Charles Blain - Urban Reform Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six twenty three. Now here in Houston's Warning News. Yeah,
is it the perfect quid pro quote? Here, you scratch
my back, I'll scratch yours. Let's ask Charles Blaine Urban Reform.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Here.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
The majority of Harris County Commissioner's campaign dollars come from
people whose contracts they approve. Charles, it's better than having
the majority of the money coming from people who have
contracts under consideration, as long as it's done after the
fact that the contract has been approved. But what can
you tell us about this?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, so it's interesting, it's eye opening, but you know,
in and of itself, the reporting doesn't kind of show
us any sort of connection or anything. What it does say, though,
is that people who have business at the county want
to give money to people who decide those contract decisions
in the county. And it's similar that you see at
the city a lot of the money from vendors going
to the mayor and to council.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
And same thing in the courthouse with.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Judges getting money from big law firms and lawyers who
represent who do cases in front of them. They want
to curry favor with the people who make the decisions. Now,
the problem comes is if you can prove that those
people making the decision are actually swayed by that.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Money, right exactly. And the question, of course it's not
the money, right, it's the amount. So are there limits
as far as what those campaign contributions can be.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Not at the county, And that's probably the most alarming
part of the story is that there aren't. I mean,
we kind of knew this, but when you look at
the city and you compare the city in the county,
at least the city has some restrictions in the sense
that if you have a contract that's being considered, there's
a blackout period in which those vendors are not allowed
to kind of communicate and donate to council members and
the mayor. And you don't have those same restrictions at

(01:32):
the county. And so that's where you kind of have
some concern about what happens as these considerations are taking place.
The county's argument is that the commissioners don't actually sit
in on these kind of the decisions on who the
vendors are going to be until they reach the table
of Commissioner's court. But nonetheless you still want them removed
from the process if it's being considered. So that is

(01:53):
something that should be looked at. I think you're having
a blackout period, wouldn't hurt?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, I would agree with that.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
You know, we have a problem though virtually every level
of a government when it comes to this, don't we
We have a similar problem with the state level when
it comes to lobbyists. A lot of campaign contributions come
from lobbying groups who go into the capital and sway
lawmakers to vote yes or no on specific pieces of
legislation that impact their business.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Oh absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I mean, you know this big push at the state
level to kind of kill this taxpayer funded lobbying.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
These those are folks that we have to pay through
our tax.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Dollars with local governments and others going and hiring the
lobbyists to go and advocate against us. So yeah, it's
happening at every level, and I think what we really
need to be focusing on is kind of drawing these
deeper connections on these when this money is going to
these officials and how these the money is affecting their decisions.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
I mean, when you look at their reporting from the.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Chronicle, they single out Commissioner Ramsey and saying he's got
the farest share of this money. But yet when you
look at the dollar about it with seventy one thousand
dollars as compared to Commissioner Ron Niels is eight hundred
thousand dollars that he received during the one reporting period.
Now you have to ask yourself, why is one commissioner
getting eight hundred thousand dollars during a reporting period when
he's not even up for reelection right now?

Speaker 3 (03:03):
So that's the most larmer part.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
And why does the only newspaper in the city of
Houston just report on the Republican and how much how
much money he may have. I think we already know
the answer to that one pretty clearly, don't.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
We exactly exactly?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
And also it leads up to the fact that out of
all of them, if anyone has the industry experience, Commissioner rempty.
So of course all these people that he's worked with
for years are going to know and give money to
him because they trust him. So they leave out these
kind of important facts that I think actually provide more
detail and insight into the broader problem here.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
But I think when you.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Look at commissicherre ellis as I mean, it draws questions
as to why he's receiving that much, how much power
he actually wields, and what we can do to restrict
some of that, because I don't think any county commissioners
should be in such a position of power that that
big engineering firms and firms feel that they need to
give eight hundred thousand dollars during a reporting period to
sway favor.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Right, And how do we know, by the way, how
that money is being spent? That would be the other thing.
Is that money actually being spent on campaigning or is
that money being spent on other things to enrich the
candidate himself. That's always a concern too. Charles Blaine, thank
you you that Charles playing for Murbin Reforms six twenty seven.