Official’s business interests omitted
Miles’ ‘corrected’ ethics forms filed after questions
State Rep. Borris Miles, a Houston Democrat, repeatedly failed to disclose his business interests in three companies as state law requires.
The lawmaker did not report on state ethics forms for several years that he had an ownership stake in two hospice agencies or that he owned an entertainment company that operates a cigar bar in south Houston.
Miles rectified these omissions in recent days after the Chronicle inquired about them. Through his attorney, he filed “corrected” ethics statements and “good-faith” affidavits in which he says, “I swear, or affirm, that any error or omission in the report as originally filed was made in good faith.”
On the new forms, Miles disclosed that he had business interests in Attentive Hospice from 2012 through 2015, in A-1 Hospice of Houston in 2009, and in Goodlife Management from 2009 through 2013.
Ethics watchdogs consider Texas’ ethics act weak but say its requirement that lawmakers, other public officials and candidates disclose business ownership can enable the public to determine whether they are engaged in conflicts of interest.
And when they don’t disclose? Craig McDonald, director of the nonprofit Texans for Public Justice, said public officials rarely are punished sufficiently for failing to properly report.
“When the minimum disclosure standards that we have are violated, we need tougher and swifter penalties for it,” he said. “It’s a lack of enforcement. That comes from an unwillingness among legislators to regulate themselves with respect to transparency on their finances.”
The penalty for failing to file required items on the ethics statements ranges from $500 to $10,000 if the Texas Ethics Commission takes action under its rules. If a sworn complaint is filed alleging a violation, the commission can order a fine up to $5,000 or triple the amount at issue, whichever is more. A prosecutor also can pursue a misdemeanor charge. ‘Really no consequence’
The issue of whether Miles should be sanctioned for not initially disclosing three of his business interests highlights flaws with the ethics law, said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, a nonprofit watchdog group.
The state ethics commission doesn’t audit personal financial statements filed by public officials and candidates to track whether they disclose everything about their businesses, he said.
“And we don’t prosecute them for their failure to fully disclose,” Smith added. “As a result, people can blatantly ignore the personal financial-statement requirements, and there’s really no consequence except for a fine that is less than the rounding error on the business income at question.”
The commission doesn’t keep a database of how many officials have been accused of failing to disclose items on their personal financial statements or what sanction, if any, they received.
Miles unwittingly revealed the omission of Attentive Hospice on his ethics forms whenhe filed suit in 2014 against his business partners, Dwayne Harris, husband of then-Houston school board member Paula Harris, and Paul McCann Sr., Paula Harris’ father.
Miles’ corrected ethics statements add to a string of news accounts in which the veteran lawmaker from south Houston has been involved.
In April 2015, on the same day Miles cursed at a colleague on the House floor during the legislative session, he threatened to physically harm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s security detail at an Austin steakhouse, according to a Department of Public Safety report. Miles, a former Houston school district police officer, said a trooper grabbed him and only afterward identified himself.
In 2009, a Harris County jury acquitted Miles on two counts of deadly conduct. In one incident, Miles was accused of showing a pistol and threatening a Texas Southern University regent and his wife in a crowded lounge during a Rockets game at the Toyota Center. In the other, Miles was accused of crashing a party at the St. Regis Hotel, planting a “kiss of death” on the cheeks of a local businessman, handing him a pistol, and declaring: “You don’t know what I’m capable of doing.”
Miles’ cigar bar, a popular hangout for politicians and the politically connected, has been flagged repeatedly for failing to have a certificate of occupancy, according to city records. On April 15, following questions from the Chronicle, a city spokeswoman said Mayor Sylvester Turner issued an order that Our Legends must come into compliance within 30 days or cease operations.
Miles helped run the hospicecare venture with Dwayne Harris and McCann at the same time that Miles’ insurance agency was handling flood insurance for the Houston Independent School District. In February 2012, a month after Miles signed the contract with Harris’ husband related to Attentive Hospice, she voted to renew Miles Insurance Agency as HISD’s broker for flood insurance, meeting minutes show.
Paula Harris, who left the school board at the end of 2015, did not mention Miles on the district’s disclosure forms that covered 2014, 2013 or part of 2012.
The disclosure rules for school trustees are different than for legislators. The Houston board’s policy says trustees should avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest, but they have to report ties to vendors only in certain cases. Trustees do not have to file personal financial statements with the state.
Paula Harris did not return messages seeking comment. Dwayne Harris and McCann’s attorney declined comment on pending litigation. Airport contract bid
Miles no longer serves as HISD’s flood-insurance broker but counts the city and Houston Community College as clients. HISD records show payments to Miles Insurance Agency from 2005 through August 2014. The amounts total more than $3.3 million. Miles’ attorney said the payments flowed to insurance carriers for the policies. Miles has said his commission is far less. In one year, for example, HISD records say the commission was an estimated $79,500, or 15 percent of the policy.
Most recently, Miles’ insurance firm has been involved as a minority subcontractor in bid- ding on the $1.5 billion expansion of the international terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Turner said in February that he would rebid the first round of contracts for the expansion after the city controller raised questions about the transparency of the process. One of the winning bidders, Marsh USA, which employs Councilman Dave Martin and would have used Miles’ agency as a subcontractor, bid the highest price among the finalists but still received the award.
In a brief interview, Miles said there was nothing unethical about his payments from HISD at the same time he was in business with Paula Harris’ husband, especially since he began to work for the school district before he was elected to the Legislature and she won a seat on the school board.
“That’s what pisses me off about people,” Miles said. “They always want to say, ‘Borris got these contracts, it’s political.’ That’s a … lie.”
Miles, 50, said he has known Paula Harris, 52, since junior high and also has played a key role in her husband’s career. Miles said he attended a banquet in the Bahamas where Dwayne Harris, 56, received a salesmanship award from Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company.
As they hung out at the bar, Miles said, he encouraged Dwayne Harris to go into business for himself.
“He has told that story many times: ‘If it wasn’t for Borris, I’d still be working for Pfizer.’ That is how he clung to me,” Miles said.
In 2010, Harris and his father- in-law started Attentive Hospice. Miles came on board as of New Year’s Day 2012, signing a joint venture agreement with Dwayne Harris. Suit, countersuit
But by the time Miles filed suit against Harris and McCann in Harris County District Court in 2014, the relationship had soured. Miles, seeking up to $2 million, alleged that Dwayne Harris did not ask for his permission before selling the majority interest in Attentive’s Metairie, La., business to John V. Barton, a Louisiana physician, as their contract required. Harris, in a February 2015 deposition, admitted withholding the sale information from Miles. Barton has been dismissed from the suit
Harris and McCann filed a general denial of the lawsuit claims, then countersued Miles in July 2015. They alleged that Miles improperly took $200,000 from their hospice venture, using the funds partly to finance his other businesses. Those entities include Miles Insurance Agency and Goodlife Management.
The counterclaim alleged that the lawmaker or his staff made unauthorized withdrawals from the Attentive Hospice bank account and forged signatures on checks, including three made out to Miles or his other businesses that totaled $12,741 in 2012.
The counterclaim questioned expenses at grocery stores, a gas station, a liquor store and a nail salon, as well as checks written to Camille Foster, Miles’ executive assistant and legislative aide, and to Miles’ brother.
In one instance, court records show, Dwayne Harris emailed Foster after noticing a wire transfer for $1,800 in July 2013.
“Borris needed some cash, so I wired it out of attentive (sic),” Foster wrote, appearing to refer to the Attentive Hospice account. “I am putting it back in the morning.”
Miles testified in a sworn deposition last year that he had authorized transfers from the hospice account to recoup money he believed he was owed. Miles alleged that Dwayne Harris “had convinced” Foster to use money from Miles’ other businesses to keep Attentive Hospice afloat.
“I instructed Ms. Foster and told Mr. Harris that I was going to be getting mymoney back,” Miles said in the deposition.