Caller-Times Runs Cover for Las Brisas – Adame Conflict

The Sunday, August 30, 2009 edition of the Caller Times ran two stories which appeared to be responses to the Aug-Sept issue of We the People. Front page stories “City moves forward on water pipeline” by Denise Malan and “Council strives to avoid conflicts” by Sarah Foley both tried to spin facts in a favorable light regarding the controversial Las Brisas-Garwood Water Line and the Mayor’s resignation from the Coliseum Committee. In a brilliant piece of journalistic deletion articles in We the People showing the possible costs of Las Brisas or the Mayor’s Whatadeal ownership leading to his resignation from the committee were not referenced.

The Las Brisas article was written a month after the City took their last action on the water line but received front page lead story space. The story says that the pipe line is one of Adame’s top priorities, although it was never mentioned by him as a priority during his campaign or is it listed on the list of Council priorities. While all of the supporters that Malan interviewed pressed that the water line needed to be built right away and for economic development, they all denied it was for Las Brisas.

The closest any would come was Malan in disclosure that “The plant could use 15,000 to 20,000 acre feet or 4.8 billion to 6.5 billion gallons a year. The details of its contract are still being negotiated.” That is more water than all other industrial users put together. It was admitted that the timetable would be moved up from 2040 to 2020. Actually it’s really a difference of 40 years if you go by the City’s application for an $8 million loan for planning from the Texas Water Board. In that application even including the water needs of 13 counties, the City says the water wouldn’t be needed until 2060.

The article also continues to put forth the unsupported argument that somehow the water rights can be lost to another entity, how no one can explain as water rights in Texas are considered inviolable. Nowhere did the article mention the expected $100 million to $150,000 price tag to taxpayers.

Adame claims victim hood when really the cause.
The Adame resignation story was especially interesting. Foley starts out with a Caller Times blessing on the Council with the title, “Council strives to avoid conflicts,” implying, hey folks they are really trying, it isn’t their fault. Then Foley goes on to say that last week Adame decided he had a conflict and decided to step down, even though he didn’t think he had a conflict. Hmmm? Why did he step down if he didn’t think he had a conflict? According to Foley he just stepped down because he wanted to avoid the “perception of a conflict” not because the public became aware of his ownership of the property one half block from property he proposed be included in the Request For Proposals (RFP) that wasn’t in the original package. The Caller Times it seems would have you believe that Mayor Joe woke up in the middle of the night with the sudden insight that he had a perceived conflict of interest and he better run down to City Hall the next morning and recuse himself.

Of course that's not the way it happened, we gave the story to KZTV-10 and our article hit the street the next day.
Even then our article did not accuse Adame of a conflict of interest, only asked the question. The article also pointed out that Adame’s disclosure forms were deficient in identifying partners in businesses as required, and were completed in such a way as to make identification of property associated with different businesses difficult to discern. Property was listed by address on the required forms for real property but did not list it under the associated business name. When the businesses owned forms were completed the address given was Adame’s office not the site of the property owned.

Foley continues shielding the Mayor by stating, “Adame’s land ownership didn’t meet any legal definition of conflict of interest.” Careful reading might have given the reader a clue to the truth, that the City has no specific definition of conflict of interest, a much different circumstance than applying his circumstances to a statute and finding no conflict. She goes on to say that Adame is “frustrated by those who questioned his motives”. Only one problem We the People never questioned Adame’s motives. Maybe he dost protest too much. What is interesting that the Mayor never chose to bring it up and resigned immediately upon it becoming public knowledge.

Foley went on to say that the Mayor’s lease to Whataburger would not gain anything because of the development, as it was under a long term lease that wouldn’t vary with increases in property value. Foley evidently is unaware that property value increases would be realized immediately if Adame wanted to sell the property and the lease. Leases are regularly bought out in such situations if the new owner wanted to build something that would produce more revenue.

Did Adame intercede for Brass?
The other factor undermining the Mayor’s credibility is that several staff members in City Hall have asserted the same thing independently of each other that is it was Adame who pushed to include the parks and to stretch the law to find away to make Brass’s proposal fit the RFP. None of the park land was included in the original RFP and only Brass put in a plan that included it when they jumped in at the last minute. A jump that Adame admits he encouraged and inside sources say he promoted. They said it was obvious that he was pushing Brass, the only proposer that wanted the park areas and according to the Mayor, Brass was “the real deal” to create what he envisioned for the area.

Despite later claims by Adame that he was surprised and embarrassed, all of the original proposers knew the surrounding land was park land and not eligible for use. The problem was that any land removed from park space would require approval of the voters, attempts to get around the requirement by leases was unclear with case law showing property leased longer than 40 years was essentially a sale, under 20 years a legitimate lease, anything in between was anyone’s guess.

According to staff when Adame asked, initial investigation showed that park land could be traded for other land with caveats and Adame gave Brass the go ahead. One City staff member said they (mayor and council) want a yes or no answer, if you tell them yes but; they don't like to hear the but part. The problem came up when Texas Parks and Wildlife was contacted, the said land they had control over on the old City Hall site must be replaced by land that was of equal or greater value. Replacing the bay front property, downtown would cost millions of dollars. Evidently not what the Mayor had in mind.

The other park land was McCaughn Park and was moved around by Brass in their redevelopment plan to become parking lots, sidewalks and a board walk of which the City would be solely responsible for maintenance, policing and liability. It was if La Palmera had the City take responsibility for all of the common areas and parking lots at the mall and called them parks.

None of the several sources were willing to go on record as they said they feared it would damage their careers with the City. Most spoke because they were upset that the Mayor was more than willing to let the blame fall on the City Staff. Somewhat unethical in itself, as the Mayor tried to make himself out the victim saying, “People don’t realize how costly this is for me to take this position (Mayor). I’m spending so much time at City Hall I’m not active in my business like I used to be. It’s very costly in the prime time of my business. I’m sacrificing time and two years of my life to try and turn this city around.” So much Adame’s claim when asked while he was running for office that he had turned most of his business over to his sons to run and that he would have plenty of time to devote to public service.

Foley went on to interview Councilman Mark Scott about how he felt he too was wronged by an article in We the People in 2006 which pointed out that he and partner Alex Harris were developing a condo project that would have benefited from the development of Paul Schexnailder’s proposed beachfront resort on Packery Channel. That battle ended up with a citizen driven referendum that prohibited closing the beach to vehicles without a public vote. Scott, who refused to recuse himself, whined to Foley about public opinion saying that, “I voted my conscience.” And “I paid for it every day since.”

Interestingly the Caller Times companion article on Council members disclosure forms failed to note as we did that Scott still failed to list the address of properties owned my him and his company Coastal Cove. Scott also faces a potential problem in voting on issues connected to Las Brisas and its requested water line. Scott lists himself as a part owner of his wife Carol’s company Kailo Communications who is working as a public relations firm for the controversial pet coke burning power plant. Foley also failed to point out that District Four Councilwoman Chris Adler owned companies have a two page list of local properties owned and that she lists income of $10-24,000 a year for “consulting”. Where the company name for the firms she is hired by is supposed to be filled in it says “various”. Last but not least the well defended Mayor was not asked about why he failed to identify partners in his business disclosure as required or why he filled out his paperwork in such a way as to make it difficult to discern what companies owned what properties.