozens of hurricanes while I was a reporter with Channel 13.
“They may call Claudette a weak hurricane, but it’s pretty strong,” Wayne Dolcefino on Channel 13.
But I was a young radio reporter for KTRH Radio when another storm with the name Claudette hit Galveston County in 1979.
“Some of those rescued were too small to help themselves.”
Just a tropical storm, but the flooding along Clear Creek through Friendswood and League City was intense. Forty-five inches of rain fell in some places. Water up to the overpass on I- 45, blocking the entrance into the city of Friendswood.
“I have some connection to Friendswood. In 1979, I jumped off I-45, I was a radio reporter for KTRH. I jumped off into the water and swam to a place where I could go to the meeting of the Friendswood City Council during Tropical Storm Claudette. I remember it to this day,” Dolcefino said at the GCCDD meeting.
Forty-six years later, I am back in Friendswood, investigating why millions of your tax dollars for flood relief have been squandered by the Galveston Consolidated Drainage District.
“If you watched my stories over the years, I’m not a big fan of layers of government. I like it simple and accountable,” Dolcefino said.
And after I showed up, I was attacked on social media by the guy who runs the agency.
“Y’all be careful with people like Wayne Dolcefino doing hit pieces,” Rusty Burkett said on Facebook.
“That tells me I’m in the right place to investigate whether these seven million dollars a year government agency is kind of a waste of your money,” Dolcefino told the camera.
The Ringling Brothers Circus isn’t what it used to be.
But if you want to see a real political circus, we’ve got one for you.
“And after you watch this, you may want your money back,” Dolcefino told the camera.
We’re going to the headquarters of the Galveston County Consolidated Drainage District. I’d never heard of it.
But if you live in most of Friendswood and part of League City.
“There’s a pissing match going on here,” David Johnson said in an interview.
You pay them millions of tax dollars, every single year.
“It goes back twenty, thirty years ago, when this was all just farmland,” Nick Long said.
And the new chairman, Rusty Burkett, he thinks he’s in some kind of war about flooding.
“In Galveston County, you’re talking about oxygen on the back side of Mars,” Burkett said.
Here he goes again.
“We’re on the back side of Mars and we’re arguing about oxygen generation,” Burkett said.
If you’re confused… so am I.
How does Mars affect drainage in 80 miles of creeks, ditches, bayous, and neighborhood ponds?
“Oh! Now I get it,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“They are making enemies right and left,” said Dave Smith, former mayor of Friendswood.
“You called it toxic?” Dolcefino asked.
“It is toxic,” Smith said.
“Just stop the bullying,” Kevin Holland said.
There’s no dispute that Burkett is clearly passionate.
“Hitler was passionate too. So I’m interested in clear minds and clear thinking when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars,” Smith said.
“Now, you’ve got to listen to what one board member said off camera when I showed up at their meeting,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“Marvin Zindler’s rolling over in his grave right now,” David Johnson said.
“Marvin Zindler Eyewitness News”
“What was that?” Dolcefino asked.
“I don’t know it’s a show,” Smith said.
Burkett was clearly focused on our camera and me. We even shared his obsession on social media.
But you know me, I had to tell these government folks why I was there.
“I don’t give two craps about the politics of it,” Dolcefino said at the meeting.
“Let’s be honest—Friendswood and League City have grown up. They’re big cities now. They don’t need the drainage district anymore,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“I don’t think they’re accomplishing anything, they are mowing grass,” Smith said.
About half the drainage district tax money goes to maintaining the grass that grows along the ditches and bayous.
“Today’s special episode is about this. This toilet that I guess toilets that were lit on fire and dumped into our drainage basin,” Paige Bailey said on social media.
Guess they ran out of stuff to mow, ’cause last year the drainage district had 1.8 million dollars they didn’t even spend. And Burkett was a member of that board.
“The drainage district didn’t give folks their money back last year or cut taxes this year. What a shocker,” Dolcefino told the camera.
And another 1.2 million dollars of your drainage district tax money was stolen.
Yep, four withdrawals over a 20-day period through the district’s bank account.
That’s a ton of money!
Obviously someone wasn’t watching, but it didn’t even make the Galveston news.
And we looked.
Rusty didn’t make any of his almost daily social media videos. Burkett announced the theft on Facebook. Serious criminal activity involving email theft and wire fraud.
That 1.2 million represented nearly twenty percent of the district’s entire budget.
“I think it just speaks to the overall failure in fiscal management,” Nick Long said.
The Texas ID used to pull off the scam had the name Brian Kaiser on it. But it was a fake, his identity stolen, yet the drainage district is now spending taxpayer money suing the poor guy.
“My guy is a poor plumber who’s never left the state of Ohio and he can’t figure out how the hell this happened to him,” said attorney Lu Ann Trevino.
“If you ask me, and they haven’t, suing that poor guy is a waste of money,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“At present, they are going to lose a bunch of lawsuits and be out of money,” Steve Rockey said.
But the district is involved in a much bigger legal fight that will end up costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars at least.
It’s with Tannos Development, the developer building Friendswood’s new city center. And one of the last remaining neighborhoods of Wilderness Trail.
“I think you have a government agency drunk on power and using elected positions for their own ends, and that’s very dangerous and it’s very offensive,” Louis Tannos said.
With a city permit, Tannos took dirt from detention ponds they were building here.
And moved the dirt to the neighborhood they hadn’t started building on yet.
“I ended up with a very nice scrape, clean and level site,” Tannos said.
But the drainage district objected, then sued, claiming the dirt was construction they hadn’t approved.
“It’s all bureaucracy. What are they doing? They haven’t done a single thing,” Tannos said.
And last December, the drainage district fined Tannos. But wait till you hear how large the fine was. There are people who’ve created toxic waste dumps who weren’t fined this much.
“Which means the combined total of $3,419,226 to pay within 30 days,” Bailey said.
“For having some dirt?” Dolcefino asked.
“Yes, in what world does any of this make sense?” Tannos said.
“It stinks to high heaven,” Tannos added.
You know who lives right next door to the planned Wilderness Trail development, just feet away, the son of the vice president of the drainage district.
David Johnson voted for the fines, perhaps millions more than are legal.
The fight over development is getting ugly; nasty emails between the district’s lawyer and the City of Friendswood.
The district even put up a sign to block dump trucks moving dirt.
Then their drainage district lawyer even threatened Friendswood officials with fines or prison time if they violated the sign.
Quoting:
‘My sense is that Friendswood has some sort of animosity toward the district and may be too close to Tannos.’
“They’ve made it incredibly difficult for us to do projects, to work together to move the water around like we should,” Nick Long said.
“Friendswood officials declined to go on camera. But the mayor of League City, well, it looks like he is speaking for both cities when he says, ‘It’s time to punt these folks.’” Dolcefino told the camera.
“Are they a waste of tax money?” Dolcefino asked.
“It’s absolutely a waste of tax money,” Long said.
“Rare to hear a politician tell you that you’re being double taxed. But if you live in the western part of League City… you are,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“So if you just look at the tax rates, you would pay almost 33 percent more if you live in that little district inside League City than everybody else that lives in town,” Long said.
All for what is primarily a duplication of government, both Friendswood and League City have grown up. They have their own permitting departments, their own tougher standards, their own detailed drainage plans.
The drainage district, they haven’t updated their drainage plan in more than thirty years.
“But it’s as old as I am. It is from 1992,” Bailey said.
And leaders in both cities say they’re prepared to assume the mowing work, saving millions of dollars for flood relief.
Someone needs to tell these folks.
Que Wayne:
“Figure out what’s the cheapest, best way to provide flood control. If the city says they can take over the ditches, then no offense, we don’t really need you anymore—that’s the reality,” Dolcefino said at the meeting.
Like a lot of folks, the mayor lives on the creek. Tt looks nice and calm in our video the other day. But he knows, like everyone else, the power it has.
“I live right on the creek. I saw the creek rise 16 feet in two hours. It is a big concern,” Long said.
Burkett based his political campaign on politicians being too close to developers. Board members suggest corruption.
So we asked Mr. Tannos straight up.
“The idea that I’ve paid off a single political is repulsive and disgusting,” Tannos said.
As often happens, Burkett started trying to discredit our investigation as soon as it started.
“With a guy like Wayne Dolcefino, you have to ask yourself what is going on,” Burkett said on Facebook.
“But Rusty, you already know,” Dolcefino told the camera.
One of the first things Burkett did when he became chairman of the drainage district had nothing to do with saving the lives of taxpayers.
He pushed a pay raise for the volunteer members of the drainage district board for the one meeting a month they go to.
And then he decided that members of the board also needed taxpayers to start paying for their health insurance. Even though that is usually only legal for government employees.
“We were told three district board members were taking this health care benefit. So we wanted to find out who, how much it was costing, because it’s your money,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“There are certain exceptions, fees for example,” Burkett said.
“But why do they need it?” Dolcefino asked.
“I don’t know. I’m a cancer survivor, Wayne,” Burkett said.
“We all sympathize with Mr. Burkett’s cancer struggle from years ago. But it doesn’t change the fact that part-time board members can’t get health insurance,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“Honesty and transparency—that’s a big one. I like this one, this is my favorite one,” Burkett said at the meeting.
“It’s my favorite too. But that’s why we should all be disappointed that the drainage district is now trying to keep it a secret how much money they are giving away in this health care benefit thing for the board members’ families. How much of your money it’s costing,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Including how much money Burkett and his family are now saving on your dime, with dollars you gave him to protect you from this.
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