After examination of Bolivar Fraga’s 30 day report I’m wondering exactly whose interests Bo would serve should he be elected to City Council At Large Position 2. Would he have a potential conflict of interest in serving the interests of Houston taxpayers?
Let’s take a look at two campaign contributions from his 30 day report.
Stephen Fraga contributed $500.00 on August 30th and listed his occupation as “Distributor” and employer as Tejas Office Products.
On the Tejas Office Products website Stephen Fraga is named as an “Officer” of the company.
What you would not know from this contribution though is Stephen Fraga is also a board member of the Harris County – Houston Sports Authority.
Hmmm…
Then there’s this $500 contribution dated September 23rd made by the Andrews & Kurth PAC:
Gene Locke is a partner at Andrews Kurth and according to their website, he serves as General Counsel to the Harris County – Houston Sports Authority and Special Counsel to the Metropolitan Transit Authority. This Texas Watchdog article from 2009 cited a potential conflict of interest Locke could have had if he’d won the 2009 mayoral race.
Check out this map of METRO’s East End line with a stop at the Harris County – Houston Sports Authority’s Dynamo Stadium.
These campaign contributions suggest Bo Fraga, if elected, would have a potential conflict of interest in serving Houston’s taxpayers. Oh sure, not in the literal sense as he doesn't SIT on the board of METRO or the HCHSA…but a member of his campaign contributing family does… as does a former mayoral candidate whose law firm’s PAC made a $500.00 contribution to Bo’s campaign.
Reminds me of Houston City Council approving a $1.7 million contract for Costello Inc one month before Stephen Costello was elected to city council (Houston Chronicle March 23, 2011)…and that was prior to the passage of the Rain Tax.
…and Ellen Cohen’s role in creating a taxing entity in Montrose (before she ran for City Council) whose unelected board members are not accountable to the voters…and, as Kevin Whited rightly notes, has as its Treasurer one “life partner” of Mayor Parker.
Oopsie! Have I just identified four candidates NOT to vote for this election season?
♥ I owe a big thanks to Greg’s Opinion, Off The Kuff, Bay Area Houston and the Houston Chronicle. Collectively they wrote at least five posts over seven days referencing a questionable $35,000 “loan” by Lupe Fraga to Bo Fraga’s campaign…their posts prompted me to research what other goodies were lurking in Bo Fraga’s campaign finance report.