Bylaws change roils agency
Port commission halted from naming new airport official
Port of Houston Authority Commissioner Theldon Branch, about to be replaced by colleagues as the port’s appointee to a Houston airport development agency, this week voted with city Aviation Director Mario Diaz to change the agency’s bylaws, a move that would preclude his proposed successor from serving.
The move was detailed Wednesday at a meeting of the port commission by its chair, Janiece Longoria, who said she sought to replace Branch on the Houston Airport System Development Corp. because his term had expired and because his City Hall business ties presented possible conflicts of interest.
Branch, for years a concessionaire at both major city airports and, until recently, at the city’s George R. Brown Convention Center, said the bylaw change was to ensure the agency is run by experienced appointees and had nothing to do with a desire to keep his seat.
The airport development agency, a private nonprofit created by Houston City Council in 2000, invests in and provides consulting at airports throughout the world, with ties to facilities in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Colombia. The entity lets city aviation personnel work on international projects and shares some revenues with the city airport system.
The agency is run by the city aviation director, a port appointee and a Greater Houston Partnership appointee, though the GHP
“I told the chairman I was OK with being replaced. But the intent of the corporation was always that there would be a port commissioner.” Theldon Branch, Port of Houston Authority commissioner
seat has been empty since its prior occupant died in 2016.
Diaz and Branch — as a majority of the three-person board — voted Monday to require the port’s appointee to the agency be a port commissioner, potentially blocking Longoria’s nominee, Justin Jordan, vice president of a lobbying firm.
The bylaw change also requires appointees from the port and GHP to have “international business, finance, economic, logistics or diplomatic” experience, said the airport agency’s attorney, Hank Coleman. He said it was a coincidence that the airport entity’s regular quarterly meeting fell two days before the port was to consider replacing Branch.
Longoria said she views the bylaw change as void because a letter she sent Diaz on Dec. 5 nominating Jordan effectively replaced Branch, whose term expired in April 2017, and because the airport entity’s formation documents say the board must never have fewer than three members.
Branch said his vote was valid because Diaz, as the airport agency’s chairman, is empowered to reject appointees, and did so in Jordan’s case.
Coleman said Diaz does not have the ability to veto appointees, but the lawyer said he has no reason to believe the bylaws approved Monday did not apply to the port’s Wednesday vote to ratify Jordan’s appointment. Coleman said he would confer with Diaz to determine what to do next.
The commission’s approval of Jordan’s nomination came with the caveat that, should he be disqualified for any reason, port Commissioner Stephen Don-Carlos would join the HASDC board in his stead. Branch and Dean Corgey, the city of Houston’s two appointees, voted no, though it is unclear whether Branch’s vote was recorded; Longoria said his self-interest should prevent his participation in the tally.
Branch said after the meeting that he and Diaz thought it was important that the port’s appointee to the agency be a member of the commission “because of the international business that is transpired with” the airport agency.
“I told the chairman I was OK with being replaced,” Branch said. “But the intent of the corporation was always that there would be a port commissioner.”
Mayor Sylvester Turner, who joined the city council in reappointing Branch to the port commission in February, said after Wednesday’s regularly scheduled council meeting that he was unaware of the machinations surrounding the airport agency or why his aviation director supported those actions.
City officials did not make Diaz available for questions at City Hall on Wednesday and his office did not respond to written questions.
Longoria said after the port commission meeting that she had moved to replace Branch because his term had expired and because “I wanted to appoint somebody that didn’t have any city or county contracts.” Longoria said she interpreted the bylaw change as an attempt “to prohibit an uninterested person from serving on that board.”
Branch disputed the idea that his role with the airport agency presented any conflicts.
“There is nothing that we vote on that is even remotely close to the concession agreement,” he said. “And I don’t do any business with any airports that we have agreements with.”
Branch was part of retail and food concessions ventures at Bush Airport and a retail concessions group at Hobby Airport that city council approved in 2015. He also was an owner of Bud’s BBQ, a restaurant that the city’s convention and entertainment agency, Houston First Corp., selected in 2016 as a vendor for the newly built restaurant spaces in the renovated convention center.
Bud’s closed in October despite the Houston First board twice amending the eatery’s contract to grant more favorable terms. Branch cited Hurricane Harvey’s affect on business for the closure.