Mayor hints at more in ‘charade’ incident
Mayor Sylvester Turner is swinging back at his former housing director who last week accused him of steering affordable housing money to a developer.
Turner said he will present information about former Director Tom McCasland’s management of the Housing and Community Development Department that he said will “help explain that show last week.” He said he plans to do so before a joint meeting of City Council’s housing and budget committees next week.
The exact nature of the information, which Turner said he received Tuesday, was not clear, although he suggested McCasland was withholding information from the administration.
“It’s important for me to make sure I have information from my directors to know how to run this city, and if there are major developments that are taking place within your department and you’re not making that information available, and you know that eventually it will come to light, you don’t have the luxury of putting forth smoke screens,” Turner said.
McCasland declined comment on Turner’s remarks Wednesday.
Turner fired McCasland last week after he accused the mayor of manufacturing a competitive funding process to steer Hurricane Harvey affordable housing dollars to a select developer. Turner overrode staff recommendations to fund four projects in favor of one senior housing deal in Clear Lake, called Huntington at Bay Area.
The four staff recommendations would have used $16.2 million in dwindling Harvey funds to support 362 units of affordable housing. Turner’s selection would use $15 million to fund 88 units. McCasland provided council members with more than 70
pages of emails, memos and notes on the decisions.
A co-developer on the Huntington deal is a company led by Turner’s longtime law partner, Barry Barnes, and another partner at Barnes’ firm, Jermaine Thomas. Turner left the firm when he was elected mayor in 2015.
Turner has denied wrongdoing and said he prioritized the project because it is in City Council District E, a relatively affluent community that has not seen a city-backed affordable housing deal in six years.
Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University, said Turner’s strategy aligns with the thinking that “the best defense is a good offense.”
“He’s going on the offensive,” Jones said. “You deny it, and you attack the messenger who sent it, to create some doubt in people’s minds.”
The mayor teased the new information after AtLarge Councilmember Michael Kubosh raised the issue twice this week, expressing concern about the allegations during the Tuesday and Wednesday council meetings.
Kubosh said Wednesday he would push for an outside investigation and asked Controller Chris Brown, the city’s independently elected financial watchdog, if he could lead it. He said the allegations were startling to him because he often relies on the word of department directors in deciding his votes.
“What really concerns me is that the director stated the competitive process is a ‘charade’ and not a competitive process at all,” Kubosh said. “I know yesterday that the mayor commented … there’s more to come. So, I don’t know if we’re going villainize Tom McCasland, if he’s really the culprit here, the real villain, I don’t know. But we need to clear the air, if there’s nothing wrong we need to know that so we can move on. … It puts a cloud over us right now and I want it gone.”
Brown said he has no investigative authority in the city’s charter, although his office said it believes there should be a third-party investigation. Turner announced an internal probe, led by the city attorney, last week. The city attorney reports directly to the mayor.
The information the mayor has cited came from housing department leadership, according to Turner’s office.
Kubosh also renewed questions about the controller’s Checkbook financial transparency platform, a project that would make most city financial data readily available online. Turner blocked the project from continuing earlier this year.
McCasland’s allegations came as a shock to council members during testimony at last week’s housing committee. Those at the meeting said they were overwhelmed by the information and would need more time to digest it.
The former housing director also urged council members to hold Turner accountable, warning there are “several similar developments” that match the fact pattern in the Huntington case, and “at least one other instance” where the administration has pressured staff to take unethical action. He has not detailed those cases.
District F Councilmember Tiffany Thomas, who leads the housing committee, said Wednesday the mayor’s information will help provide context. Turner plans to present the information to a joint hearing of the council’s budget and housing committees.
“I know there’s been an expectation that council has this robust discussion immediately after last Tuesday, so I just want to encourage my colleagues not to just seek to have the information, but seek to comprehend,” Thomas said. “We have to want more for ourselves than hot takes in the news clips, we have to want more for ourselves in the city than viral moments. So, let us do the hard work in getting the information so we can restore trust in our housing program and the seats we sit in, with Houstonians.”
Council members generally have said they are taking a wait-and-see approach, reserving judgment until the mayor produces new details. Few have spoken publicly about the accusations.
“Of course it’s concerning. I want to hear what the other side of it is,” said District A Councilmember Amy Peck. “It’s kind of hard to say one way or another without both sides of the story.”
At-Large Councilmember Sallie Alcorn echoed that, adding, “All of this is a big setback for those of us trying to build confidence in government.”
District J Councilmember Ed Pollard said once council hears from the mayor, “then we can digest it and analyze it and see where we go from there.”
The joint committee meeting has not been scheduled.