As Houston water customers struggle to get answers about inaccurate bills, KPRC 2 Investigative reporter Amy Davis is also struggling to get the city of Houston to release public records that could help explain what’s ‘draining’ so many people.
Amy has been waiting nearly 15 months for documents the Texas Attorney General already told the City of Houston to hand over. What’s the holdup?
On Sept. 1, 2022, KPRC 2 Investigates asked for six months’ worth of emails to and from seven city employees and Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin with specific keywords that would indicate they were discussing the city’s water issues. (Per Freedom of Information Act and the Texas Public Information Act.) We have been waiting for those records for so long that most of the employees and elected leaders are not even working with the city anymore. And Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who ran on a platform of transparency, won’t even discuss it.
The start of the KPRC 2 ‘DRAINED’ Investigation
Way back in the summer of 2022, we heard a steady drip, and then a deluge of complaints about high water bills in Kingwood. Their city council representative Dave Martin of District E, at first, offered to help.
“We’ll open up a case. We’ll track the case from beginning to end,” said Martin on KPRC 2 News.
But three weeks later, his staff emailed customers: “Due to the volume of work orders, you should contact the water department’s CAS (customer account services) for updates.’”
Martin wouldn’t talk with us on camera anymore either. To get to the bottom of what was going on, we submitted a public records request.
We asked for all emails or other electronic communication between May 1 and Sept. 1 for:
- Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin
- Staff Members Jessica Beemer & Dustin Hodges
- Mary Benton, the Mayor’s Communications Director
- Ada Ortega, on the Mayor’s Communications team
- Alanna Reed in Houston Public Works
- Yvonne Forrest, Director of the Houston Water Department
(The full request: “All emails or other electronic communication between May 1, 2022 - Sept. 1, 2022. For the following people: Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin, Jessica Beemer, Dustin Hodges, Mary Benton, Yvonne Forrest, Ada Ortega, Alanna Reed, Sherri Winslow containing these keywords: High water bills, kingwood, irregular, unusually large adjustment, meter reading, water meters, inaccurate, meter replacement, water leak or leaks, Amy Davis, NBC, KPRC, Channel 2.”)
The city charged us $567.90 (for 37.86 hrs of work @ $15/hr). Half of that balance was due immediately. We paid $283.95.
Then, a city spokesperson said they needed to ask the Texas Attorney General if they had to release these emails.
Three months later in December 2022, the AG said yes, the city of Houston has to give KPRC 2 Investigates the records.
But they didn’t.
On March 27, six months later, we asked, “Where are the documents?”
They said it slipped the city’s mind when the employee handling the request moved from Houston Public Works to the mayor’s office. After that, we received two small batches of emails in April and May of 2023, and then nothing again. After 15 months, the public employees and leaders whose emails we requested are either gone or almost out of office.
You may remember Martin mentioning this during the Oct.31 council meeting where a list of ‘DRAINED’ water bill customers signed up to speak.
“I have, along with my colleagues, literally two months left to figure this out because we exit stage left,” said Martin.
Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin along with his two staffers and the mayor’s communications director Mary Benton are done at the end of the year when a new administration takes over. Yvonne Forrest retired from the water department earlier this month. Ada Ortega left the city in 2022. Alanna Reed left Public Works in 2022 and Sherri Winslow, head of water customer account services, also left.
“That’s very unfortunate because it almost seems intentional that they’re trying to run out the clock,” said Attorney Tom Gregor with the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
Gregor has assisted the public and media with requests under the state’s Public Information Act for more than 20 years.
“It’s unconscionable. The Act is there to allow the public to see behind the curtain, to see what the government is doing, how they’re doing it, and what are their reasons for doing it. They serve the people so they should readily be able to provide that information,” said Gregor.
Just this month when we asked the city attorney and the mayor’s office again where the records were, Mary Benton sent us this statement:
“We owe you an apology for the delay in releasing the records and will refund your money. As you may know, we had an employee who oversaw open records working on the release. He changed jobs and promised to fulfill this responsibility during the transition and once his replacement came onboard. It appears that confusion about the status and responsibility of these documents led to a near standstill. I was not made aware until receiving your email.
I spoke with the employee who transferred, and he has promised to resume working on the release. Unfortunately, his replacement is now on maternity leave. I have assigned someone else to work with him. As for an interview with the mayor, I can only ask and let you know if he is available.”