E-Day
It is here. Election Day. Go vote, please.
See the featured photo.
Commentary had my traditional Election Day breakfast which includes donuts and kolaches.
_____
Here is from our campaign:
Senator Whitmire Election Day
Media will have two opportunities to meet up with Senator Whitmire on Election Day.
The first will be at 11:20 a.m. The Senator will attend the birthday party of Kenneth Thompson, who will be celebrating his 97th birthday. Mr. Thompson is a World War II veteran and a longtime union member. He has voted for John Whitmire in every election in which he has run since 1972. Mr. Thompson says the only thing he wants for his birthday is for John Whitmire to win the mayor’s race.
The party is at La Hacienda Restaurant, 1431 W. 26th St.
Senator Whitmire’s attendance will be a surprise for Mr. Thompson, so I ask that you wait until the Senator arrives before you go in. I’ll be there to help.
After that, Senator Whitmire will go to Waltrip High School to shake hands with voters around noon. 1900 West 34th St.
The Senator will arrive at his Watch Party at the Marriott Marquis, Houston Ballroom, around 7 p.m. He plans to mingle with the attendees and working on getting one big interview with everyone.
_____
More severe lapses in local government ethics. This time in Midtown. See this from the Chron:
The Midtown Redevelopment Authority has spent millions of tax dollars acquiring almost 500 lots in and around Third Ward, hoping to slow gentrification in the historic Black neighborhood and build affordable housing on the land.
And for years, residents have complained that hundreds of the agency’s still-vacant lots have become overgrown, homes only for tires and trash, drug deals, even an open-air brothel.
How could this be, residents wondered, when Midtown was paying companies millions of dollars to maintain the lots? Was anybody even mowing?
It took residents years of sleuthing, internet research, records requests and official complaints to finally, last month, yield what they view as an answer: The Midtown official in charge of overseeing lot maintenance was paying himself to do the work.
Midtown fired Todd Edwards on May 31, the agency said, but it wasn’t until Oct. 3 that Houston’s Office of Inspector General determined Edwards “used his position at Midtown Redevelopment Authority inappropriately… to benefit himself and the owner of Cortez Landscaping,” according to a memo the Chronicle obtained through a records request.
A firm Edwards formed, P.O.W.E.R., LLC, was paid $2.1 million for mowing lots, razing structures and cutting down nearly 2,800 dead trees from 2011 to 2020, according to Midtown payment records.
Cortez Landscaping was paid $6.2 million for lot maintenance from 2015 to 2021, records show.
It is not clear what kind of business ties Edwards has to Veronica Ugorji, the owner of Cortez. The two in 2017 jointly formed a company called Cortez International, Texas Secretary of State records show, and listed its address as the same P.O. Box used by Cortez Landscaping on the invoices it submitted to Midtown.
Ugorji said in an email Monday that Cortez Landscaping “is no longer an operating business.” She requested that she be sent specific questions, but did not answer them by deadline.
Midtown board chair Al Odom said the agency is “deeply concerned” by the OIG’s findings.
Here is the entire read: Houston official ousted after Third Ward sleuths spark inquiry (houstonchronicle.com).
This Edwards fella is the son of a former H-Town City Council member who left us a few months ago. Sad.
Go vote, please.
