Emails reveal trouble at Houston sports authority

(8/29/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- The sports authority has a new chairman and damaging emails will reveal the mess he's got to clean up. It's a rare look at a government agency that appears to do much of its dealings over cocktails.

A lot of government officials don't realize that emails are public record, even the ones they write to each other on their home computers. We know about that law and it will open doors for you about the folks spending a lot of your money.

Comic book fans will surely remember the legend of Captain America. But maybe you didn't know that Houston had its own Captain America. At least that's the way he signed many of his government emails.

His name is Billy Burge and until this week he was the powerful chairman of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. He's stepping down. Now internal sports authority emails we've obtained under state open records law show he was facing intense internal criticism over the way he ran his agency.

"If the vote was being held today he probably wouldn't have been retained," said Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack.

Look at these emails we found talking about Billy Burge. They have phrases like:

"Billy has been drunk with power far too long"

"The ultimate manipulator"

"Billy's the one who can't be trusted"

And these emails aren't coming from sports fans angry about the Astros record. They're from a fellow board member, Kitty Allen, who accused Burge of unchecked abuse in the operation and financial obligations of the HCSHA.

"If truth be told, the sports authority really doesn't do anything to make the world a better place or any of us better people," she said in an email. "I am more than a little ashamed and quite embarrassed to have ever been a part of it."

Emails we've seen reveal Burge tried unsuccessfully to get his niece hired as a paid summer intern:

"Since she's my niece...you don't have to pay her a lot...she's also cute and sweet, like her uncle."

The sports authority is ripe with infighting and allegations of hiring shenanigans. Another Kitty Allen email:

"Billy doesn't care what our temporary (EMPLOYEE) can do...just what she can be paid...because she's Pam's best friend."

That's Burge's wife.

The temporary position paid $40,000. That's thousands of dollars more than the position reportedly called for. Allen called it a "$14,000 boondoggle" and fearing the sports authority "could implode over hiring practices."

"I think the more light being shined on the sports authority, the more interested people will be in making changes," Radack said.

Emails reveal Burge got a personalized love song written for his wife's birthday. The songwriter said he was giving Burge a break on the price in part because he hoped to get future sports authority business.

One email Allen wrote said that Burge "acts like the HCHSA (sports authority) is his 'personal play pen.'"

Janice Schmees was hired last year as the $145,000 a year executive director of the sports authority. Emails reveal she's questioned several sports authority deals and the actions of more than one of the politically appointed board members.

After our interview we saw one of her emails to a board member. The subject was me.

She wrote: "It was tough trying to defend the actions of two particular board members that have no regard for public dollars."

One of the board members she was talking about, the outgoing chairman Billy Burge.

The other is Carl Warwick. He's a former ball player whose professional career dates back to the Colt 45s. He's now in the real estate business and chairman of the sports authority construction committee. Burge says Warwick was the point person for recent financial deals with the Rockets over the Toyota Center garage. Some board members say unnecessary concessions cost taxpayers $150,000 a year more than it should have and that could have a major impact on the garage's bottom line. The garage has lost $1.2 million dollars since it opened it 2003.

"Construction is like anything else," said 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."

In emails, Kitty Allen called Warwick a suck up. Board member attorney Joe Slovacek claimed Warwick didn't realize Burge was pulling his chain. One email called Warwick something I can't say on TV but you can figure it out.

Slovacek's frustration is obvious:

"Can I just move to fire everyone...including Carl and Billy?"

Is the public being kept in the dark? The stadium's construction committee hasn't had a formal meeting in at least 21 months, but that, we discovered from emails, is the way lots of sports authority business is done, behind closed doors. Talk of a daylong retreat to discuss the future of the sports authority prompted this email from a board member, "cocktails at Tony's at 5:30 has worked for us so far."

"There's going to be a new day over there, they are going to operate in the sunshine," Radack said.

Thursday night, is public money already being spent on a soccer stadium before the public even says its wants one? And will the public even get a say? And wait till you see some of the other bills we found in the sports authority's records.

By the way, everyone we talked about in this story had a chance to be included in this report but all said no.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

(Copyright ©2009 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

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