Airport director sued by nominee

Port Commission rules changed to block appointee, he says in lawsuit

Justin Jordan, a Houston lobbyist nominated to a Houston airport development agency, on Friday sued Houston Aviation Director Mario Diaz and the man he was set to replace, alleging they attempted to block him from his position by changing the aviation agency’s bylaws.

The suit, filed Friday in state district court, comes days after Diaz and Port of Houston Authority Commissioner Theldon Branch voted to change bylaws that could prevent Jordan from replacing Branch on the Houston Airport System Development Corp., a private nonprofit agency created by City Council in 2000 that invests in and consults for airports around the world. It shares some of its revenues with the city airport system.

Jordan had been tapped by Janiece Longoria, chairman of the Port of Houston Authority’s Port Commission, to replace Branch as the port’s appointee to the aviation agency.

Diaz and Branch, forming a majority of its threeperson board, voted earlier this month to require the port’s appointee be a port

commissioner and have “international business, finance, economic, logistics or diplomatic” experience.

“It is hardly a conciden(ce) that Defendant Branch is a commissioner on the Port of Houston Authority … and has international business experience from dealing with HAS Development Corporation,” Jordan’s complaint reads.

In the suit, Jordan asks the court to order Branch to vacate his position and allow Jordan access to offices, documents and “any other object or thing that is necessary” to fill the role.

Meanwhile, Longoria has said she sought to replace Branch on the agency’s board because his term expired in April 2017 and his business ties as a concessionaire at Houston’s two major airports presented possible conflicts of interest.

Branch has said he voted to change the bylaws to ensure the agency is run by experienced appointees, and it had nothing to do with a desire to keep his seat. He also said that his role with the aviation agency presented no conflicts of interest because it does not vote on matters “even remotely close to the concession agreement.”

The agency is run by the city aviation director, a port appointee and a Greater Houston Partnership appointee, though the GHP seat has remained vacant since its prior occupant died in 2016.

That seat has not been occupied, Jordan wrote in his legal complaint, because Diaz and Branch “desired to operate the Corporation in secret and to their benefit.”

Longoria, who did not respond to a request for comment, on Wednesday said she views the bylaw changes as void because she sent a letter to Diaz nominating Jordan on Dec. 5, which she said effectively replaced Branch. The aviation agency’s formation documents say the board must never have fewer than three members, Longoria noted.

Diaz and Branch voted Monday to change the bylaws, two days before a Port Commission meeting at which Jordan’s appointment was to be confirmed by the board. Hank Coleman, the airport agency’s attorney, said the timing of the airport development agency’s regular quarterly meeting was a coincidence.

Jordan contends in his lawsuit that Diaz and Branch’s meeting to alter the bylaws was “unlawful” because Longoria already had made the appointment.

“I think this is a story that will develop over time once we get into the discovery aspects,” said Oliver Brown, Jordan’s attorney. “Right now, we’re simply asking that my client be allowed to serve the position he was rightfully appointed to.”

Diaz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mayor Sylvester Turner, a supporter of Branch’s reappointment to the Port Commission in February, said Wednesday he was unaware of Diaz and Branch’s actions to change the bylaws.