February’s ice storm leaves Tomball with a $2.7M gas bill
The ice storm that hit Texas in February left Tomball with more than just frozen pipes and faulty electric systems: It also left the city with a $2.7 million gas bill.
One of the city’s two gate stations has a variable rate with CenterPoint Energy, which is where the extra costs piled up, said Interim City Manager David Esquivel. Price of gas at the south gate rose dramatically to over $400 per million cubic feet from under $3 per million cubic feet, all as demand also skyrocketed.
“Right in the middle of the storm is when it hit its highest point for three days,” Esquivel said. “That’s what caused the big bill was basically three days of consumption.”
Tomball is among the dozens of small communities between Houston and Corpus Christi that was forced to buy gas at recordhigh prices on the open market during the February ice storm.
Bay City, for example, received a $4 million bill — about 20 times higher than normal. Bellville received a municipal gas bill of about $2 million – an expense leaders said will set the city’s development back years.
In Corpus Christi, a typically $1 million February gas bill soared to
whether the county continued employing Greene. A spokeswoman said she could not comment and shared a statement from county officials about the investigation.
“The purpose of the audit is to address all areas of the department’s responsibilities, including but not limited to: employee data security, payroll, unemployment claims, personnel issues, worker’s compensation claims, pension funds and any other related functions of this department,” county officials said in the statement.
District Attorney Cheryl Lieck told the Chronicle on Friday that her office and federal authorities were conducting simultaneous investigations into Greene, unbeknownst to each other until they
were closing in on an arrest.
“It was just serendipitous,” Lieck said.
Lieck described Greene as a “con artist” who had also told colleagues she had cancer. A county employee approached Lieck with what appeared to be evidence of a falsified government record, prompting Lieck to investigate further, she said.
When Lieck pulled up Greene’s personnel file and tried contacting references, she said, she learned some of the listed individuals did not exist or were the names of people who popped up on internet searches but had no apparent connection to Greene.
“If her resume was true and correct and not fictitious, she should be working in the Pentagon,” Lieck said, listing credentials that included being a lawyer for matters involving the military. “I’m not convinced that this was her only act.”
The county arrested Greene on suspicion of the falsified document, which Lieck said was a misdemeanor, and filed a request for a temporary restraining order to block Greene from having access to county property and records.
County employees have constantly been calling Lieck with concerns about their personal information, such as bank accounts, she said.
“People are frantic,” Lieck said. “It’s a huge deal.”
Federal court records accuse Greene of making phony statements for a program meant to give benefits and advanced sick times to government employees suffering from cancer and needing chemotherapy. Federal prosecutors also alleged Greene made and used fake documents purported to have been prepared by a physician at MD Anderson Cancer Center named Dr. Jason Sable.
“When in truth, the defendant did not receive cancer treatments at M.D. Anderson and Dr. Jason Sable is not a physician at M.D. Anderson,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
The third charge was in connection to another document — in support of Greene’s application for reasonable accommodation — purported to have been prepared by another physician who did not prepare the document or sign it, prosecutors alleged.
It remained unclear Friday what prompted federal authorities to launch their investigation.
Special agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, which investigates felonies and violations of military law, have an open and ongoing investigation, said spokesman Chris Grey, who referred additional questions to prosecutors.