METRO Hit With Criminal Complaint For Ad Spree
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METRO is spending more than $8 million on advertisements in the months before the November bond election. They call it education—we cry foul.
On Monday, September 30, 2019, Dolcefino Consulting filed a formal criminal complaint with the Harris County District Attorney claiming the ads violate state law.
The Texas Election Code says it clearly: “An officer of a political subdivision may not knowingly spend or authorize the spending of public funds for political advertising…that… is sufficiently substantial and important as to be reasonably likely to influence a voter to vote for or against the measure.”
“I will not sit by and watch my tax money being wasted by METRO to tell me how great they are,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “Spend my money on actual transportation please.”
METRO just approved a $1.3 billion budget for the next fiscal year, $136 million more than last year. They are already in debt from past bonds.
“METRO is asking us to write a blank check for projects they may not do for twenty years, and I don’t write blank checks,” says Dolcefino. “That is not why I am filing this criminal complaint. I am filing it because METRO has no right to use my tax money to electioneer. They have a Political Action Committee that Carrin Patman (the Chair of the Board of Directors of METRO) is funding while she votes on using government money to pile on.”
Patman has sent letters soliciting more than $1.6 million to help fund the pro-METRO bond campaign. That should not happen.
“Ms. Patman’s PAC buddies are mostly contractors and engineers who will make money if this bond is passed because that’s their business, and voters need to know that. If Ms. Patman wants to lobby for the bond then she should resign as Chairman because she can’t do both,” says Dolcefino.
Dolcefino reports that a second complaint will be filed with the Texas Ethics Commission in the coming days.
“If METRO wants to educate us then explain history. Why didn’t we get what they told us we would in 2003? Where is the commuter line, the 75 miles of rail, the nine stations, and why is ridership low on the last two rail projects we did? Why are taxpayers spending so much money subsidizing transit projects that people aren’t using enough?” asked Dolcefino.
A copy of the complaint will be available on our website at www.dolcefino.com and available to the media upon request. Our latest video on the METRO is on Dolcefino Consulting’s page on Facebook.
