Opportunity Wasted
Mattress Mack doesn’t just sell furniture, he also cares about public safety and your tax money. That’s why he has asked us to expose the waste. It isn’t too hard to find. Here is just one example of an OPPORTUNITY WASTED.
Opportunity Wasted
When opportunity knocks, it’s a good idea to make sure you cash in. Not just throw money out the window.
“We’ve already proven that some one the folks elected to Harris County government are like damn experts at throwing good money after bad, especially on that COVID gravy train,” Wayne Dolcefino told the camera.
“We just finished the first year and dispersed one million through Harris County’s capital fund,” Jie Wu said.
Take Harris County’s opportunity fund. Loans of the seemingly never ending stash of COVID money meant to help struggling business.
“Even if they weren’t in business during the COVID pandemic, got to spend that, money somehow,” Dolcefino told the camera.
A small piece of the pandemic waste pie administered by something called PeopleFund, an Austin non-profit.
There’ve been two audits since the money spot started flowing.
“Hello is anybody there?” Andrea Palacio said.
When we first knocked on the door of Harris County Opportunity Fund recipients, we saw the sign of possible fraud.
A daycare without a daycare license. And no kids.
Why should we be surprised anymore after seeing empty daycares in Minnesota?
A very dubious $15,000 loan.
Testimony to a much bigger problem.
“The door’s locked. But we’re here during business hours. So, all right. So I guess they’re closed,” Palacio said.
And 15 grand more to a car repair shop that we could never find open.
At least some of the loans went to businesses that appear to be actual businesses.
Trill on Wheels got a 50 thousand dollar revolving line of credit from the Harris County Opportunity Fund. Not sure why I am paying for that.
It’s a hip hop party bike business.
This one sounds more promising. A veteran-owned business that offers emergency health care courses and products.
Uncharted Territory Solutions got a nearly a quarter of a million dollar loan from the Opportunity Fund.
“Today marks a historic moment as we gather for the first DEEO business roundtable,” Tiko Reynolds-Hausman said.
We’re supposed to believe that 2026 will be a new beginning for the Department of Economic Equity and Opportunity. That’s the department overseeing the Opportunity Fund contract.
“Where have I heard that before?” Dolcefino told the camera.
“As we enter our fifth year as a department, I am deeply proud to lead this team,” Reynolds-Hausman said.
Tiko Reynolds-Hausman is the new executive director at DEEO.
At least she talked to us when we showed up because the last boss, she wouldn’t give us the time of day.
“We want to talk about the PeopleFund. Would you please tell me about the Harris County Opportunity Fund,” Andrea Palacio asked.
“You can submit questions to my office,” Estella Gonzalez said.
“One of the things we’re working on is to ensure that, you know, we are more transparent, and so you will see more what I would call impact reports of the progress of our programs, so you can know what we are doing,” Reynolds-Hausman said.
“I won’t hold my breath,” Dolcefino told the camera.
But we already know what has happened to the opportunity fund so far. Another in the endless ways, Harris County is managing to spend a billion dollars in COVID relief money.
“For the record President Trump, I would have asked for all the unused COVID money to be sent back to Washington,” Dolcefino told the camera.
The opportunity fund is a program set up to spend $10.5 million earmarked for loans to women and minority owned businesses
“These funds will be loaned to businesses still recovering from the impact of COVID-19 or those unable to secure capital in the private market,” Estella Gonzales said.
PeopleFund won the contract to administer the loans, and in late 2024 the county sent them 5.7 million dollars to start loaning.
By the end of 2025, PeopleFund had barely loaned out a million dollars.
The PeopleFund bank account was sitting on millions of your dollars.
Wonder who’s making the interest and all that money that’s just sitting there.
“Bet you it’s not you. And you know, government, why not throw good money after bad,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Harris County sent them another 4.8 million in December. Ignoring the red flags waving right in front of their faces. We showed them the loans to phony businesses in our report last March.
In June, commissioners approved a whopping 349 thousand dollars to pay for an outside audit of this one program.
“That is the Harris County Opportunity Fund requested by Precincts Two and Three Commissioner Ramsey,” Hidlago said.
And last October, we learned that results of an Opportunity Fund internal audit by Harris County Auditor finds “high risk” trouble, based on just a spot check of the loans.
“Boy, I’m shocked. Aren’t you?” Dolcefino told the camera.
“Three of the three awarded program loans tested did not have certain supporting documentation on file to substantiate eligibility of the business to meet program requirements.”
“There were 13 loans at the time of the audit. They only looked at three and guess what? They were all screwed up,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Our commissioners clearly know when something is not working right because they have what they call an action tracker.
The target number of loans by the end of last year, 25.
The actual number, 19.
“What did the guardians of your tax money do? They decided to make it easier to get your money,” Dolcefino told the camera.
The glaring unknown is the outside audit of the Opportunity Fund.
Commissioned six months ago, the PFM Group has been paid 300 thousand so far.
But Karlos Allen, PFM director of the Houston office, didn’t know what we were talking about.
“Yeah, if you send me an email and tell me what you’re looking for, I’ll find out internally who’s working on that. That’s nobody in my office,” Karlos Allen said.
“Karlos Allen did get back to us and guess what? They won’t talk to us,” Dolcefino told the camera.
And all the DEEO folks will say is that the latest audit just isn’t finished yet.
“What’s taking so long? And why are we spending another penny on this stuff if we know that it’s already screwed up? Oh I know, it’s government,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Last year, the Harris County auditor directed the DEEO to start monitoring PeopleFund more closely and to establish a written policy for PeopleFund to collect and verify eligibility documentation. You would think they know that first.
“We audit Harris County engineering contracts. We audit flood control,” Reynolds-Hausman said.
“Harris county I believe wastes hundreds of millions of dollars on pet projects that have nothing to do with the citizenry,” Mattress Mack said.
“The DEEO is a good place to start. It’s 5 years old and you know what? They haven’t done one single compliance audit. Not one. The excuse used to be they didn’t have enough people, but now that they have this tracker thing, they say that they haven’t gotten written policies on how to audit. Are you kidding me?” Dolcefino told the camera.
But we already know the Department of Equity and Economic Opportunity is giving economic opportunity to their own employees. The headcount of employees has grown from 23 in 2021 to 86 last years. 16 employees make more than a hundred grand. The head person makes more than a quarter of a million. And we pay $190,000 to someone who was supposed to make our government contracts more inclusive.
“Government shouldn’t be a place to make money. Government should be a place to serve the people,” Mattress Mack said.
“Imagine a world where we actually give out government contracts to the companies with the best offer for taxpayers without regards for what color they are, where their parents came from,” Dolcefino told the camera.
The DEEO cost Harris County taxpayers $1.8 million in its first full year. Last year, it cost 9.3 million dollars. And that’s throwing goof money out the window. They deserve the real blame for the poor performing opportunity fund.
“When I was still in Tv during the height of channel 13’s viewership, they had all kinds of money and they even paid to make some t-shirts. This is what it said on the back. But look at the front, ‘your money is a terrible thing to waste.’ Guess what? It still is,” Dolcefino told the camera.
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