HOUSNITCH ©
"The ultimate test of a man is not where he stands on positions of comfort and convenience but where he stands on positions of challenge and controversy. So on some questions cowardice asks, 'Is a position safe?' Expediency asks, 'Is the position politic?' Vanity asks, 'Is the position popular?' But conscience asks, 'Is the position RIGHT?'" -- Dr. Martin Luther King
HOUSNITCH P.O. Box 55423,Houston, Texas 77255
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Weekend
Edition - Sunday--(click here-you will need REAL Player to hear this.. if
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Mark this on your calendars.....
HOUSNITCH , will be speaking at the CENTRAL PACHYDERMS monthly meeting this Thursday, October 21, 1999. Refreshments start at 6 p.m.
HOUSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
500 McKinney
Houston, Texas 77002
(713) 247-2222
In the Concourse meeting room downstairs. Meeting is open to the
public.
Also....Tuesday October 26th, 1999 is HOUSNITCH day at council pop-off session...call City Secretary....NOW ....713-247-1840 sign up to speak . You will be asked what your subject is....your subject is WWW.HOUSNITCH.COM Then speak on whatever you've seen in these pages that bothers you. We'll just see which members of council, are absent this day....and hey...what do ya wanna bet the Mayor will have a "PREVIOUS engagement"?....
HOUSNITCH had an intruder this week boys & girls!!!! Seems someone just loves breaking into our system and tramping around in it.
But our ever faithful web server, MARC at GNC INDUSTRIES is on it....we have a complete printout of where they were....and what they were doing.
DENNIS over at CYBERHOUSE is now with us, along with some of his friends, and we will be able to tell you the who/what/when/where more specifically in our next issue.
Seems
the person was opening up 200 accounts at a time....going from one ISP to
another (Internet Service Provider). One minute in FLASH.NET then another in
HAL-PC and then EARTHLINK.NET,...EROLS.COM, GETUS.COM. You're smart hacker...but
we won't quit until we have you....NICE new legal specialists group
formed here in Houston, focusing on the internet and it's crimes....and you will be held accountable. The hacker logged on
in the Galleria area, (no biggie more than half the ISP's in the city are in the
Galleria area)...but then he went through the server at the University of St
Thomas....(needed a large enough system that no one would spot the
activity)....and it being a holiday...not too many people around last Monday
evening. We have spoken with network security at the University and are sending
our printouts to them....they are being verrrry helpful. So it truly is JUST A
MATTER OF TIME. We received letters from people who were not on our mailout
list...asking us to unsubscribe them... we did not mail to them in the first
place. We are sorry for the inconvenience but the TECH wars have begun. Seems
that some people will do anything to stop the truth...And HOUSNITCH will do
anything to keep on bringing you the truth.
Let's get on with the circus we call the
City of Houston
HOUSNITCH received some very interesting mail in it's P.O. Box this week boys & girls (geesh we love seeing stuff in that box!!!).
We received a taped copy of the September 29th city council meeting, with a note telling us to pay particular attention to the Mayor when Item # 55 was called for a vote. Well, we did boys & girls. Mayor called for the vote..ALL council members voted "AYE", not one nay...the Mayor too voted "AYE" motion carried....then as he went on to another agenda item, there was some whispering in his ear...then some papers were shuffled around....the vote was called again, and the Mayor got up and left the council chambers..,now this made HOUSNITCH verrry curious....we made some calls...seems that IF an elected official has a conflict of substantial interest then he must not only refrain from voting on an agenda item, he must also file an affidavit with the City Secretary's office stating just what the conflict is...and have it notarized & on file BEFORE the item comes up on the agenda....agenda item #55 was a contract with P.G.A.L. (that's right boys & girls...we have written about them a lot here....) So---off to City Secretary's office we go...this was on Wednesday, October 13th, 1999. Spent quiet some time looking at all of the Affidavits of substantial interest in Anna Russell's files.....(this woman's files are immaculate....and very up to date) all the way back to 1992..NOT a one from the Mayor. So HOUSNITCH sent an e-mail to the snitch that sent video----was told GO BACK--look again. So we did...same day...NOTHING about item 55 on 9/29/99 agenda from mayor. Next morning...being October 14th...we sent an e-mail to Don Payne in Mayor's office:
(Mr. Don Payne is Director of Communication for the Mayor's office)
Subj: Mayor's Vote
Date: 10/14/99
To: dpayne@myr.ci.houston.tx.us
Hey Mr. Payne,
At the Sept 29th meeting of council---there was a really weird vote cast on PGAL---Mayor voted for it---it passed...then he called for a new vote and left the
room....WE SMELL CONFLICT BIG TIME......why IF a conflict for the Mayor is there no Affidavit of Substantial Interest on file with Anna Russell's office?...This really has
us wondering...AND SNOOPING, especially since Mayor voted for
original contract back in JULY of 1998.....hmmmmm ,My snitches tell us follow the money---.....THINK
WE WILL.....
Housnitch
Well boys & girls...HOUSNITCH made a few calls and found out The Mayor's daughter is employed by P.G.A.L. (Pierce, Goodwin, Alexander & Linville Inc.) She is in the architectural division, with P.G.A.L.
Wanting to be verrry fair...HOUSNITCH goes back to City
Secretary's office on the 15th of October, at 4:45pm to see if the affidavit had
miraculously appeared....LO and behold darlins...Ms. Russell (and her's is one of
the very few departments that HOUSNITCH doesn't have complaints about!!!! She
& the controller seem to stay out of trouble & do their jobs VERY well!)
Tells me...yes...there was an affidavit come down to her office JUST the late
afternoon before.....
Don't ya'll just love it when they pull rabbits out of their hats?
And look....it's even dated on September the 29th, 1999.
Now, HOUSNITCH would NEVER question the veracity of a Notary...so we accept that
it was signed on the 29th....but...boys & girls....WHY did they wait until
WE sent them an inquiry about it to send it to City Secretary? 
Ya'll remember back a couple of weeks ago when the Mayor told the media about all the contracts that were being let for the $400 million expansion of the airport? P.G.A.L was one of the Consulting firms that the Mayor named, he had already been picked them for the job. (We're so glad Continental Airlines stood up to him...) ALSO---where is affidavit for :
City Council Chamber, City Hall, Tuesday, June 8, 1999
A Regular Meeting of the Houston City Council was held at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 8, 1999,
with Mayor Brown presiding and with Council Members Bruce Tatro, Michael J. Yarbrough, Jew Don Boney, Jr., Rob Todd, Ray F. Driscoll, Jean Kelley, Felix Fraga, John E. Castillo, Annise D. Parker, Joe Roach, Orlando Sanchez, Chris Bell and Carroll G. Robinson; Mr. Anthony C. Hall, City Attorney, Mr. Paul Bibler, Senior Counsel, City Attorney’s Office; Mr. Jesse Cantu, Director Citizens Assistance Office; Ms. Deborah Dillard, Citizens Assistance Office and Ms. Martha Stein, Acting Agenda Director, present. Council Member Martha J. Wong absent on city business.
89. ORDINANCE appropriating $1,500,000.00 out of Street & Bridge Consolidated Construction Fund and approving and authorizing contract between the City and PIERCE GOODWIN ALEXANDER AND LINVILLE, INC for Professional Program Management Services, CIP N-0668-03-2 - (This was Item 66 on Agenda of June 2, 1999, TAGGED BY COUNCIL MEMBER WONG) -
was presented. All voting aye. Nays none. ORDINANCE 1999-564 ADOPTED.
(we had to use the minutes of this meeting because some how the agenda isn't there... nor the minutes for the council meeting of the 29th of September..........hmmmmmm)
City Secretary's Official Minutes
Hey Mr. Payne.....Gotta rabbit for that meeting?????????
Oh yea....GREAT COMMUNICATING.....Sir!
As you can see boys & girls...VOTERS....the Mayor's own
SWORN, NOTARIZED statement says his daughter...Jenna Brown Ford had received
more than 10% of her gross income from P.G.A.L DURING the PREVIOUS
YEAR.....well, so Mr. Payne....you gotta rabbit for 1998 when the contract was
originally let??? see the following document and pay particular attention to
DISCRIPTION/SCOPE... 
The receptionist who answered our call at P.G.A.L said she believed that Ms. Ford had been employed there for almost 2 years.. in the architectural division, and the Mayor's own sworn statement said, she had been employed there the PREVIOUS year, the statement being sworn to & notarized this year....we can only surmise that the Mayor had a conflict of interest on more than ONE occasion and failed to report it.
According to the City's own code of ordinances...that is an ethics violation...HMMMMMM, also seems that P.G.A.L. threw the Mayor one of the largest fundraisers ever thrown for a Houston Mayor...isn't that also an ethics violation?
Would one of you attorney's out there that read HOUSNITCH check to make sure.....HOUSNITCH just might want to file an ETHICS VIOLATION against the Mayor....
Tell em what you think Darlins.....
Hey---Tell US what ya think!