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This publication is dedicated to & maintained by those of us who really care about this city. We are many --- (and growing stronger with more people joining our ranks everyday). We are the nameless , faceless city, county, state, federal, and corporate taxpaying citizens & workers who are sick of the "good ole boy system" here in Houston, Texas --We were born on 7-30-1999. We are --- married & single-male & female, maintenance worker to Deputy Directors. We are the faceless civil servants who year after year do our job. We are the one's who see the hard earned tax $$s of the citizens in this area used & abused and given away to enrich a few greedy people with each new administration. Our hobbies include: Watching our backs---as we try to bring you the truth of what is happening in Houston, and getting the REAL information out to the public.
Read that stuff up there , Today, July 30th, 1999, the idea to put this publication together was born. The idea behind Housnitch is one year old, today. Let's see what all we have accomplished in a year, and talk a little about where we want to go in the next year.
We started by telling ya'll about Hilda Garza Scott, The Deputy Director of Public Works & Engineering. And how she gave her husband's company contracts, within days of his leaving the employ of the City of Houston. Because the Mayor failed to take action in this matter, we did. We filed complaints with the OIG & the City Ethics Committee. The Ethics committee declined to rule since the OIG sent a representative to say that it had been sent to the DA for investigation. We also filed for her engineer's license, and we understand that it is being investigated by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers. We received a notice to that effect in January of this year, and again just this past Friday, July 27th, 2000. Senior Asst. City Attorney Paul Bibler, stated that the City had taken the contracts away from her husband's company because it was against city policy for an employee to have an interest in a contract. (Where is the taxpayer's money that was given to them ???)
We brought you the scoop on Lutfi Hassan giving former & current council members & the Mayor & members of his administration, gifts at Christmas time, that event went to the grand jury, and even though they found no intent to influence on his part, the city has now re-written their policy on accepting gifts. Many of our council members were caught with their pants down on this one.
While we cannot tell you what transpired, we can tell you it was
most interesting, and we should all be hearing the results soon.
We have picked up quite a few more snitches since we began. We are hearing from Aviation, Health Department, the Fire Department, the Police Department, Muni-Channel, and We get so many on that new department the Building Services department, we just call it the BS department. We hear they just held their FIRST annual awards program at the Wortham. Now, I wonder who paid for that? Well, we the taxpayers did, but poor Monique, she'll have to do better than that to calm those waters over there. These guys aren't buying her "feel good" efforts. They want real results. What we can't figure out is why she thought they would be so easily bought! Recognition is nice, awards are even nicer, but to be given them as a morale booster sucks. The people in this department, have needed recognition WAY before this woman's daddy played golf with the Mayor & found his daughter a job. It doesn't exonerate Monique for firing or replacing everyone in that department with her friends from Hines. She has a long way to go before she'll have any goodwill from long time city employees.
We have seen Council Member Bell lead a walk out of council members, because they didn't like the information they were receiving on the privatizing of the Airport contract. ( and his fears were well founded, we showed you how they were cheating us on deposits of revenues). These revelations lead to Rick Vacar Director of Aviation to threaten prosecution if anyone was caught sending e-mail to Housnitch. Council member Bell has made history in Houston by being the first Council member to go on-line in town hall meetings to answer taxpayer's questions via the internet. (and it leaves us with a copy of his answers in writing!) More than one Council member has started asking questions when it comes to contracts. With the election of Council member Keller, we now have a someone with construction knowledge and a champion when we point out that contracts are bloated, and charging us the taxpayers way too many dollars. He has formed a committee to design a formula for evaluating everyone who does business with the city. Too many change orders, and we don't do business with them anymore.
Housnitch has spoken to Rotary Clubs, Civic Associations, Political Organizations, the Shriners, and we have a Snitch update on the radio every Sunday evening at 90.1 KPFT FM, @ 7 pm. ( a personal note here, one of our supporters & Housnitch's co-host during these updates, Prof. Bill Simon, passed away last Friday from a long battle with cancer. Our prayers go out to his family)
We have helped to establish about 14 other watch dog sites, from Ohio firefighters to county watchers in Pennsylvania.
We have won 2 awards, one from the Houston Press for best manifesto for 1999, & Time Warner's Road Runner award for best internet use of the First Amendment.
We have done interviews on TV, newspapers, and were spotlighted in Governing Magazine, a publication out of Washington, DC. We have been written about in the International Herald Tribune. We are on all internet search engines as Houston's City Watchdog.
We have had more than 5 million hits to our site in that year. Granted many of you are regular visitors, but we are being passed around all over the world.
As one council member is too ready to remind
us , we have added to the beat of the drum on shining the light
on this Administrations shenanigans. We have helped to cause P
W&E to install elaborate security measures. (Instead of
fixing the problems they just want to stop the leaking
information). Every security measure taken, has just brought us
more information, more documents, more beats to add to the drum,
of this death dirge being practiced under Lee P. Brown. We have
seen the resignation of 5 persons under Lee P.'s
regime, and we bet you a lot more will come. Rats always jump
ship.
To the lady who sent us the note in our P.O.Box about Lee P. Being a "BEAUTIFUL BLACK MAN FOR HIS AGE".....no disrespect Ma'am, but BILLY DEE is a BEAUTIFUL BLACK MAN FOR HIS AGE....Not Lee P. Brown. And dear lady, IF Lee P. Brown is just what this city needs, then we have crawled down into the sewer. You say in your note that he is a God fearing man, he should fear God, with the atrocities he has heaped on this city. The financial rape of our City Budget by this man & his cronies, should reap them all a place in hell.
"Under the fundamental philosophy of
the American constitutional form of government Housnitch adheres
to the principals that government is the SERVANT and NOT the
master of the people. The people, in delegating authority, do not
give their public servants the right to decide what is good for
the people to know, and what is not good for the people to
know.....
Housnitch will remain informed, & in return, inform you, so
that we may maintain control over these instruments of government
that we have created"
We are looking to the future. We are not content to just file complaints. We have already met with many different legal entities in this city, and Housnitch is going to go after all those Federal funds that have been wasted, and those contractors who wasted them & inflated contracts to do so. With that in mind we have reserved Housnitch. ORG. and will be adding it to the world wide web soon. Can you say QUI TAM boys & Girls?....better known as the Lincoln Law, just upheld this past May 22, 2000 by the Supreme Court.
Qui Tam ("who sues on behalf of the king as well as for himself") is a provision of the Federal Civil False Claims Act that allows a private citizen to file a suit in the name of the U.S. Government charging fraud by government contractors and other entities who receive or use government funds, and share in any money recovered.
Qui tam (Black's Law Dictionary pronunciation: kwày tæm) is an abbreviation from the Latin "qui tam pro domino rege quam pro sic ipso in hoc parte sequitur" meaning "who as well for the king as for himself sues in this matter."
Black's Law Dictionary defines a qui tam action as "an action brought by an informer, under a statute which establishes a penalty for the commission or omission of a certain act, and provides that the same shall be recoverable in a civil action, part of the penalty to go to any person who will bring such action and the remainder to the state or some other institution."
Qui tam is a provision of the Federal Civil False Claims Act that allows private citizens to file a lawsuit in the name of the U.S. Government charging fraud by government contractors and others who receive or use government funds, and share in any money recovered.
This unique law was enacted by Congress in order to effectively identify and prosecute government procurement and program fraud and recover revenue lost as a result of the fraud.
The qui tam provision has had the effect of privatizing government legal remedies by allowing private citizens to act as "private attorneys general" in the effort to prosecute government procurement and program fraud. Although most of the early successes in qui tam actions have been against defense contractors, more and more actions are being filed that involve other governmental agencies such as Health and Human Services, Environment, Energy, Education, NASA, Agriculture and Transportation.
IT'S OUR MONEY DARLINS! LET'S GO GET IT, LET'S PROVIDE A NET FOR THOSE EMPLOYEES WHO BLOW THE WHISTLE! IT'S TIME TO STOP ALL THIS WASTE, BUDDY, BUDDY, BACK ROOM DEALINGS, AND SHOW OUR INSTRUMENTS OF GOVERNMENT JUST WHO THEY REALLY WORK FOR!!!!!
WE NEED YOU ... This is your page ..... help us with it...P.O. Box 55423 Houston, Texas 77255 713-722-9258
tell em what you think darlins.......
"He who joyfully marches in rank and
file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large
brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would
suffice."
-Albert Einstein
