ESD #11 taxpayers are being ripped off
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The Letter is W. The Word is Waste.
Cypress Creek EMS ambulance
The taxpayers of ESD #11 are being ripped off. Here is just the latest reason why.
Dolcefino Consulting began asking for public records detailing the money spent by Cypress Creek EMS, the “charity” that responds to 911 ambulance calls for more than 500,000 Harris County Residents.
Since then, Cypress Creek has waged a legal war to fight disclosure. They have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money to do it.
“This is money that should go to reduce ambulance costs, buy equipment, give paramedics raises, instead it is being wasted because Cypress Creek wants to keep secrets about the way they are spending public funds,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting.
This week, the First Court of Appeals tried to end an absurd waste of money.
CCEMS has spent tens of thousands of dollars, maybe more, suing Dolcefino Consulting because of an envelope.
That’s right folks.
Litchfield and Cavo claims they mistakenly sent an envelope with confidential documents to Dolcefino Consulting by regular mail. We told them we would return the envelope if we ever received it. We never did. CCEMS sued us anyway, and since then has fought court rulings dismissing their complaint.
ESD #11 Commissioners knew your money was being wasted on a lawsuit that smacks of retaliation and nothing more. They did nothing to stop it. Dolcefino Consulting has been billed more than $100,000 to fight this nonsense.
Hopefully, the Texas appeals court will now stop the continued waste of money, because it is clear the people you elected to watchdog 911 funds won’t.
Here is what the court said.
“CCEMS is essentially arguing that its own erroneous conduct, the inadvertent mailing of confidential documents, can be imputed as tortious conduct on Dolcefino’s part. Neither the law supporting a presumption of receipt nor the law of conversion justifies such a conclusion.”
Next week, Cypress Creek is facing a trial for the criminal charge of withholding records detailing who taxpayers are even paying for 911 service.
The ESD Commissioners haven’t demanded to see the records for two years, even though the money involved is taxpayer money. Instead, they voted to have taxpayers pay their legal bills in the ongoing federal investigation.
“The negligence of the ESD 11 Commissioners is staggering,” says Dolcefino. “They have fought the release of federal grand jury subpoenas that are part of an ongoing fraud investigation by the FBI, even though the feds don’t object to the documents being released. They have sat back while Cypress Creek has defied requests for records that the public has a fundamental right to see. I have called them ostriches, with their heads in the sands. I have now decided that’s an insult to ostriches who may be a little flighty but are still noble creatures.”
Cypress Creek is still suing Dolcefino Consulting for asking for financial records of the charity.
“ESD 11 taxpayers have a chance to vote next month on two safety commissioners. I can only warn folks they are getting played like a fiddle,” says Dolcefino. “Cypress Creek seems to provide great medical care, but it’s financial secrecy and waste of public funds must be stopped.”
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