Mayor Turner Keeps Secrets On Harvey Contract
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There are growing ethical questions about the $14 million contract Aptim received to manage Hurricane Harvey home repairs here in the city of Houston.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Mayor Sylvester Turner is trying to hide the truth. The City is fighting the release of documents detailing the scores competing companies submitted when they fought for the Houston contract.
Did the low bidder get the contract?
Were the scores changed after the Mayor saw them?
Which minority companies were part of the original deal, and which names were added?
The Mayor wants to keep it all a secret. That’s unacceptable. We think the City should be required to disclose the scores given by evaluators after a review of bidders. Houstonians should demand the politicians stay out of this stuff.
We would ask what the big secret is Mayor, but we have you pegged. You have been fighting to keep evaluations of the smelly recycling contract a secret for two years.
So what about your tax dollars?
We already know more than $6 million has been paid in the last eight months but only a handful of homes have been repaired.
Last week the anti-corruption campaign of Tony Buzbee detailed evidence of pay to play in the disaster. Three leading subcontractors on the management contract have given the Turner campaign close to $200,000 in campaign contributions.
Isani Consultants got nearly 20 percent of the disaster management contract. Their principal is Bobby Singh, whose family has pumped tens of thousands of dollars in campaign money to the Mayor while getting on dozens of city contracts. Isani has received nearly $38 million in city contracts, much of that while Turner has been in office.
“This is why we need an independent inspector general’s office. Who is asking what we have gotten for $6 million? Who has even seen the bills? The stench of pay-to-play politics is strong in this deal, and disasters are no place for pay-to-play politics,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting.
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