Turner’s firm paid millions from city affordable housing deals
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The Harvard law school graduated Sylvester Turner rarely goes into a courtroom. Check the records.
That doesn’t stop his law firm from being paid millions of dollars each year, a lot of it from taxpayers!
Documents obtained by Dolcefino Consulting show payments from the City of Houston Housing and Community Development Funds totaling more than $3 million dollars were made to a pair of firms linked to Turner.
Records released this week show Turner’s Law Firm, Barnes and Turner submitted invoices for $332,000 for legal work on a number of affordable housing projects. The last invoice was submitted in May of this year, three months after Turner announced his run for Mayor.
Turner’s title company was often chosen to handle closing funds for single family home projects in Houston. Documents show the American Title Company handled more than $3 million dollars in transactions. It is not known how much of that money the firm got to keep.
It’s not his only financial connection to affordable housing. Personal financial disclosure statements show Turner’s firm was paid $175,000 in retainers by a company called 3D Visions Planning Consultants. The company lists several Housing affordable housing projects, and its list of partners includes the Houston Housing and Community Development Department and Harris County Housing Authority.
This is the latest in a series of discoveries about just how much Sylvester Turner has cashed in on political contracts while “Representing” Houston in the Texas House.
Turner’s firm made more than $700,000 from the controversial tax collection firm Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson. The firm likes to use politicians to fill minority hiring goals, instead of truly disadvantaged companies who would love the work.
Maybe that explains why Sylvester Turner remains silent when Linebarger cheats the minority community out of a current share of the HISD tax collection contract.
And maybe that also explains why Sylvester Turner has remained silent as millions of dollars in affordable housing TIRZ funds get wasted. Several million dollars were spent on empty lots that are still empty years later.
Turner’s law firm is among those paid out of the TIRZ money.
Maybe that explains why Sylvester Turner helped pass an HISD bond election that has broken promises to the minority community.
Turner’s title company made $144,000 on a real estate deal made possible from the bond election.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised when a career politician gets taxpayer money while he is paid to protect it.
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