Wayne Dolcefino's taxpayer alert at the Toyota Center

(8/28/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- You voted to build the Toyota Center for our basketball teams, but there's a part of the deal you may not know about it. This is a taxpayer alert from 13 Undercover.

You don't have to be a sports fan to care about the deals struck for Houston's sports stadiums because it's your money as we investigate the Houston Sports Authority.

Monday night, we showed you the expensive suite you bought at Minute Maid Park. The sports authority was supposed to use it to promote Houston and the stadium. But we've got evidence it's been used by politicians as a personal playground.

Toyota Center in the heart of downtown is home to a chunk of the huge debt we have because we have built sports stadiums across our city. But we didn't just build a stadium for Les Alexander and his teams.

You built the Toyota Center parking garage next door. And if you want to see your tax dollars going down the drain, just enter there. You know how much money the Toyota garage has lost since it opened in 2003? We found it lost $1.2 million.

"We have a situation where the sports authority collects very little of the revenue, yet pays the lion's share of expenses," said CPA Bob Martin.

The Rockets pay the expenses and keep all the money made on game days, but you pay expenses to operate the garage the rest of the time -- a virtually empty garage.

"We've been unable during the day to get anybody to park there," said Billy Burge with the Houston Sports Authority.

Look at the receipts on one day, they totaled just $14.00. But under the lease, the sports authority inked with the Rockets, the garage has to stay open and staffed, even for a handful of Rockets executives to park there.

We showed the numbers to Martin.

"If the voters saw this right now, they might have voted differently back when this was originally approved," he said.

Now there's debate over whether the sports authority has taken full advantage of recent chances to dramatically cut your losses.

Verizon wanted to put an antenna on the top of the garage roof. That could have meant $144,000 a year to taxpayers. But under the Toyota lease deal, the Rockets have a veto over anything taxpayers want to do with the garage, even though you paid for it. The eventual deal cut -- the Rockets get 50% of the money.

"It doesn't appear to make sense," said Martin. "It appears the Rockets are making money. We're losing money."

When Les Alexander owned the Comets, he got to keep all the parking revenue under his lease, but when he sold the women's basketball team, Alexander promised the Comets 1,000 free parking spaces. Emails reveal sports authority lawyers believed the parking moneys from the Comets now belonged to "the sports authority," and not Alexander and thus, you the taxpayers.

In the end, the sports authority agreed to give the Comets 1,000 free parking spaces for every game, as long as the Rockets cover garage expenses with parking for games $10. The sports authority essentially gave away $85,000 a year.

"Carl cut that deal," said Burge. "He knows what he's doing."

That's Carl Warwick. He's a former ball player whose professional career dates back to the Colt 45s. He's in the real estate business. Warwick wasn't on the board when the Sports Authority first agreed to build the garage, but he's now in charge of the committee negotiating with Houston's ball teams.

"Construction is like anything else," said the sports authority outgoing board chair Billy Burge. "You want a construction guy to trade with because he is also trading other things. It was the process of a relationship, Carl was the point person."

The parking giveaway prompted a heated debate at the sports authority's last rare meeting.

The board did approve the garage deal at their August meeting. It's a good thing they said yes because Burge had already signed the agreement back in May.

"Even though we have some wiggle room in the documents, we're trying to keep the Comets successful," said Burge. "We're trying to keep them here."

"You would think if more money comes along, it should come to sports authority," said Martin.

And it turns out Carl Warwick had even tried to keep the chief administrative officer out of the negotiations:

"I don't think it is your position to offer or negotiate with the Rockets on this or any matter."

One of the contracts Janice Schmees has questioned is a five-year contract for maintenance of the garage elevator and escalators. Taxpayers are charged $6,316 every month just for daytime maintenance.

Days after we asked to see the contract, we were told the file temporarily disappeared. Security guards at the downtown office building where the sports authority offices were notified. And it's not the first possible break in. Last April, the chief financial officer had her "locked filed drawer broken into."

"The more light is shined on Sports Authority, the more people are going to want to make changes," said Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack.

Wednesday night at 10pm, we have the sports authority's emails and some of them have words we can't even show on TV, but that won't stop us from sharing our startling discoveries with you.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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