Former Houston Mayor Turner's Senior Aide Sentenced Over Bribes Related to City Permits
William-Paul Thomas admitted to bribes related to inspections and permits, and was an informant to federal investigators.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (L) and William-Paul Thomas.
A former senior aide to former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $5,000 fine on Monday, more than a year after revelations that he had worn a wire and cooperated with federal investigators before pleading guilty to bribery charges.
William-Paul Thomas served as Turner’s liaison to the city council until he resigned in August 2022. His resignation letter to Turner cited health reasons but did not inform the mayor that he had entered a plea deal with federal investigators the day before.
Charges against Thomas included his acceptance of bribes to assist owners in passing building inspections and fast-tracking permits for businesses. One business owner offered Thomas $13,000, but others offered both gifts of value as well as cash payments.
Court charging documents say that Thomas pressured a Houston Fire Department official to issue a passing fire inspection report, and that during the government-imposed restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic, Thomas also assisted the owner in quickly recategorizing a bar as a “restaurant” after the business was shut down by the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission.
The court also revealed that Thomas had been cooperating with federal investigators since November 2020 — years before he entered his guilty plea — but many of the documents in the case, including details of the plea deal, remained sealed, and the names of the business owners who paid bribes have not been released.
Thomas has also been cited in a still-pending lawsuit filed by the owners of the Pappas Restaurants Group against the City of Houston. In the first of three attempts to bid out a vendor contract for Houston’s Hobby Airport, Pappas’ CEO Chris Pappas said after proposals had been submitted in 2019, that Thomas called during a mandated “no contact period” to say he wanted to visit “regarding the upcoming airport concession.”
Initially hired by former Mayor Annise Parker, Thomas also previously worked for Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis (D-Pct. 1) when he was a member of Houston’s city council.
Thomas’ guilty plea is one of multiple scandals that plagued the Turner administration. In 2021, Housing and Community Development Director Tom McCasland jolted the Houston City Council when he accused the mayor and his administration of rigging bids to favor a company with ties to Turner’s longtime law partner Barry Barnes. The outcry led to the cancellation of the $15 million contract and Turner firing McCasland over the accusations.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee appears to have been recruited from Washington D.C., by members of the "ELLIS/TURNER POLITICAL REGIME" to run for Mayor of Houston to keep the lid on Mayor Sylvester Turner's corruption. William-Paul Thomas is pictured on the right.
In another scandal that led to state lawmakers enacting modest reforms of the Texas Public Facility Corporation (PFC) program, the Houston Housing Authority, governed by a Turner-appointed board, approved a slew of projects that removed properties valued at more than $500 million from city, county, and school district tax rolls in exchange for setting aside some units for low-income housing. Public outcry prompted Turner to claim to halt further approval of new projects, but HHA has approved multiple new PFCs since then.
HHA has also approved the purchase and construction of a new project at 800 Middle Street on Buffalo Bayou adjacent to land known to be contaminated with lead and other hazardous materials. The project has drawn citations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and a review from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, and last week an attorney revealed that HHA and partner NRP Group had vastly understated the potential danger posed by a large telecommunications tower near the property.
Alleged corruption related to business permits and licensing has erupted in recent years in other areas of state and local government. In 2022 Todd Smith, a former top aide to Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, was indicted for allegedly selling hemp licenses to prospective growers. Smith has pleaded not guilty, and last month a Travis County judge scheduled his trial for August 2024.
In the small town of Kemah just southeast of Houston, a secret recording was released of a meeting between City Council Member Doug Meisinger, Police Chief Holland Jones, and former City Administrator Walter Gant discussing selective code enforcement. Gant admitted he had issued a certificate of occupancy for Meisinger’s business, even though former Mayor Carl Joiner had pointed out that doing so would violate city ordinance since property owner Matt Wiggins already had multiple pending alleged code violations on other properties.
Last year after Kemah’s acting fire marshal informed the owners of another new business, the Lucky Stroke Putt Club, that they would need to install a sprinkler system to meet code requirements for a permit, Gant waived the requirement and issued a permit after removing consideration of a variance application from the city council.
1 comment:
That's why many Democrat-Socialists try hard for public office. They can easily feather their personal and family nests.
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