No records kept of officials who use sports suite perk
Observant Houston baseball fans suffering through the Astros’ 7-2 loss in Game 6 of the recent World Series likely spotted a familiar face frowning along with them from a few rows behind home plate: Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Sporting a bright orange ’Stros jersey and a ballcap, the mayor watched the game alongside Michael Harris, a sometime lobbyist who serves on the board of the Houston Housing Authority. Turner had gotten his ticket from Astros owner Jim Crane, the mayor’s office said.
Turner also had been offered a ticket to Game 2 of the Fall Classic, for a different seat — the centerfield suite kept by the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. Turner’s office said neither the mayor nor anyone else used that pair of tickets.
Records show five City Council members, eight state lawmakers and their guests accepted tickets to the suite that night. What those records do not show is who actually was in the public suite.
None of the agencies that manage the government-run suites at Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center and NRG Stadium keep records on who attends.
Every member of Harris County Commissioners Court is offered a pair of tickets to the county-run suite at NRG Stadium for every event at which it is open, but it is impossible to know how often the politicians use the tickets — infrequently, they or their representatives said — or give them to others.
At the Toyota Center suite, which is managed by the city convention agency Houston First Corp., records show which council members — if any — accepted suite tickets to games and concerts, but not who actually used them.
The Harris-County Houston Sports Authority, which tracks which public officials accept tickets for the suite at Minute Maid
Park, also does not take attendance at games.
“That seems intentional to me. It seems willful or at the very least a means to try to protect people from their names appearing as having gone,” said Jay Aiyer, a public policy consultant and former Texas Southern University political science professor. “It’d probably be in their interest and everyone’s interest if there were more controls put in place from a record-keeping perspective.”
A spokeswoman for Houston First said no attendance is taken at the Toyota Center suite because doing so has “no administrative value.”
Team of eight
When it comes to who visits the suites, records — to the extent they are available — show a wide disparity among Houston elected officials.
Though 49 Houston-area elected officials were listed as having received suite tickets to games or events at the three major venues over the last three years, nearly two-thirds of the offers were accepted by just eight Houston City Council members.
Each of those eight council members accepted tickets between 22 and 47 times in the last three years, mostly for Rockets games or concerts at Toyota Center.
Council members said they frequently give the tickets to others.
Councilman Jerry Davis, whose office was listed as accepting tickets to the suites at Toyota Center or Minute Maid Park 43 times in the last three years, said he usually did not attend the concert or game in question and instead gave the tickets to civic club presidents, pastors or nonprofit leaders in his district.
Once, Davis added, he promoted a back-to-school backpack giveaway and immunization event by saying that kids who attended could win a ticket to attend a World Wresting Entertainment event with him in the suite.
“My constituents don’t get a chance to go to a suite,” he said. “A lot of them don’t have the disposable income.”
When he was present, Davis said, he spoke with clients or prospective clients to whom Houston First staff were seeking to promote the city.
“There could be a potential conference coming and we talk about the city and what’s going on in council and how we’d greatly appreciate them if they pick this city, what we have to offer,” Davis said.
Tickets for ‘ambassadors’
Clients and vendors comprise a majority of suite visitors at each stadium, staff members who manage the suites said. The Toyota Center suite, for instance, holds 15 seats, four of which are offered to a rotating list of council members and their guests and two of which are reserved for the mayor and one guest; all six City Hall tickets are claimed infrequently. For 65 games or concerts in the last three years, no city official accepted the tickets.
Toyota Center suite tickets come with free parking, food and soft drinks but have no set value, as they are part of the original contract under which the city purchased the land on which the arena sits.
“Elected officials are invaluable as ambassadors to help us sell our city as a world-class destination to potential clients,” Houston First spokeswoman Carolyn Campbell said.
Councilman Robert Gallegos, whose office was listed as accepting tickets to the Toyota Center or Minute Maid Park suites 47 times in the last three years, takes a similar approach, said his chief of staff, Daniel Santamaria.
“The councilman utilizes these opportunities to host visiting delegations and individuals looking to do business with the city,” he said. “He has also given tickets or attended events with residents who’ve gone above and beyond in the community, and on other occasions he’s requested tickets on behalf of local nonprofits to donate for charitable causes."
Councilman Dwight Boykins, whose tally of accepting suite tickets to 27 concerts and baseball or basketball games ranks sixth among local politicians, echoed that. He said almost all of the 90 tickets he has accepted to regular-season Astros games in the last four years – by far the highest ticket tally of any local official – were to bus seniors from Mount Hebron Baptist Church to the suite.
Of the 20 dates when Boykins’ office was listed as accepting Rockets or concert tickets in the last three years, he said he or his wife was present four of those times. The other tickets were claimed by his staff.
“When my staff goes, they know the rules. They can’t take a sister or friend, they have to take a civic club person with them so they can justify using it,” Boykins said. “They’re the taxpayers; they paid for it, man.”
Poorly documented
Aiyer said the use of suite tickets for community leaders strikes him as a justifiable substitute for promoting the city to prospective conventioneers, but he said that approach still should be better documented.
“We’re left to kind of assume it’s being used in a proper way when you don’t have the kind of record-keeping that would demonstrate that,” he said.
Boykins’ senior Astros outings aside, elected officials have been listed as accepting some of the 36 suite tickets available at each baseball game almost exclusively during the playoffs, with city, county and state lawmakers all accepting tickets. The tickets are part of the Sports Authority’s lease with the Astros.
The Harris County Sports & Convention Corp.’s suite at NRG Stadium also is listed as getting less use by public officials than the Toyota Center, having been visited by only three local elected officials in the last three years other than members of Commissioners Court, whom Sports Corp. Executive Director Ryan Walsh said have access to a pair of tickets every time the suite is open.
“Having the county and elected officials in attendance helps us to better advocate for NRG Park's interests in the community and promote client and business development,” Walsh said.
Who really goes
It is not clear how often commissioners court members actually attend. Longtime Commissioner Steve Radack said he could recall being in a suite at the stadium no more than three times, and said he remembered being a guest of the McNair family, which owns the Texans, each time.
“I do not recall being at any Texans game in that (Sports Corp.) suite,” he said.
County Judge Lina Hidalgo has used the NRG suite only once this season, her office said, when she helped honor a man who assisted others during Tropical Storm Imelda, and was a guest of the McNair family in their suite at NRG at another game; she also accepted Sports Authority suite tickets to two Astros playoff games this year.
Commissioner Jack Cagle accepts the NRG suite tickets to attend one or two football games each season, a spokesman said; he also was listed as accepting one set of Astros playoff tickets for that suite in 2017.
Commissioner Adrian Garcia recalled using the NRG suite tickets two or three times this season, a spokeswoman said, and also attended two World Series games in the Sports Authority suite this year.
Commissioner Rodney Ellis’ office said he declines “most” such event tickets, but has attended with family of friends in special cases; he is listed as accepting suite tickets to two Astros playoff games in 2017.