Texas officials criticized for cozy relationships

By BRETT SHIPP - WFAA-TV - Friday, May 9, 2008Are Texas Railroad Commissioners too cozy with the oil and gas industry operators they are supposed to be regulating?

It's a question being raised in the wake of a News 8 investigation into deadly natural gas fittings, fittings that some say Commissioners should have forced gas companies to remove years ago.

For most it's tragedy long forgotten. Three elderly people killed in a house explosion in Garland in January, 2000. Investigators ruled that a small gas pipeline had cracked and leaked, causing the explosion that killed Albert and Lillian Holbert and her sister Callie Hickerson. But the Holberts' daughter, Sydna Gordon, will never forget.

Still etched in her mind, the moment she found out that the faulty pipe that killed her parents had a legacy of failure and death in Texas dating back to 1983.

Only after her parents died, did State Railroad Commissioners order the faulty pipe removed from the ground. “The Railroad Commission is the governmental agency in this state that has the responsibility to make sure we are all safe and they don't do it," said Gordon.

West Texas rancher Jay Marcom is a frequent critic of State Railroad Commissioners. His ranch land is crisscrossed by a corroded, 80 year old natural gas pipeline which spring six leaks last year, polluting his soil and his wells.

When he tries to get Railroad Commissioners to protect him and his land he says they almost always side with the gas company... and he thinks he knows why. “As long as the Railroad Commission of Texas is funded and influenced by the oil and gas industry of the state of Texas there will never be a change," said Marcom.

According to the government watchdog group Texans for Public Justice, all three commissioners campaigns are heavily funded by the people they regulate.

Of the $1.6 million dollars raised by Victor Carrillo in 2004, 46-percent came from individuals connected to the oil and gas industry.

Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones raised just over $2-million dollars in 2006. Of that, 35-percent was oil and gas money.

And a News Eight analysis of Commission Chairman Michael Williams January campaign report shows of the $400,000 he raised, 42-percent came from individuals with ties to the oil and gas industry.

Critics say those percentages are hard to ignore. "With the Railroad Commission we don't know who these people are, nobody knows what they do for a living, except the oil and gas industry that they are supposed to regulate,” said Andrew Wheat, director of Texans for Public Justice. “But, at the same time that's the very industry that is paying for their political careers."

Chairman Williams says contributions do not buy influence. "I reject that notion,” said Williams. “I am very confident that I make decisions based on facts and based on good sound policy and based on what I think is the best interest of my fellow Texans."

Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones told News 8, "I've always called balls and strikes the way I see them, and I don't ever intend to stop doing that."

Commissioner Victor Carrillo rejects critics claims as well. "My personal integrity dictates that the decisions I make are based on sound legal, policy, and scientific reasoning and not based on who has contributed to my campaign," said Carrillo.

All three commissioners reacted quickly to our investigation into faulty gas couplings that led to two deaths in Wylie in 2006, and two more in Cleburne last year.

Just days after our reports aired Commissioners ordered the couplings removed from the ground.

But in the cases of the faulty couplings and the cracked pipe which killed the Holberts, past and present Railroad Commissioners had access to years of evidence that potentially deadly problems existed.

And for years no action was taken to force the removal of the potentially deadly products, a removal that would have cost industry officials millions of dollars.

To this day Gordon believes had Railroad Commissioners done their jobs her parents would still be alive. “The Railroad Commission is only interested in protecting the gas companies not the rest of us asleep in our beds," said Gordon.

Late last year a state audit criticized Railroad Commission inspectors for being too cozy with and accepting small gifts from the oil and gas operators they are supposed regulate.

Railroad Commissioners have pledged to discontinue that practice.
See more of News 8 Investigative Report

One citizen can make a difference

By Faith Chatham - DFWRCC - Dec. 20, 2007

When government fails to adhere to its own laws and regulations, Joe Citizen holds the trump card. In Texas, Bay area resident John Cobarruvias has succeeded in prodding the Texas Ethics Commission to provide better oversight of campaign finance through filing ethics complaints. Mr. Cobarruvias is careful not to file frivilous complaints. He researches the issues, verifies the facts, and submits succinct, factual complaints to the Ethics Commission. In an era where dollars seem to dominate politics, John Cobarruvias's efforts show that one person can influence the system. John Cobarruvias is not a "grandstander". He works in the background. Occasionally he blogs on an issues. He seems to prefer to put the spotlight on the issues rather than on himself. He looks at process and the law and how Texas lawmakers and regulatory agencies apply the law and follow the the process for the benefit of all Texans. He's made headlines this week:

Activist: State's campaign finance oversight out-of-focus
By Lee McGuire- KHOU Channel 11 News - Dec. 20, 2007
It’s a state agency that spends $2 million of your dollars every year, making sure that politicians are doing the right thing when it comes to campaign finance.

John Cobarruvias claims the Texas Ethics Commission is not earning its keep.

The Texas Ethics Commission was set up to help promote confidence in government, but one man thinks taxpayers aren’t getting their money’s worth. The rules say we’re supposed to know exactly what every member of the Texas Legislature buys with their campaign donations. But two years ago, it seems nearly half of our elected officials broke those rules.

Then, all of a sudden, nearly all that ended. Now, lawmakers appear to be following the campaign finance rules.

The reason has very little to do with the state agency set up as a $2 million-a-year guardian of legislative ethics — and everything to do with one man, with his home computer, in Clear Lake

.
Read more on KHOU.com

AP - The Texas State Capitol

“I think the Ethics Commission is incompetent, completely incompetent,” John Cobarruvias said. “There is no other word to describe what they’re doing right now.”

He is something of an activist.

“You should have basic consumer protection,” he said.

In 2002, he was protesting the state’s oversight of homebuilders.

Now, he’s protesting the state’s oversight of the Legislature. And wondering whether the Texas Ethics Commission does anything at all. He looked at campaign finance records and found lawmakers spent about $1 million in campaign funds on their credit card bills. But nowhere did they say what they bought with those cards.

“Right,” Cobarruvias said. “You don’t know what he’s bought at all.”

It meant that tens of thousands of purchases that should have been disclosed were not. Did anyone at the Ethics Commission even notice?

“Oh, absolutely not,” Cobarruvias said. “The Ethics Commission has been absolutely worthless.”

Employees of the Ethics Commission don’t do interviews. Their chief counsel said they do audit campaign finance reports, and in the last fiscal year, the commission issued $700,000 in penalties.

Of that $700,000 total — roughly $678,000 were penalties for filing late. In other words, it often didn’t matter what was in the report, as long as it was filed on time.

“The system is very confusing and very complex,” Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said.

Sen. Dan Patrick doesn’t think the Ethics Commission needs more power.
He would like them to do a better job explaining the rules to candidates and officeholders. And he thinks it shouldn’t have taken a man in Clear Lake to uncover the million-dollar credit card problem.

“The Ethics Commission should have caught this,” Sen. Patrick said.

“It’s such a glaring problem to say you shouldn’t do this; it’s not the way it should be done.”

“This is what we want to see,” Cobarruvias said.

Since Cobarruvias raised the issue -- most lawmakers have now filed “corrected reports,” explaining what they bought with those credit cards. And most of it was run-of-the-mill: bottled water, gasoline, campaign signs.

“And I think that is just absolutely great,” Cobarruvias said. “That is what we’re looking for.”

But in some cases, he filed formal complaints with the Ethics Commission.

Since then, the Commission has fined eight lawmakers over issues he’s raised.

To put that in perspective, the Ethics Commission has only fined seven other lawmakers for any other issue in the last five years.

“They’re a database, and they collect this information and that’s about it,” Cobarruvias said.

It’s a paper trail that uncovered a problem in government — for both the people you elect and the ones you do not.

On his Bay Area Houston blog, activist John Cobarruvias responded to Senator Patrick's comments:

KHOU TV of Houston Texas had a great story (with video) on the Texas Ethics Commission:
Texas Ethics Commission called "incompetent".
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007
“I think the Ethics Commission is incompetent, completely incompetent,” John Cobarruvias said. “There is no other word to describe what they’re doing right now.”
Yep. that is me being blunt and to the point. To be fair, the staff of the TEC has been very helpful and easy to work with. On many occasions they have provided advice and answered all our questions. And I was not the Lone Ranger. Thanks to those anonymous individuals for their help.

The problems with the lack of preventative measures is apparent when you review "Spending Campaign Cash. The Series.". Over a 2 year period almost $1Million of campaign expenditures were hidden behind credit cards and another $2Million in expenditures hidden by reimbursements to the office holder or staff.

Senator Dan Patrick, the self proclaimed champion of ethics reform, repeated the same old argument:

Sen. Dan Patrick doesn’t think the Ethics Commission needs more power. He would like them to do a better job explaining the rules to candidates and officeholders. And he thinks it shouldn’t have taken a man in Clear Lake to uncover the million-dollar credit card problem.

“The Ethics Commission should have caught this,” Sen. Patrick said. “It’s such a glaring problem to say you shouldn’t do this; it’s not the way it should be done.”

By the way, Patrick has over $73,000 in undisclosed expenditures for the last two years. This includes over $59,000 to Court Koenning Consulting for "Reimbursement". Yep, the Ethics Commission should have caught this.

And actually that is the point. The TEC has the authority to perform audits that could prevent all these problem.

§ 571.069. Review of Statements and Reports; Audits

(a) The commission shall review for facial compliance randomly selected statements and reports filed with the commission and may review any available documents. The commission shall return for resubmission with corrections or additional documentation a statement or report that does not, in the opinion of the commission, comply with the law requiring the statement or report.
But they haven't done them. The audits for all of our elected officials could easily be automated or could be accomplished with a few hours of work. It just isn't that hard. Instead the TEC recommends citizens who have performed these audits for them to file formal complaints.

This shouldn't be the process used to clean this problem up. Unfortunately the TEC claims it doesn't have the man power to perform the audits so it relies on citizens to file complaints to further stress the limited resources of the TEC.

And if this is what they want, this is what they will get come Jan 16, the day after campaign finance reports are due.

Read more on Bay Area Houston blog.

Spending Campaign Cash. The Series.
By John Coby - Bay Area Houston Blog - Monday, June 04, 2007

Over the last few months in 2006 and 2007 I have been researching campaign finance reports from Texas State Officials, concentrating on spending habits. This was a direct result of the research on State Representative John Davis (R-Houston).

Base upon this research, it is clear from the number of elected officials who have violations in their reports the Texas Ethics Commission is either incompetent, or not interested in adequately monitoring, preventing, training, or taking corrective action against those who have violated the trust of the citizens of Texas.

The TEC has a motto "Promoting Public Confidence in Government", but instead is nothing more than a repository for campaign finance information that provides little if any confidence to the public. It is near worthless.

See full article. He recaps campaign finance coverage in the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle and gives links to "Spending Campaign Cash for State Wide Officers, State Senators and Senators Elect Houston Bay/Area State Representatives.

In the DFW area, DFW Regional Concerned Citizens has been monitoring local governments websites and evaluating adherence to Local Government Chapter 176. We are concerned that the legislation passed to give citizens access to information about relationships between decision makers and those who are paid for services/contracts by government is not being followed. One of the biggest obstacles to compliance is the attitude of TXDOT. The TxDOT attorney for the Dallas region told Faith Chatham that since TxDOT is a state agency it does not have to adhere to the Local Government Code. DFWRCC's position is that TxDOT receives bids and administers contracts which require recommendations and votes by city, county and COG officials. These contracts include payments of local tax dollars. Local and regional officials are required by law (Chapter 176) to disclose their relationships with people or businesses which seek or receive payment by tax dollars and /or selected/rejected through their recommendations or vote. Since TXDOT receives and administers the bids, the failure of TxDOT to comply with Chapter 176 hinders disclosure by local and regional officials who play roles in decision making during the planning process for major infrastructure projects.

Complaints on most Texas Ethics violations goes to the Texas Ethics Commission, however, the Legislature voted to require complaints about violations of Chapter 176 to go to the local District Attorney. Since County Commissioner's Courts and Councils of Government appropriate funds and grants for law enforcement and the District Attorney's office, requiring that the complaints be filed through the local District Attorney creates a buffer of retience and self preservation. Few sane District Attorney's will eagerly pursue misdemeanor complaints against the officials who must vote to fund the District Attorney's office and law enforcement programs! We haven't filed a complaint yet. In 2008 one of our members may follow Mr. Cobarruvias' example and utilize the ethics complaint process to bring more officials and agencies into compliance with Texas Ethics Laws.

Each doing a little combined makes a lot

By Faith Chatham - DFWRCC - Oct. 29, 2007
In today's Fort Worth Star Telegram Anna Tinsley wrote about how small donors are playing a big role in fundraising for the 2008 Presidential race. With campaigns costing gigantic amounts these days, most of us feel helpless. It is difficult to comprehend how what ordinary working folks or retirees or college students can contribute which will make a substantial difference.

However, the reality is that what we have to offer truly can make the difference between a candidate's race getting off the ground and staying alive and it fizzling and dying before anyone notice.

Tinsley wrote:

Kerry Bouchard knew it was just a drop in the bucket.

But the Fort Worth man wanted to help Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, so he sent $50 to the campaign last month.

"I felt I needed to try to do what little I could to influence the presidential race," said Bouchard, 46, a librarian at Texas Christian University. "Sometimes it seems hopeless because there's so much money involved."

But his $50, added to someone else's $25, plus someone else's $35, eventually adds up.

In the 2008 presidential primary campaign, it seems that the smallest donors are gaining a larger voice.

Millionaries and billionaries giving large donations is viewed by many people as one of the problems in American politics. It is difficult for an elected official needing large amounts of money to run media advertising and to pay consultants and other campaign expenses to ignore the agendas of large donors.

Thus far this year it appears that the trend is for smaller donors to carry more of the load toward financing campaigns.

Tinsley wrote of donors giving $50 or less:

Nationwide, those donors have contributed more than 21 percent of money raised by presidential candidates.

In Tarrant County, more than half of donors gave less than $500. Just 22 percent gave $2,000 or more, according to a Star-Telegram analysis of new campaign finance records.

"Two-thirds of the donations", writes Tinsley, "have come from large donors."

Jeff Classen's researched campaign returns of Presidential candidates and analyzed Tarrant County Donors. His research shows:
Rudi Giuilani has receieve more donations over $2,000.00 than any other presidential candidate. He comes in 5th in number of donors under $2000.00. Republican candidates lead in the top 4 spots in the number of donations over $2000.00 from Tarrant County.
Democrats lead in the top number of donations from donors under $2000.00 in Tarrant County.

Number of donors over $2000.00 from Tarrant County:
1. Republic Rudy Giuliani 103
2. Republican Mitt Romney 54
3. Republican Fred Thompson 51
4. Republican John McCain 42
5. Democrat Hilliary Clinton 39
6. Democrat John Edwards 29
7. Republican Huckabee 25
8. Democrat Barack Obama 11
9. Republican Ron Paul 9
10. Democrat Bill Richardson 7
11. Democrat Chris Dodd 2

Democrats lead with the number of donors under $2000.00 from Tarrant County.
1. Democrat Barack Obamba 173
2. Democrat Hilary Clinton 130
3. Democrat John Edwards 128
4. Republican John McCain 125
5. Republican Mitt Romney 101
6. Republican Rudy Giuliani 88
7. Republican Ron Paul 57
8. Republican Fred Thompson 53
9. Republican Tom Tancredo 44
10 Democrat Bill Richardson 36
11. Republican Mike Huckabee 16
12. Republican Duncan Hunter 14
12. Democrat Joe Biden 14
13. Sam Brownback 6
14. Democrat Chris Dodd 3
15. Republican John Cox 2
15. Democrat Dennis Kucinich 2
Source: Federal Elections Commission, Star-Telegram analyzis by Jeff Claussen

During the 2006 Attorney General's race, Democrat David Van Os raised most of his money from donors who gave under $1000.00. On-line donations and people on the grassroots pooled their money and financed outdoor advertising for the Van Os Campaign. All of the down-ticket Democratic challenger were financially challenged. All except Dale Henry and Fred Head (who self-financed their campaigns) relied on small donors to help keep gasoline in their tanks and pay travel expenses as they traveled the state trying to meet as many voters as possible in towns and cities all over Texas. They were unable to compete in the larger markets where Republican incumbents warchests financed media advertising blitz the last few weeks of the campaign.

Candidates found ways to cut corners on campaign headquarters. Most of the down-ticket Democratic challengers last year utilized skilled volunteers working from virtual offices in key slots usually filled by paid campaign staff and consultants. Van Os and Maria Luisa Alvarado shared campaign headquarters in the Van Os Law Firm Building in San Antonio. Sometimes they car-pooled to events and shared on-the road meals of sandwiches and fruit packed at home from coolers in the car while they coordinated their campaigns from cell phones and laptop computers. Hank Gilbert had some hired staffers but ran his campaign from his pick-up by cell phone as he drove from town to town. They connected with the grassroots and their supporters were volunteered as many hours as many paid staffers normally work in better financed campaigns.

They proved that candidates can fight smart campaigns, connecting with the grassroots, in Texas. However, in a state this big, without money to combat end-of- election-cycle television and radio campaigns of their opponents in the major urban markets, they lose too many votes from the fringe or swing voters who are not party activists. It is difficult (probably impossible) to wage as aggressive a people to people style campaign while spending the normal half day on the phone calling potential donors that most consultants demand of candidates.

For Democratic challengers to regain offices in Texas, more donors need to give money without getting a telephone call from the candidate. Underdogs need money but they also need votes. To get votes, they need to connect with people. If the political landscape in Texas is going to change significantly, Texans on the grassroots must continue to take responsiblity for generating resources for charmastic, dedicated, qualified, educated candidates.

For Democrats challengers or populists to regain the Texas Turf, by winning state executive offices and judicial, house and senate and US House and Senate seats, and for Democratic presidential candidates to prevail, volunteers and small donors must unite to fill the gap between donations from millioniare and billionaires which traditionally bankroll Republicans and incumbents. They must also raise enough money to run media in major markets to reach voters who do not go to political events.

For Democrats to regain the Texas Turf, more people have to care enough to give a little and to volunteer a little. More Texans have to care enough to learn where the candidates stand on issues and go vote. This is a year when major changes can be made in the politican landscape in the USA and in Texas. It will happen only if small donors contribute what they can and a few larger donors steps up and helps push the campaigns over the top.