Buzbee releases plan to overhaul city’s ethics
Tony Buzbee said Monday that as mayor he would ban former lobbyists from serving on public committees and revamp the bid process through which contractors receive work from the city of Houston.
He also accused Mayor Sylvester Turner of having sold City Hall to those who donate to his political campaigns, and cited multiple cases in which he said spouses of city contractors had donated to Turner. Buzbee said city council needs to have more oversight over contractors, and alleged that many have been able to lengthen their contracts with little scrutiny.
“This is how the mayor has exerted his influence,” Buzbee said.
He said the city should require political donors to disclose if they have close relatives who do business with the city, and proposed changing the city’s current bid process, which prioritizes cost, to instead choose local contractors based on “experience.”
Under the city’s purchasing rules, most formal contracts are awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. The city also can make certain purchases under what is known as “best value procurement,” allowing it to consider factors other than price.
Buzbee released his ethics overhaul plan the day after the Houston Chronicle published a story that found Turner had collected at least $4.3 million from companies and donors employed by or affiliated with companies that did business with the city under his administration.
The total makes up 41 percent
of the $10.5 million Turner has raised in both of his mayoral campaigns. Buzbee said his campaign had done its own analysis and contended the proportion is higher.
The Chronicle examined more than 6,500 separate contributions Turner’s campaign received from the start of 2015 through June 30 and matched individuals and companies that contributed $500 or more to city vendors that were paid $500 or more during Turner’s tenure. The review also tallied contributions from lobbyists advocating on the companies’ behalf and from concessionaires at city facilities, such as Houston’s two airports.
Turner defended the contributions, saying he is operating under the same rules as previous mayors.
During a news conference Monday, Buzbee named a few donors who are spouses of people who have conducted business with the city, claiming incorrectly that the Chronicle did not include the names in its analysis.
Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said some of Buzbee’s proposals have merit in Texas, which he said has relatively lax campaign finance rules. However, Jones said, officials need to be careful not to exclude those with experience in public policy, lobbyists included.
“Once you start, essentially, knocking people out who have any lobbyist experience or any civic engagement, you’re going to start running short of people,” he said.
Jones also said while it is important to address money that can influence political decisions, leaders could worsen the issue if they go “overboard” with restrictions that would make it difficult for non-wealthy candidates to run for office.
“If you can’t raise money from anyone but money is going to be important in the campaign, that gives a natural advantage to people who are independently wealthy,” he said.
Buzbee is self-funding his race and has contributed $10 million to his campaign.
He is the second Houston mayoral challenger to pitch an ethics reform plan, following a series of changes proposed by Bill King earlier this year.
King’s plan, laid out in June, would bar people who do business with the city from contributing more than $500 to municipal candidates and require that contracts always go to firms with “the lowest responsive bid.” The goal, King has said, is to “eliminate the subjectivity that allows pay-to-play bidders to be rewarded for their campaign contributions.”
Like Buzbee, King also called for the city’s Office of Inspector General to work independent from the city attorney’s office.
King’s campaign slammed Buzbee in a statement Monday, saying his mayoral foe was “a little late to the discussion” about changing the city’s procurement and campaign finance process.
“Bill King put forth an ethics and campaign finance reform plan last spring that included the same ideas Buzbee is now claiming as his own,” said Janice Evans, a spokesperson for King’s campaign. “Last week he proved he has trouble telling the truth, so why would we be surprised he has to steal ideas from others? Bill has been driving the policy discussions in this campaign from the beginning.”
Turner also weighed in, blasting Buzbee in a news release his campaign sent two minutes before the scheduled start of Buzbee’s press conference.
In the release, Turner criticized Buzbee for contributing to the campaigns of judges overseeing his law firm’s cases, and for donating more than $329,000 to then-Gov. Rick Perry in 2011 and 2012, before Perry appointed him to the Texas A&M Board of Regents in 2013.
“That pay-to-play stench isn’t coming from City Hall,” Turner said. “It’s coming from Tony Buzbee’s checkbook.”