Elected officials who live in a glass house should not throw stones.
In this Houston Chronicle article on limited purpose annexation one of the “go-to” elected officials quoted was Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert:
Some local officials wonder whether the agreements lead to wasteful spending that lacks transparency. The revenue is not subject to the voter-approved revenue cap that has forced the city to lower its property tax rate and slash budgets. Critics also note that Houston provides no services to most of these suburban areas, whose residents can’t vote in city elections.
“It’s unconstitutional,” Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert said. “I thought we fought a war back in the 1700s on ‘taxation without representation.’ ”
After reading the account of an “educational workshop” on the Fort Bend County Public Information Center I filed an open records request seeking notes or minutes taken that would validate the account published on the Public Information Center website.
Take a look in the upper left hand corner of one of the responsive documents:
Yep–no minutes taken to substantiate the meeting recap on the Public Information Center website.
The Fort Bend County Judge need not look to Houston for examples of wasteful spending that lack transparency; he can find it in Fort Bend County, his own back yard.